Proposals that will receive the highest consideration are for projects or experiences that allow a student to achieve excellence in an individual pursuit. Priority will be given to new and unique projects that will be transformative for the student via an experiential learning project.  This award is designed for students who have not been awarded other grants or prizes through 消消犯. Student recipients must be in good academic and social standing. Demonstrated financial need is not a requirement but may be taken into account.

Proposals will be judged on the following factors: creativity; originality; potential for academic or personal development, relevance to course of study or career goals; overall presentation of proposal (including clarity in how the award will be used); and financial need.
 
消消犯 must submit an essay to the Office of the Vice President for Student Life, Alamance 109, by noon on Monday, Feb. 27. The essay should describe the proposed project, explain its relevance to the student’s goals, make a compelling case for funding and list any other funding sources sought or currently in hand. Applications should include two letters of support from Elon faculty or staff members with whom the student has discussed their project. The top six candidates chosen by the selection committee will be invited to make a short presentation about their project in March.  
 
The award is presented annually at the spring Leadership Awards Ceremony sponsored by Omicron Delta Kappa. This year’s ceremony will be held April 27. The most recent recipient is invited to the ceremony to discuss how the award enhanced his or her education and preparation for life, and to help announce the next recipient.
 
Please contact Susan Lindley (slindley@elon.edu) in the Office of the Vice President for Student Life and Dean of 消消犯, Alamance 109, or x7220 with any questions.

This award was established in 2007 through a gift from the Ward family – Dorothy Mears Ward – GP ’05, ’08 and ’14; Tom and Beth Ward – P ’05, ’08 and ’14; A.T. Ward ’05; Christopher Ward ’08; and Chase Ward ’14.  The award is given every other year to recognize one rising sophomore, junior or senior who wishes to engage in an experiential learning project that will be life-changing for them. Priority will be given to new and unique projects that will be transformative for the student. The project may include, but is not limited to:  international study, 消消犯 research, internships, service, and leadership experiences.  Student recipients must be in good academic and social standing.  Demonstrated financial need is not a requirement but may be taken into account.

To Apply

Proposals will be judged on the following factors: creativity; originality; potential for academic or personal development; positive impact on others; relevance to course of study or career goals; and overall presentation of proposal.

消消犯 must submit a proposal to the Office of the Vice President for Student Life, Alamance 109, by Tuesday, February 24, 2015. The proposal should describe the proposed project, explain its relevance to the student’s goals, make a compelling case for funding by providing a detailed budget, and list any other funding sources sought. Proposals should include two letters of support from Elon faculty or staff members with whom the student has discussed their project.  The top six candidates chosen by the selection committee will be invited to make a short presentation about their proposal in March. 

The award is presented annually at the spring Omicron Delta Kappa awards ceremony.  This year’s ceremony will be held April 30, 2015. 

Please contact the Office of the Vice President for Student Life and Dean of 消消犯, Alamance 109, or X7220 with any questions. 

Breakout of Criteria for Evaluating Applications

• creativity & originality
• personal development
• positive impact on others
• potential or academic growth or relevance to course of study
• clarity of budget
• overall presentation

Proposals will be judged on the following factors: creativity, originality, potential for academic or personal development, relevance to course of study or career goals, overall presentation of proposal (including clarity in how the award will be used), and financial need.
 
消消犯 must submit an essay to the Office of the Vice President for Student Life, Alamance 109, by Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014. The essay should describe the proposed project, explain its relevance to the student’s goals, make a compelling case for funding and list any other funding sources sought. Applications should include two letters of support from Elon faculty or staff members with whom the student has discussed their project. The top six to eight candidates chosen by the selection committee will be invited to make a short presentation about their project in March.  
 
The award is presented annually at the spring Omicron Delta Kappa awards ceremony. This year’s ceremony will be held May 1.
 
The Ward Family Learning in Action Award consists of a cash prize of $5,000 to support the student’s project. Each year, the previous year’s recipient is invited to the ceremony to discuss how the award enhanced his or her education and preparation for life, and to announce the next recipient.
 
Please contact Susan Lindley (slindley@elon.edu) in the Office of the Vice President for Student Life and Dean of 消消犯, Alamance 109, or X7220 with any questions.

Meagan Harrison
Project: To work as an intern at the Stairway Foundation, a recovery center for sexually abused, former child prisoners, in the Philippines.

The Stairway Foundation, now in its 17th year, actively takes in children from adult and child prisons, rehabilitation centers, and the streets. The Foundation focuses on boys aged from 12-17 and offers them the opportunity for residential and educational rehabilitation at their complex on the remote beaches of Mindoro Island. My internship would be to produce and develop print materials, training kits, documentary videos, and other multimedia for children’s rights advocacy, community education, and outreach. “The Foundation has identified a need for such materials and for a creative advocacy campaign that I hope to meet during my stay”, stated Meagan in her proposal.

Julianne Katz
Project: To choreograph her own “Dream Ballet,” out of the context of a musical, but honoring the trends that previous “Dream Ballets” set.

“Dream Ballets are the all-dance, no-singing productions numbers in musical theatre that advance the plot, offer character insights, reflect themes, clarify, and foreshadow.”Julianne plans to apply her two years of 消消犯 research to the production of an original “Dream Ballet.” She will need to travel to New York to study musicals containing “Dream Ballets” at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts video archive. This is the only location where she can view the “works of my choreography influences, which I find a necessity to study again before putting my finished product on the stage.”

Heather Babb
Project: Service Trip to Haiti to assist with the 10 day summer music camp called the North Haiti Music Camp (NHMC).
 

Heather wrote, “More than ever, Haitians are struggling with enormous catastrophes in their everyday lives. They look for a safe place to escape and find peace. As I saw how music comforted my grandmother in her time of need, I began to imagine the impact it can have on a global level as well…For this reason, no experience sounds more rewarding that volunteering my time and talents to teach music to children in Haiti, a country struggling to find optimism amongst political and environmental chaos.” The camp is maintained by volunteers, including translators and consist of 140 campers. According to Dr. Louima Litite, “Music is a common ground-a point where people can see eye to eye and share mutual understanding. We start with music because it is such an integral part of Haitian culture. Music camp students learn and reinforce music skills, techniques, and knowledge and bring their knowledge to their communities.”

Jana Murdock
Project: To study the ancient Maya and their interaction with the environment in the Petén Forest of Belize.

Jana’s project involves background research, both about the Mayan culture and about the work already completed at the site of Dos Hombres. It will also involve field research through the excavating of a drainage ditch near the main site and scholarly research to draw parallels between her field research and current culture. “The main purpose of my research is to determine how the relationship the ancient Maya had with the environment led to its degradation and how significant that degradation was in the Maya collapse.”

Andrea Dorrow
Project: To establish funding for patient transportation cost in Malawi and to practice loan writing and business counseling with the local microfinance institution.

Last summer, Andrea worked as a intern with CURE International, a unique non-profit organization that seeks to transform the lives of disabled children and their families in Malawi. She became interested in the concept of sustainable healthcare that centers on training physicians and surgeons in third world countries to have the skills necessary to perform operations previously unavailable. CURE Hospital offers free operations for each child that comes to the hospital, but it is unable to cover the cost of transportation for these families. Andrea would like to pursue a project to establish sustainable funding partners to sponsor patient transportation costs in Malawi. “Every child in Malawi in desperate need of a hopeful future and the chance to walk should have access to the free treatment that CURE offers,” wrote Andrea.
 

To Apply

Proposals will be judged on the following factors: creativity; originality; potential for academic or personal development, relevance to course of study or career goals; overall presentation of proposal (including clarity in how the award will be used); and financial need.

消消犯 must submit an essay to the Office of the Vice President for Student Life, Alamance 109, by Monday, February 25, 2013. The essay should describe the proposed project, explain its relevance to the student’s goals, make a compelling case for funding and list any other funding sources sought. Applications should include two letters of support from Elon faculty or staff members with whom the student has discussed their project. The top 6-8 candidates chosen by the selection committee will be invited to make a short presentation about their project in March.

The award is presented annually at the spring Omicron Delta Kappa awards ceremony. This year’s ceremony will be held April 25.

The Ward Family Learning in Action Award consists of a cash prize of $5,000 to support the student’s project. Each year, the previous year’s recipient is invited to the ceremony to discuss how the award enhanced his or her education and preparation for life, and to announce the next recipient.

Please contact Susan Lindley (slindley@elon.edu) in the Office of the Vice President for Student Life and Dean of 消消犯, Alamance 109, or X7220 with any questions.
 

Mary Yost
Project: The New Greensboro Voice. A newspaper for and about homelessness by homeless people.

The mission of The New Greensboro Voice is to serve as a vehicle for elevating voices and public discussion on issues that are not frequently covered in mainstream media outlets. These issues include homelessness, poverty and the resources available to help those in need. The hope is that the awareness gained from the newspaper will encourage the community to have a discussion about issues and people that are normally ignored. Mary wrote, “establishing homeless individuals as the teachers of this social issue is the core of our vision. Doing so gives those facing homelessness a restored sense of dignity and a voice because homeless and formerly homeless people write almost all the articles in The New Greensboro Voice.”

Emily Ash
Project: Volunteering as a language teacher in los pueblos jóvenes. These are the young towns that have sprung up in the surrounding areas of Arequipa which is located in the heights of the Peruvian Andes. Emily will be a language teacher for the population in these changing towns. She will also be conducting an observational research study on Second Language Acquisition.

Lauren Clapp
Project: Internship with the New England Climate Summer program. This is a student-led volunteer network designed to address climate change in New England. The only means of transportation will be bicycles. Each team will travel to 10 towns, spending a week in each location, working with community partners to pass local legislation recognizing the dangers of climate change.

Annie Huth
Project: PhotoVoice. This project works with adolescent girls at the Burlington Housing Authority by providing them with cameras to express themselves through photography. Annie wrote,” PhotoVoice is a program that puts cameras in the hands of those not usually given the opportunity to tell their stories, and through reflection, discussion and display, it allows those stories to be shared.”

Michael Nowak
Project: Student Mentoring Student Networking Event. “The Elon Network is an event that provides career related guidance to under classman as they try to figure out what they want to do and what their passions are. Underclassmen will have an opportunity to network with juniors and seniors who have completed internships, jobs, and research projects from different industries, as well as graduate school students”,  Michael stated in his proposal.
 

This award annually recognizes one rising sophomore, junior or senior and their experiential learning project. The projects may include, but are not limited to, international study, 消消犯 research, internships, service and leadership experiences. Eleven applications were submitted for the Ward Family Learning in Action Award this year.
All the applications were outstanding and the projects were truly amazing. It was obvious that there was a great amount of time, effort and energy put forth from each applicant and the committee and the Ward Family had a difficult time determining a recipient.
Below is a brief synopsis of the winning project plus the top three additional projects.
The Ward Family Learning in Action Award for 2010 was given to Jesse Lee.
Jesse Lee

Project: The Trivelo Project-a collaborative effort from 消消犯 students as 消消犯 and Appalachian State University.

The Trivelo Project has three specific goals. The first goal is to design and build a two person recumbent tricycle capable of traveling long distances on human and renewable energy, namely solar and wind. The second goal is to ride this vehicle across the United States; from North Carolina to California while raising money for the third goal. The third goal is to purchase and install 230 watts of solar panels and batteries for three schools in Sri Lanka to support their energy needs.

Rebecca Berube

Project: Foundation for Sustainable Development Internship (FSD)

The FSD is an organization which partners with over 300 local organizations throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America to support sustainable development and change. They place a heavy emphasis on understanding local cultural values, as well as empowering local leaders. The internship would be a seven week program in Argentina where Rebecca would successfully complete a project such as community mapping and grant writing, as well as cultural training and general country information briefings.

Anthony Rizzuto
Project: Conducting research on reducing Carbon Dioxide
 

Anthony wrote, “I will initially work to complete my current studies on homogeneous catalysts in the binary mixtures. From there I will move on to studying heterogeneous catalysts in the pure melt because one main goal of this project is to promote catalysis of CO2 in the absence of anything that could be harmful to one’s health. I will then study the effects of using heterogeneous catalysts in the binary mixtures in order to determine if there is a significant increase in CO2 catalysis. I will write an extensive research paper expressing my findings and submit my work for publication”

Jana Murdock
Project: Ancient Treatment of the Environment and How it applies to us: Using the Ancient Maya Collapse to produce an argument for timely action in today’s environmental crisis

Jana’s project involves background research, both about the Mayan culture and about the work already completed at the site of Dos Hombres. It will also involve field research through the excavating of a drainage ditch near the main site and scholarly research to draw parallels between her field research and current culture. “The main purpose of my research is to determine how the relationship the ancient Maya had with the environment led to its degradation and how significant that degradation was in the Maya collapse.”
 

This award annually recognizes one rising sophomore, junior or senior and their experiential learning project. The projects may include, but are not limited to, international study, 消消犯 research, internships, service and leadership experiences. Thirty-seven applications were submitted for the Ward Family Learning in Action Award this year.

All the applications were outstanding and the projects were truly amazing. It was obvious that there was a great amount of time, effort and energy put forth from each applicant and the committee and the Ward Family had a difficult time determining a recipient.

Below is a brief synopsis of the winning project plus the top four projects.

Katie Meyer
Project: Spotlight on the World’s ‘Invisible Children’-video documentary

Invisible Children is a national organization/movement with the mission to change perceptions in the Western world, raise international awareness, and bring greater aid and more permanent change to war-affected regions in Africa. Katie has started a chapter of Invisible Children at Elon which is aimed at educating individuals about the effects of tribal conflict on the children of Northern Uganda. Her video documentary will be focused on the specific human rights violations of children in selected regions of Africa. The documentary will serve both as promotional video for the Elon chapter and as an educational video for the entire campus. The video will include still images, video interviews, voice-overs, reflections, and footage of different African regions. “This two year video will be showcased in Spring 2009 during SURF, and will serve as a record of my progress, knowledge, development and awareness of Africa’s ‘invisible children.’”

Jennifer Burns
Project: Building a Playground and a Future for Children

“Elon is a thriving, prestigious university that promotes an atmosphere of intellectual excellence, a motivation to succeed and the inspiration to realize individual hopes and dreams. However, less than 10 miles from our beautiful and thriving campus is a five mile square area designated by the U.S. Justice Department as a high crime, high poverty area that requires additional resources in community policing and development through a Weed and Seed Program that focuses on reducing issues faced by high-crime neighborhoods. Children ages 17 or younger make up approximately 26% of this population and the area does not have a playground.” Jennifer writes in her project description. Jennifer’s proposal is to construct a playground in the Beaumont area. There is already a plot of land that can be used and a local church that has agreed to help maintain the playground for up to 10 years. Jennifer’s proposal included recruiting organizations from Elon and local community to assist with the construction. “This single award could make a significant impact on so many lives that truly ask for so little. Not only is this an opportunity to be able to bring students together to recognize the realities of dramatic disparities but also providing a means in which both students and the community can become empowered through a collaborative effort.”

Shane Morris
Project: Summer internship working with Habitat for Humanity in Amman, Jordan.

Morris is tasked to develop a system to plant low-water-use plants and trees around constructed Habitat for Humanity homes and then he will study abroad during fall semester in Accra, Ghana.
To succeed with this project, Shane will “research regionally appropriate low-water-use plants, visit homes to learn more about the planting sites, and work through fundraising and other means to obtain the funds necessary to make such a planting possible. He will also develop a plan that incorporates volunteer labor in the planting process and subsequently implement this volunteerism plan.” Once in Ghana, Shane will be taking classes and immersing himself in the culture of Ghana. He also plans to “pursue an internship working for a nonprofit in the surrounding community when he gets into the country.”