Alumni
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Morgan Evertz
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Throughout her life, Morgan has always been involved in a variety of activities. Though she has been serving her community from a young age, her true passion for service was sparked through a personal experience. Through a series of unexpected events, Morgan was diagnosed a severe autoimmune disease. Rather than letting this overcome her, she used her experience to create a nonprofit organization to reach out to others who were experiencing this disease as well. Morgan was also very involved at her local hospital. As Vice President of the Hoag Hospital Auxiliary Board of Volunteers her junior year, and Director of the Cancer Center Volunteers her senior year, Morgan was responsible for managing and organizing the operation of the Junior Auxiliary Program. Morgan truly values her experience, seeing people that were facing death in the near future remain happy and positive was an extremely humbling experience.
During her first year at Vanderbilt, Morgan volunteered with Nashville Mobile Market, the Susan Gray School at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, and the Fannie Battle Day Home for Children. During her sophomore year, Morgan continued working with the Fannie Battle Day Home for Children as well as cooking meals for the men of the Dismas House, tutoring at risk children through TAP (The Afterschool Program), and volunteering in community events that benefitted St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
After her sophomore year, Morgan went to Masaka, Uganda for her Ingram Summer Project. Morgan worked as an international intern for the Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD) at their base in Masaka, Uganda. FSD partners with international NGOs to encourage its interns to create sustainable projects that benefit the local community. Due to her interest in healthcare and youth empowerment, Morgan was placed in partnership with The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) in Masaka. TASO’s purpose is to promote AIDS awareness and prevention through education and artistic means, while its services include providing treatment, making site visits, and offering counseling services. While working in the childcare center, Morgan noticed a real lack of emphasis on education and the treatment process for HIV positive children. In hopes of creating a project that would spark patient creativity as well as improve the treatment process as a whole, Morgan worked in partnership with TASO and a local carpenter to create a children’s library within the childcare center. During the construction process, she reached out to several organizations across the world to fundraise and collect book donations for the library. In addition, she also refurnished the childcare center to create a positive environment that would complement the library. Morgan is so thankful for her summer project experience. Not only did it teach her more about sustainability, implementing community projects, and her own service capabilities, but it also taught her the importance of bringing humility, a smile, and a sense of humor to every aspect of life.
After returning from Uganda, Morgan worked in a children’s hospital where she learned the importance of indirect service to perform community outreach. After being home briefly, she left to study abroad in Florence, Italy. While in Florence, Morgan maintained her service project in Uganda while also continuing to provide indirect service to the organizations she was involved with at home. Once returning from Italy, Morgan spent the remainder of her semester coordinating fundraising events for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a cause she is very dedicated to, and volunteering for Vanderbilt F.O.O.D (Facing Our Own Decisions) as an executive member. Vanderbilt F.O.O.D is a student run organization that works to educate Nashville’s middle and elementary schools about the importance of a healthy lifestyle.
Morgan looks forward to continuing her involvement with St. Jude and with Vanderbilt F.O.O.D during her senior year, and is excited for the opportunities that the senior internship has to offer. She is unbelievably thankful to the Ingram Scholarship Program for all of the incredible opportunities it has given her to learn more about her community, both locally and globally, and the ways in which it has taught her to be a humble servant. Through the support of the Ingram Scholarship Program, she dreams to motivate, educate, and inspire others toward a meaningful cause.