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Alumni

Michael Zuch


Class of: 2016
Hometown: Vienna, Austria
School: Peabody College of Education & Human Development
Major(s): Human and Organizational Development, Music

Born in Vienna, Austria, Michael was raised in a multi-cultural community that was marked by his international friend group, his involvement in music and the arts, and his assisting of his mother’s nonprofit to help victims of forced prostitution.

During Michael’s middle school years at the international school, his mother founded a nonprofit serving people affected by the global sex trade. Herzwerk (or Heart Works), as the organization was named, focused on advocacy, outreach, and aftercare services. It was during this time that one of his mother’s friends came over to their house regularly to help with household chores. At the time, Michael did not realize that she was one of the women that his mother was assisting through the nonprofit. She was just a family friend to him, and Michael always looked forward to those visits when she would bring her two dogs along. It wasn’t until some time later that Michael realized her situation of having been previously trafficked. His first experience with human trafficking was relational and had a profound impact on him. It was during this time that he assisted his mother in this work.

After to moving to the U.S. to attend the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities to study oboe, Michael got involved with the service-learning initiative CATS (Connecting Arts Through Service) and the Falling Whistles movement, where he held leadership positions.

Upon Michael’s arrival at Vanderbilt, and by the prompting of the Common’s summer reading of Half The Sky, he helped establish and lead a Mayfield project called “Brighter Skies” dedicated to connecting Nashville students with the anti-slavery movement. During his freshman year, he also got involved with The Nashville Mobile Market, which helped him understand how food insecurity can lead individuals to becoming more vulnerable. His sophomore was marked most strongly by his involvement with Edgehill Friends, an initiative focusing on advocacy and creating community between the diverse kids and families in the Edgehill neighborhood and residents and businesses of the surrounding area. After joining the Ingram program, Michael continued his work in Edgehill in addition to joining Poverty & the Arts, a Nashville nonprofit with the mission to break down stereotypes and barriers of homelessness by promoting homeless artists and providing them resources and a space to be creative and entrepreneurial.

For Michael’s Ingram summer project, he will be partnering with First Aid Arts in Seattle, WA, where he will assist in the development of an adapted Healing Arts Toolkit to more adequately address the psychological needs of traumatized populations. By using trauma-informed arts-based therapeutic activities, the adapted Toolkit hopes to provide refugees with opportunities for healing. Additionally, Michael will be completing his HOD internship in Vienna, Austria during his senior year where he will assist refugees in their reintegration process.

Michael is extremely blessed and thankful to be joining the Ingram community. Through the program, he hopes to develop a better understanding about how to holistically support people in vulnerable situations. In the future, Michael hopes to combine his two majors, HOD and Music, to use mental health counseling and expressive arts therapy to help people affected by social injustice.