OACS Update

Posted by Eileen Remley on Tuesday, February 14, 2017 in News Blurbs.

Cultivating Roots is Underway

The Cultivating Roots: Access to Equitable Education and the Workforce program is underway! The Meaningful Service Institute occurred on Saturday, January 14th and provided the cohort with the basic foundations of healthy community engagement pedagogy, discussions on power and privilege dynamics, and a powerful privilege chain activity and debrief. Each of the 12 cohort participants are working with one of five community partners each week. The first seminar on February 10th features a guest speaker from the Tennessee Department of Education and a representative from Metro Nashville Public Schools. This seminar focuses on the historical context of equitable education in the United States and what the current state of equitable education in Nashville looks like to students and families today.

Dr. Randy Stoecker’s Visit, February 10^th

OACS was very proud to host a presentation and discussion in the Black Cultural Center’s auditorium on February 8^th by Randy Stoecker, Professor of Community and Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The talk was attended by approximately 20 undergraduate and graduate students and involved a stimulating discussion of service learning, focused on Dr. Stoecker’s research and criticism of the short-term service model. Senior and Ingram Scholar Lauren Pak moderated the conversation. OACS thanks Dr. Stoecker for taking the time to meet with Vanderbilt students and also thanks our partners in the BCC for hosting our event.

Redefine Seminars and Service Continuing

The 16 members of the Redefine cohort have come together several times this semester to engage in critical dialogue about service in the United States and abroad, specifically focusing on the challenges of food insecurity and homelessness. Partners at Open Table Nashville and Trinity United Methodist Church have led seminars and helped immerse students in service to Nashville community members. Redefine’s seminar on February 13^th featured a panel discussion of a returned Peace Corps Volunteer, several Humphrey Fellows, and an OACS Global Service participant that was designed to help students understand the represented programs, learn about the lived experiences of these volunteers, and engage with perspectives on the positive and negative aspects of serving internationally.

National Campaign Conference

Olivia Solow-Niederman and Emma Stewart served as the 2017 Ambassador at the annual National Campaign conference February 3-5, 2017. College students from 28 schools across the country convened at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics’ (IOP) National Campaign for Political and Civic Engagement Conference to identify what young Americans see as the root causes of national divisiveness and create community-based action plans to Reconnect America. Meagan Smith, OACS Program Coordinator, also attended the conference as the Vanderbilt University advisor. Olivia and Emma will be developing a civic engagement project based on what they learned at the conference and are very much looking forward to inspiring others to engage in these critical conversations.