Alumni
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Madison Brown
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Madison’s heart for the marginalized and the poor grew because of her church’s involvement with the refugee population in Clarkston, GA, one of the most diverse square miles in the country. Seeing perseverance and joy in the face of adversity inspired her to seek out communities and places where resilience and affliction meet. This led her to Cullman, Alabama; Tuba City, Arizona; Sarnia, Canada; El Valle, Panama; and Jinotega, Nicaragua throughout middle school and high school. Each of these places and the people she met on their streets showed her the crippling effects of injustice and the paradox of hope living and moving in the midst of it. Most of all, they showed her that she cannot turn a blind eye.
In her first few weeks at Vanderbilt, Madison began working with Preston Taylor Ministries (PTM), an organization that focuses on investing in children living the housing projects and low-income areas around Nashville. She works with around 20 elementary school students—tutoring them, laughing with them, learning from them. On a daily basis, students walk into the basement of this church with heavy baggage from the school day they just fought through and the life they go home to, and her role at PTM is to listen and show them the potential they may not see in themselves. While working with elementary school kids on a regular basis is something she has grown to love since coming to school, Madison has always had a passion for high school students, believing they have the power within them to change their communities for the better. Over the last year and a half, Madison has invested in Glencliff High School while working with Nashville International Center for Empowerment and Young Life. She mentors five girls within the school, hanging out with them weekly, learning their story, and encouraging them to fight for what they believe in. The stories they have lived out to this point would have them convinced that they have nothing going for them, but Madison has committed herself to showing them that she sees: they are worthy, strong, brilliant, and brave. This is the work she loves and believes in—reminding girls that they are worth loving and will change the world. She spent the summer after her junior working in Clarkston, Georgia implementing a female empowerment curriculum for refugee girls at Friends of Refugees.
This year Madison will be interning at the Oasis Center’s Emergency Shelter that houses and provides counseling for youth experiencing crisis. Working with youth is both the hardest and the best work Madison has ever engaged in. They challenge her thinking; they make her better; they point her to hope.