A select group of 34 undergraduates has been chosen to pilot a new curriculum, known as uAcademy for Conscious Change at Dartmouth College, that aims to provide the skills necessary for "change agents" to pursue social ventures, Rockefeller Center Program Director Vincent Mack said. The Tucker Foundation will also introduce three new initiatives Soup for Thought, Conversations That Matter and Tucker Leaders in Community that encourage both reflection and service, according to Director of Service and Educational Programs Helen Damon-Moore.
The Rockefeller Center and the Dickey Center have partnered with Global Grassroots, a nonprofit organization founded by Gretchen Wallace Tu'01 in 2004, to pilot uAcademy. The program is a subset of Rocky's Global Leadership Program and is intended to encourage individuals passionate about specific social issues to enact positive change in society, Dickey Center Student Programs Officer Amy Newcomb said.
The program, held during the 2A class period, features workshops, various group activities, discussions on social entrepreneurship and fundraising strategies. Through 20 modules, the curriculum emphasizes the importance of mindfulness, understanding, creative problem-solving and building the skill set necessary to transform an idea into reality, according to Newcomb.
"This isn't geared toward, Hey, let's create a business venture or a for-profit venture,' but more of a question of how we can use that same framework to address societal issues and look at launching ideas and initiatives that address those," she said.
Mack said the partnership between the Dickey Center, the Rockefeller Center and Global Grassroots is a significant opportunity due to the similarities between the three organizations' missions.
"Global Grassroots focuses on the change agents," Newcomb said. "As university students, regardless of what experience you undertake, we want to make sure that we can provide some space for reflection to help connect it back to academic interests, real world experience and the tool kit' and then say, And what's next?'"
The joint venture also teaches students lessons on the importance of collaboration across different areas of interest, Mack said.
"We found that it was rare that a student would leave Dartmouth and not work in a multinational setting, so we feel that one of our responsibilities is to equip the students to be excellent leaders and become competent inter-culturally," he said. "For us, it was an excellent opportunity to help students understand the importance of intercultural communication, cultural sensitivity and having the right skills to influence people of different backgrounds."
Members of the Classes of 2013 and 2014 that had previously identified social issues they wished to address and had prior involvement in fellowships, internships and other programs through the Rockefeller and Dickey Centers were invited to participate in the program, Mack said. The students were handpicked as those most likely to benefit from the pilot program.
The uAcademy participants are all at different stages of the planning process, Newcomb said.
"Some of the students in the program already have an idea," she said. "They have been working on creating something, but they just don't know how to get it from idea to fruition."
Other students have expressed strong interests in specific social issues but currently lack new ways to think about addressing those issues. While they are interested in enacting social change, many lack the tools to create programs that would benefit a local community, she said.
At the program's first session on Tuesday, Wallace distributed an assessment to each participant, asking him or her to identify areas on campus in which he or she has tried to introduce his or her ideas but was met with obstacles, Mack said. A follow-up assessment will be administered in six months, he said.
"The second assessment will flesh out whether they've taken whatever idea they have or problem they want to solve to the next step," Mack said. "That will be one of our determinants for the pilot's success what actually happens from this pilot, what actually goes into effect."
Tucker plans to launch three new programs this term to spur discussion and introspection, according to Damon-Moore.
"Soup for Thought," a student-oriented version of "What Matters to Me and Why," was originally piloted in the spring, student director Dimpy Desai '13 said. The program features lunchtime discussion and reflection sessions every Thursday and is open to the entire campus. Previous program highlights included discussions led by the Men's Forum and Occupy Dartmouth.
Tucker Foundation student directors have brainstormed topics that range from ethical leadership in Korea to violence against Muslims, Desai said.
The foundation is also introducing the "Conversations That Matter" program, which will train undergraduates to foster opportunities for reflection with campus organizations. Eight members of the Classes of 2013 and 2014 have already been trained as reflection facilitators as part of the spring pilot program, and it is anticipated that eight to 12 more students will be trained during the fall, Programs Officer Tracy Dustin-Eichler said.
"Reflection facilitators were trained to go out and lead discussions reflecting on the service of campus groups and difficult culture issues," Damon-Moore said. "For example, if reflecting on a change in pledging policies, facilitators will reflect on what the organization wants to be known for."
The reflection facilitator training process is completed over the course of a day and includes workshops on theories of reflection, group facilitation strategies and self-awareness, Dustin-Eichler said. The Tucker Foundation is currently accepting applications for reflection facilitators for the Fall term.
The "Tucker Leaders in Community" program was designed for first-year students who want to learn about ethical leadership, explore their individual interests and learn about faith and service in the Upper Valley. Program participants will be matched with service opportunities in the Upper Valley and will engage in regular reflection sessions, dinner discussions and an educational retreat.
"We saw potential in the first-year students that volunteer through Tucker that work with organizations like Big Brother Big Sister and Dartmouth Habitat for Humanity," Damon-Moore said. "We also employ 25 student directors as seniors, but wanted a pipeline that would start sooner so that we could build leaders early on that would accumulate experience at Tucker throughout their time at Dartmouth."
The program is currently accepting applications and will admit up to 30 students, who will be notified of the leaders' decisions in November. The program is scheduled to begin in January and will run throughout the course of the Winter and Spring terms.
