OACS Updates
Join us at the DIVE Closing Celebration
The Office of Active Citizenship and Service invites you to join us for our Local OACS DIVE closing celebration at 6:00 PM on Thursday, Nov. 30 in Alumni Hall room 206. Come meet the students in the Affordable Housing and Food Waste/Food Deserts cohorts and their non-profit partners, who together have applied the process of human-centered design to address challenges identified by the community.
The celebration will begin with opening remarks, followed by an introduction of the human-centered design projects from the students and their non-profit partners. Guests will have the opportunity to ask questions about the inaugural Local OACS DIVE programs and get to know our local community leaders making a difference in Nashville. Light refreshments will be provided. Thank you for your support of Local OACS DIVE – we look forward to celebrating with you!
You’re Invited to the Global Service Symposium
In partnership with International Education Week, Vanderbilt students, faculty, and staff are invited to the second annual OACS Global Service Symposium on Thursday, November 16th from 3:30 – 5:30 PM in Alumni Hall 100. Light refreshments will be served at this reception-style drop-in.
Reflect with students from the 2017 OACS Global Service cohorts about their 6-week summer engagements with community partners in Rabat, Morocco; Port Elizabeth, South Africa; London, England; and Quito, Ecuador, where they learned about inequities and systemic injustice within the context of issues such as human rights, education, public health, and community development through direct service and capacity-building initiatives. Hear about the incredible work of OACS’s transnational grassroots partners, including our new partnership with Simon Bolivar Spanish School in Quito, to gain a greater understanding of the students’ roles within each organization and to learn about the ways in which our students plan to engage in similar justice-oriented issues locally.
Keegan Traveling Fellowship Information Sessions
The Michael B. Keegan Fellowship enhances the development of future leaders through world travel and experiential learning. The program is designed to allow a graduating senior the opportunity to pursue an idea or an issue, about which the student is impassioned, and to do so in the context of daily life in a global scenario. Info sessions for students interested in the Keegan Traveling Fellowship will be offered in the OACS Lounge on December 8th (4:45 – 5:30pm).
2018 Global Service Immersion Site Leaders
OACS is seeking qualified DOS candidates to serve as co-site leaders for the 2018 OACS Global Service Programs in Ecuador, South Africa, and Norway. The Global Service Programs are 6-week international service-learning programs whereby Vanderbilt students are immersed in another culture through working alongside communities to better understand social injustices from a community-based service perspective. The Global Service Immersion programs seek to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes for the Vanderbilt student cohort, local partners, and the communities served. Applications are due December 8th. Please apply using OACS’ Anchorlink form.
Qualified site leader candidates will have advanced-fluent language skills for programs in Ecuador, experience in or knowledge of the country, experience leading group programs or group service trips, and experience facilitating challenging conversations and reflection with students. All applicants should obtain permission from their supervisor to participate in the program, which includes preparing for and leading 7-8 2-hour seminars during the spring semester, attending 4 training sessions with OACS staff, and working abroad with students for 6-weeks. The site leader will be living in country and will be expected to be the main point of contact between the students, OACS staff, a partner organization, and service sites. Please contact Melissa Looby at Melissa.looby@vanderbilt.edu for more information.
Local OACS DIVE Spring 2018: Empathizing with the Lived Experiences of Refugees
OACS is recruiting for the Spring 2018 DIVE Project: Resettlement in Nashville and the Lived Experiences of Refugees. Applications are now open and will close December 1st. In this co-curricular DIVE Project, Local OACS DIVE: Empathizing With the Lived Experiences of Refugees is a service learning program designed for students to explore the current global crisis of human displacement through a local lens in the Nashville community utilizing human-centered design.
Student participants in the DIVE cohort will engage in a highly immersive service-learning partnership for 2-3 hours each week with a local resettlement or refugee services agency to better understand the lived experiences of refugees in the Nashville community. The cohort will also attend biweekly seminars that combine content, context, and design lab time. Following a brief introduction to the causes of human displacement and the resettlement process, the seminar series will require students go out into the community to better understand refugees’ access to affordable housing, health care, education, cultural preservation, and advocacy in Davidson county.
OACS Global Service-Learning Programs Accepting Applications
OACS is accepting student applications for our summer 2018 service-learning programs to Ecuador, London, Morocco, South Africa, and, for the first time, Bulgaria/Norway. OACS Global Service Programs challenge students to question their perspectives and roles in the shared human experience through pre-service curriculum, intensive service, post-service skills application, and continuous reflection. The programs are carefully planned in order to best facilitate students’ abilities to connect meaningfully with people different from themselves through humble engagement and reciprocal dialogues within host communities. Through this exposure to firsthand knowledge and lived experiences, students will examine the deeper issues related to equity and justice and identify systematic barriers to equality and inclusivity. Students with a sincere desire to grapple with the complexity of human connectedness, to challenge their known values, and to reconcile academic knowledge with an authentic exploration of social and environmental injustices are encouraged to apply for an OACS Global Service Program. If you know of students who may be interested in applying, please recommend that they review the OACS Global Programs webpage and/or contact oacs@vanderbilt.edu.
MHS 3890: Resettlement in Nashvile – Advocating for the Displaced
At the end of October, the MHS class heard from Dr. Vanessa Beasley on political rhetoric. Students learned about the different styles of rhetoric and the consequences of each. This discussion framed a deeper reflection on the role of the media and presidential speeches on the nation’s perspective of immigration. Students also worked with Dr. Beasley to discuss the difference in perception of immigrants and refugees, how these perceptions vary with economic and national security concerns, and how they can better advocate for these populations utilizing their own rhetoric styles.
Amy Richardson, Community Health Outreach Director at Siloam Health, also visited the class to speak about some of the social determinants of health affecting the refugee population in Nashville. Siloam Health is the contractor for the Tennessee Government and screens all newly arrived refugees in Tennessee. Because of the nature of their placements, students had many examples of how they have seen first-hand the ramifications of education affect students’ health in their afterschool tutoring programs and cultural orientation classes.
Last week, the class had the opportunity to ask questions to a panel of representatives from Catholic Charities, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, and the Nashville International Center for Empowerment. Students were able to better understand the resettlement process, current advocacy efforts and challenges, and how working at these agencies has affected the panelists on both a personal and professional level.