OACS Update
Refugee Awareness Week
OACS was excited to support Shea Davis and Sarah Imran with a week-long range of events aimed at raising awareness of the plight of refugees globally and locally. Dr. Clive Mentzel opened Refugee Awareness Week by hosting a student dialogue in the OACS lounge on March 24th. This dialogue, along with the Refugee Awareness Week events, successfully allowed students to engage their own misconceptions and consider how they can be part of a welcoming city. The events hosted different members of the community, including resettlement organizations and settled refugees in Nashville. Through breaking down the barrier and realizing that Vanderbilt students are part of the Nashville community, many students realized their own part to play in the refugee crisis.
Redefine and the Nashville Food Project
Redefine, a collaborative program between OACS and ISSS, saw students dedicate their Saturday morning in service to the Nashville Food Project on March 19th. Students helped chop fruits and vegetables, prepare snacks, and assist in the logistical implementation of large-scale food service to members of our community. Redefine asks students to immerse themselves in the conceptualization of community service as it relates to U.S. communities and how, or if, the same ideas translate across cultures. It simultaneously aims to make international students feel at home and develop enduring friendships.
VIEW
Students in the Vanderbilt Internship Experience in Washington (VIEW) program have enjoyed learning from a number of guest speakers in PSCI 3851: Exploring the Role and Impact of Active Citizenship in a Global Society. Dr. Carrie Russell (Department of Political Science) shared about collaboration and professional expectations in Washington, D.C.; Anne Reed led a workshop about the Clifton Strengths Finder assessment; Heather Lefkowitz presented an engaging lecture about interview skills titled “Telling Your Story”; Dr. Jeff Bennett (Department of Communication Studies) led a discussion about language, rhetoric, and social media; and Congressman Jim Cooper and Assistant Vice Chancellor of Federal Relations Christina West spoke with VIEW students on March 30th. Many thanks to our partners, the Center for Student Professional Development and the Department of Political Science for continued collaboration to make the VIEW program a success!
Comparative and International Education Conference
Erika Larson had the great opportunity to present at the 2016 Comparative and International Education Conference. Her presentation was titled ‘Global Service-Learning: Responsibility to adhere to ethics while achieving learning outcomes’. She analyzed the negative and positive implications of global service-learning as a growing trend in higher education in the global north. Utilizing the OACS Global Service Program in South Africa as an example, she was able to demonstrate the intricacies of designing a program that helps students achieve maximum learning while also ensuring that our community partners are co-creating the program in order to meet the needs of the community.
Inequality and the Digital Divide: You Can Make a Difference
OACS and the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center invite the Vanderbilt community to join a project addressing the lack of access to digital technology and the Internet in low income communities around Nashville. This project, Inequality and the Digital Divide: You Can Make a Difference, was born out of a partnership with the ConnectHome Initiative at Google. Google Fiber intends to supply computer training and one year of free Internet access to the residents of Cayce Place in east Nashville. Vanderbilt has agreed to donate approximately 4,000 laptop computers, with the understanding that they will be distributed once recipients complete the necessary instructional courses. Vanderbilt students are invited to volunteer as facilitators in these courses.
We will hold an event to raise awareness and spread the word about this project on Wednesday, April 6th at 12:00 Noon at the Black Cultural Center. To learn more about Inequality and the Digital Divide: You Can Make a Difference, please visit the website. OACS thanks its partners at Vanderbilt: the BCC, and the Center for Community, Neighborhood, and Government Relations, as well as wider project partners, including Google Fiber, the Nashville Public Library, the Martha O’Bryan Center, and Metro Government of Nashville and Davidson County.
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
Dr. Clive Mentzel will present a 6 week class at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute titled “The Truth and Reconciliation Process in South Africa – Where Is the Truth and Where Is the Reconciliation?” This series will explore transitional justice in South Africa and the functioning of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in that country. The course will examine more closely some of its challenges and dilemmas as well as successes and failures and place the attempt at reconciliation and the “restoration of the everyday” in the context of contemporary global political and social dynamics. Discussion will include some of the newly emergent global social movements seeking restorative justice and truth more widely. Thursdays, March 31st to May 5th, 11:00-12:15.
Partnership with the Department of Political Science
On April 13th Dr. Clive Mentzel will address the undergraduate Political Science Association at a lunch time event at the Commons. The theme of the talk and discussion will be centered on an analysis of global conflict trends, trends in transitional justice, and the role of human rights.
ONE
In his capacity as faculty advisor of “ONE”, Dr. Clive Mentzel is pleased to say that this organization is now ranked #1 in the nation, and four members of their executive board went to Washington, D.C. for spring break to represent ONE on Capitol Hill at an international conference. With the help of all ONE volunteers worldwide, President Obama signed their bill, the Electrify Africa Act, into law this past February. This bill will provide first-time electricity access to over 50 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa by the year 2020.
World on Wednesday: Hope for Humanity? Domestic Sources of Global Conflict
OACS is pleased to support the ISSS WoW series! On April 6th, Dr. Clive Mentzel will present on domestic sources of global conflict. What is the nature of conflict being experienced around the globe? What are the prospects for resolution of conflicts? What can we do to avert conflict? This topic will help us understand the sources of global conflict and what we can do to ameliorate and reduce these and live together in more harmonious and peaceful ways.
New Service Organization Joins OACS
OACS is pleased to announce that Project RISHI (Rural India Social Health Initiatives) has been welcomed into the OACS family. OACS currently advises 76 student service organizations.
Alpha Chi Omega
On March 28th Dr. Clive Mentzel presented to the sorority Alpha Chi Omega on “Impact and Intent”. He explored the dynamic and fluid tensions between intensions and impact, and also explored with around 120 students the themes of equality, diversity, and inclusion.
Spring Break Service Trips
OACS is pleased to announce the safe and successful return of all our students who engaged in meaningful service over spring break. OACS is proud to advise and support the huge collective service endeavor students embark on, an effort comprising a range of both individual student activity as well as organized activity through various student groups. Amounting to just under 900 students, these groups all sought immersive service experiences in communities across the United States and internationally. The traveling spring break service groups included Alternative Spring Break, Habitat for Humanity, AMIGOS, MEDLIFE, Manna Project International, Alpha Epsilon Delta, Global Brigades, and Food Justice.
