2010-2011 VISTA Abstracts
Click here for the 2009-2010 VISTA Abstracts
CARROLL COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Jeana Biondo
Jeana Biondo is the Service Learning VISTA at Carroll Community College. She earned her AA&S in General Studies from Carroll Community College in 2005, and then transferred to Villa Julie College where she received her BS in Interdisciplinary Studies for Business and Psychology in 2008. While an undergraduate she was highly involved in student activities programs that included events planning and service learning, and she uses those experiences to better serve students at Carroll. For the past 6 years she has worked in Higher Education in various student and professional capacities, and values being able to help students develop and succeed.
Project Description: The MDCC-VISTA member will be developing and running the new program, the Great Starts Program Program. This program will target our at-risk students population. ('GREAT" reminds us of our goals to increase: Graduation, Retention, Excellence, Achievement and Teamwork.) Objectives for the program will include a workshop/financial literacy component, a service project, mentoring, and a course entitled "College Sucesss". Requirements for the program will be accomplished through regular class meetings (1 credit COL-100), a workshop series and personal mentoring sessions. The MDCC-VISTA's role will include 1) researching, developing and facilitating the financial literacy aspects of the program, 2) coordinating the service project for the students in partnership with Carroll County Human Services Program, 3) recruit and coordinate peer mentors for the program, and 4) investigate possible sources of funding for scholarships for program completers. The program will be comprised of 20 students, a program coordinator, and 8 peer mentors.
COLLEGE OF NOTRE DAME
VISTA to be announced
Project Description: The VISTA member will continue to be responsible for managing placement of Notre Dame student volunteers to provide educational outreach, tutoring and leadership education for the students at Sister’s Academy. Sister’s Academy educates young girls of limited economic means who have the potential and motivation to be leaders in their communities. Sister’s Academy is for girls in grades fifth through eighth. The VISTA member will also: 1) Develop a system to enhance the Sister’s Academy curriculum through development of leadership, tutorial and college admissions and financial aid/educational programs; 2) coordinate Notre Dame and/or Sister’s Academy student participation in national service events (i.e. Martin Luther King day; National Volunteer Week; Youth Service day and make a Difference Day); 3) coordinate placement of Federal Work Study students in community agencies that support low-income students; 4) identify and train Notre Dame student volunteers to place at Sister’s Academy; and 5) evaluate volunteer programs and services.
COPPIN STATE UNIVERSITY
VISTA to be announced
Project Description: The VISTA member will be responsible for managing placement of Coppin student volunteers to provide educational outreach, tutoring and leadership education for the students at Frederick Douglass High School and Coppin Academy. Frederick Douglass High School and Coppin Academy are both schools within the Baltimore City Public School System, the later being a new scharter school housed at Coppin State University. Both schools serve families with limited economic needs. The VISTA member will also: 1) Develop a system to enhance the Frederick Douglass High School and Coppin Academy's curriculum through development of leadership, tutorial and college admissions and financial aid/educational programs; 2) coordinate Coppin State University and/or Frederick Douglass High School/Coppin Academy student participation in national service events (i.e. Martin Luther King day; National Volunteer Week; Youth Service day and Make a Difference Day); 3) coordinate placement of Federal Work Study students in community agencies that support low-income students; 4) identify and train Coppin State University student volunteers to place at Frederick Douglass High School and Coppin Academy; and 5) evaluate volunteer programs and services.
GOUCHER COLLEGE
VISTA to be announced
Project Description: The AmeriCorps*VISTA member will help develop a center to assist the Latino population in Baltimore County. The AmeriCorps*VISTA member will work with Goucher’s France-Merrick Professor in Service-Learning to develop partnerships between the college’s Spanish department, existing service organizations that serve the Latino community in the Greater Baltimore area, and the Latino community itself, living in Baltimore County. The AmeriCorps*VISTA member will assist in identifying programs that meet the community’s needs, will coordinate scheduled activities (after school and weekend programs, the campus’ Hispanic Heritage Month activities, etc), and will help recruit and coordinate Goucher students from community-based learning courses. He or she will also serve as the primary liaison between the college and community agencies (churches, government agencies, health agencies, etc)
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY (SOURCE)
VISTA to be announced
Project Description: The Johns Hopkins University is seeking threeAmeriCorps*VISTA positions. The first is for the Center for Social Concern which is seeking a Community-Based Learning (CBL) coordinator. The AmeriCorps*VISTA will serve as a Healthy Schools coordinator for both the medical campus' SOURCE (Student Outreach Resource Center) and the Homewood campus' Center for Social Concerns at the Johns Hopkins University. The VISTA will be charged with coordinating a student volunteer pilot program providing monthly evening parent and family health education programming at community schools in both the East Baltimore and Charles village communities. The VISTA will have to coordinate with area community health partners to offer weekend trainings for JHU students, communicate with school partners about on site logistics and familty communication and facilitate reflection activities for JHU student participants. The VISTA will network with Hopkins faculty within the undergraduate public health studies major, as well as faculty at the graduate Schools of Public Health, Nursing, and Medicine to develop community-based learning courses to build a lasting infrastructure for the pilot program.
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY (Campus Kitchens)
VISTA to be announced
Project Description: The second AmeriCorps*VISTA will serve as the Campus Kitchen at Johns Hopkins (CKJHU) Coordinator, housed within the JHU Center for Social Concern. The CKJHU Coordinator will work with a student leadership team to coordinate JHU student and faculty volunteers, who recover surplus food from University dining services, local businesses, and farms to address food scarcity in Baltimore City. The VISTA will work with student leadership committees to foster partnerships with community organizations by providing food to these organizations to help supplement their meal programs, nourish their clients, and remove some of the burden of the cost of food from these organizations. The VISTA will also coordinate weekly delivery shifts, seasonal gleaning trips to area farms, work days at an on-campus garden, and volunteer cooking shifts twice a week at the kitchen, located in the University Baptist Church. The CKJHU Coordinator will also serve as a state-wide resource, distributing fact sheets, offering workshops, and providing kitchen tours to MDCC member institutions.
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY (Public Health)
VISTA to be announced
Project Description:
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY
VISTA to be announced
Project Description: The AmeriCorps*VISTA worker will help implement a business resource center that will work with small businesses in the Govans neighborhood, adjacent to Loyola's campus, on marketing plans, competitive analyses, and financial analyses. The idea for the Center developed last summer as a result of a justice research project with Govans community members and businesses. They identified financial literacy as a need of their community. This need was presented to the Dean of Loyola's Business School who in turn presented it to a University committee dedicated to the redevelopment of Govans. Additional input is currently being solicited through a Govans Neighborhood Listening Project. The Listening Project involves one-on-one interviews between a trained interviewer from Loyola and a member of the Govans community. It is anticipated that the results will further shape the creation of the business resource center and its programming. Community members, the Govans Business Association, the Sellinger School of Business, and the Center for Community Service and Justice will collaborate to plan and facilitate the project. The AmeriCorps*VISTA worker will serve as the primary link responsible for maintaining positive working relationships between the university and the Govans community. S/he will assist with the recruitment, selection and training of Business student volunteers who will staff the resource center, and will be involved with all aspects of program development and implementation.
MARYLAND INSTITUTE COLLEGE OF ART
Becky LeFevre
Rebecca LeFevre is originally from the suburbs of Philadelphia. She attended the University of Pittsburgh from 2002-2004 focusing on business. In the fall of 2004 she began studying photography at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and graduated with a Bachelors degree in 2007. During her career at AIP she interned with the Families for Learning Center and taught basic photography classes to newly relocated refugees. In 2008 she accepted a state/national AmeriCorps position with the Washington Reading Corps and worked as a literacy tutor in the Seattle Public School District. Wanting to finally unite art and community service she applied for the MDCC VISTA position at Maryland Institute College of Art where she presently works.
Project Description: The VISTA member will expand the MICA CAP internship program with a focus on increasing partnerships related to trauma survivors. Our existing site partners, including groups serving homeless adults, adults in treatment for addition, and HIV+ African American women have identified a large number of trauma survivors amongst their clients. MICA's AmeriCorps*VISTA member will recruit and train MICA undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate students to engage under-served Baltimore City residents through community arts. The VISTA member has identified and contacted appropriate community partners to help facilitate the use of art as a tool to enhance psychological treatment and to provide professional skills for those affected by trauma. By the end of year three, the VISTA member, in collaboration with community partners, will have developed a sustainable program curriculum as well as short and long term goals for current and future MICA students participating in the program.
MCDANIEL COLLEGE
VISTA to be announced
Project Description: The MDCC-VISTA has established a strong partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Westminster, MD. The MDCC-VISTA will continue to deepen and expand the current partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Westminster, MD. The MDCC-VISTA will continue to deepen and expand the current partnership with the Boys & Girls Club. The MDCC-VISTA member will focus specifically on expanding its current work with the Non-Profit Center of Carroll County in Westminster, MD and, within that framework, a specific focus on the Head Start Program. The Head Start Program of Carroll County provides early education, child development, and intervention services to low-income children and their families in Carroll County. The Boys and Girls Club and the Head Start Program both share a common value in service to low-income families and children. The MDCC-VISTA will take a leading role in connecting student volunteers (in and out of the classroom) to the Boys and Girls Club and Head Start program. The MDCC-VISTA will work closely with the Head Start Program, the Non-Profit Center Director, and the Director of the Boys and Girls Club to determine needs and ways the College may respond to the community, particularly through volunteer and service-learning projects. The MDCC-VISTA will attend the Boys and Girls Club Board meetings and be a representative to the Community Service Council Board meetings of Westminster, MD.
MONTGOMERY COLLEGE (Takoma Park Campus)
VISTA to be announced
Project Description: This project is focused on engaging first-generation, diverse college students in mentoring partnerships with local middle and high school immigrant youth who are in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs in the Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) system. It will create a cascading model of service engaging both college students and K-12 students in service-learning opportunities with local non-profits. The AmeriCorps*VISTA member will be directly involved with the implementation of service-learning. He/she will help coordinate activities of the Takoma Park Campus, Montgomery County Public Schools, and community sites. The AmeriCorps*VISTA member will identify and secure appropriate service-learning sites, monitor program and student progress, and provide follow-up and evaluation of the program and services. This project addresses first-generation, immigrant retention at both the K-12 (secondary) level and the higher ed (tertiary) level. It is already considered by our partner, MCPS, as a model program which they are trying to expand county-wide.
MOUNT ST. MARY’S UNIVERSITY
VISTA to be announced
Project Description: The AmeriCorps*VISTA member, with the help of community members and the Mount community, will reduce the effects of poverty by helping develop a culture of service on campus and enhance community partnerships. In particular, the VISTA member's activities will include 1) heling students actively work towards alleviating poverty, and 2) assisting faculty in recognizing the appropriateness and effectiveness of service-learning as a pedagogical tool. The AmeriCorps*VISTA member will build new relationships with community partners, strengthen the current relationships the Mount enjoys with various community partners, and will develop strategies to better inform and encourage current faculty to offer service-learning opportunities to their students. Finally, the VISTA member will investigate the goals and operational practices of some of the best service-learning centers in higher education, with the aim of designing a model that will work best for Mount St. Mary's so that the Mount will enhance its long-term effectiveness as a community partner.
PRINCE GEORGE’S COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Mary Nesbitt
Mary Goins Nesbitt, a South Carolina native, has worked as a high school English teacher, department chairperson, coordinator of several programs, and a high school administrator. She received her B. A. degree from Claflin University with honors, M.S. in Administration and Supervision, Johns Hopkins University and is taking a year's sabbatical from an Ed.D in Educational Administration and Policy. She, currently, serves as the Service-Learning Facilitator, Prince George's Community College where she is developing a collaborative program that will increase financial literacy awareness of juniors and seniors at Largo High School, Largo, Maryland and provide service-learning opportunities for students at Prince George's Community College. She, firmly, believes that her life is richly enhanced by working to "level the playing field for those unable to achieve that goal for themselves".
Project Description: The AmeriCorps*VISTA member will continue development and coordination of a financial literacy program at Largo High School in Largo, Maryland, that involves community college students and faculty volunteering to provide financial mentoring, tutoring, and workshops to high school students. The VISTA member has identifed and contacted appropriate community partners to help facilitate the program and has begun development of a supporting database of partnership information. By the end of the second year, the VISTA member, in collaboration with community partners will have developed a comprehensive strategy for showcasing and celebrating the program's effects on changing financial attitudes of participants. In the long-term, the VISTA member will work to build a vital service-learning program at the college with appropriate community partnerships to sustain the program at Largo High School and begin to replicate the program at other high schools.
STEVENSON UNIVERSITY
Kayla Tufares
Kayla Tufares is the VISTA Service-Learning Coordinator for Stevenson University. She is in the process of completing her BA from Stevenson University in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing. As an undergrad, Kayla worked as a Lead Job coach for an agency providing care to adults with disabilities as well as taught a Career Exploration Class for students who had special needs. She served as a Facilitator for 10 years at a Leadership Seminar, HOBY and has devoted her time to volunteering within the community, and taught dance classes and motor skills trainings to children with physical disabilities.
Project Description: The AmeriCorps*VISTA member will work through the Experiential Learning Center at Stevenson University to establish collaborative programs through Baltimore City public schools, in particular the Dr. Nathan A. Pitts Ashburton Elementary/Middle School. These programs will enhance the students' academic success through tutoring, mentoring, and career/college choices. They will target important issues relevant to the students and their community. The VISTA member will work with Ashburton Middle School to enhance the communities in which she works through active participation in the local schools, interacting with students, their families, and working with the faculty and staff at this school. Increased academic success in the Baltimore City Schools will decrease issues of crime, drug use, and teen pregnancy that are prevalent within the middle school age group. The VISTA member will support Ashbuton Middle School and engage with faculty at all levels to encourage more participation in service-learning, tutoring, career-focused trainings, and college workshops which will benefit the Ashburton Community.
TOWSON UNIVERSITY
VISTA to be announced
Project Description: The AmeriCorps*VISTA member at Towson University will continue the work started in the first two years of our grant. The VISTA provides one-on-one assistance to community organizations and faculty members to help establish service-learning partnerships. These partnerships address a community need, as identified by the community partner, that address a multitude of social issues, all of which are connected to the VISTA mission of fighting poverty. The VISTA will create resources such as publications and development workshops for faculty and community partnerships as opposed to one-time programs. The VISTA's purpose is to help community partners increase their capacity through long-term service-learning partnerships with the University.
UNIVERSITY of BALTIMORE
VISTA to be announced
Project Description: The University of Baltimore's 2010-2011 VISTA member will work with the Central Baltimore Partnership (CBP) to build on UB's commitment to four long-neglected neighborhoods adjacent to our campus in the heart of Baltimore City. By attending community and CBP general and task force meetings, the VISTA will work with both university faculty, staff and students and with community members to ensure measurable and meaningful outcomes for our two-fold VISTA project. First, the VISTA will coordinate a financial literacy program aimed at utilizing various aspects of UB's expertise to build wealth in this economically-disadvantaged district. The VISTA will work with CBP, community stakeholders and members of the UB community (business school students and faculty, etc.) to organize workshops and one-on-one counseling sessions to enhance the financial literacy of Central Baltimore residents, thereby helping them to improve their economic circumstances. One specific example would be tax preparation workshops through which residents will be apprised of all current federal tax benefits to which they might be entitled. The VISTA will work with community members and the CBP to assess other specific financial literacy programs and their benefits to the community in an effort to assist local residents in poverty alleviation. After the VISTA member’s term of service is complete, this financial literacy program will continue through the efforts of UB faculty and students.
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE COUNTY (UMBC)
Melissa Fennell Huselton
Melissa Fennell Huselton is the VISTA serving in the Service-Learning department of The Shriver Center at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Melissa earned her B.A. in English from Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2006. After graduation, she moved to Japan for one year to teach English at Sanuma High School through the Japan Exchange and Teaching program. In 2008, she relocated to Ellicott City and worked as a community organizer for Clean Water Action, an environmental advocacy organization, where she developed a passion for civic agency. Melissa considers her current position to be an outlet for her two strongest passions, civic engagement and higher education.
Project Description: The AmeriCorps*VISTA member will work with the Service-Learning Program to recruit UMBC student volunteers, increase community partnerships, and develop self-sustaining service opportunities that bring the resources of UMBC to our local community members and partners, with a specific focus on K-12 partnerships and college access activities among these students. The *VISTA member will be responsible for working in two communities: the UMBC campus and within the local Baltimore community schools. Through designing and implementing college access activities for K-12 students, the *VISTA will utilize campus resources to bridge the gap in access to essential components for academic and collegiate success.
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK (Partners in Print)
VISTA to be announced
Project Description:
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK
VISTA to be announced
Project Description:
WOR-WIC COMMUNITY COLLEGE
VISTA to be announced
Project Description: The AmeriCorps*VISTA member will be responsible for continuing the foundation laid by the VISTA member in the first grant year. He/she will assist in continuing to develop a service-learning program that will engage students while addressing poverty within our three-county service area. The VISTA will coordinate relevant service projects through partnerships for developing and sustaining effective and rewarding service-learning projects. The VISTA will create a database, cultivate community partners, refine and improve necessary forms and processes, organize workshops on-campus, develop faculty and staff knowledge of and interest in curricular and co-curricular service-learning, and ensure community needs are being met through evaluations and the assessment of project impact.