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UDM > Mission & Identity > Mission Micro Grant Program > 2012-13 Award Projects

2012-13 Mission Micro Grant Award Projects

Summaries of the 2012-13 MMG
Proposals that Received Funding

Maureen Anthony (CHP / McAuley School of Nursing): Material support for the purchase of a digital camera, photo books, and stethoscope to aid in connecting The McAuley School of Nursing students and a nursing student in South Sudan. McAuley School of Nursing faculty has elected to sponsor a nursing student in South Sudan, the world’s newest country, though Mercy Beyond Borders (MBB). The goal of MBB is to bring women in developing countries out of extreme poverty through education. Sr. Marilyn Lacey RSM founded this organization in 2008. The Carney Latin American Solidarity Archive at UDM invited Sr. Marilyn to speak about her work and book (This Flowing Toward Me: The Story of God Arriving Through Strangers) on campus in 2010. Sr. Marilyn has asked us to sponsor Diko Jeska, a twenty-two-year-old displaced woman from South Sudan who grew up in Alere Refugee Camp in northern Uganda. She completed elementary and high school in the refugee camp and aspires to become a nurse. Her parents have since repatriated back into South Sudan (now that the war is over) but being subsistence farmers, they do not have the wherewithal to send Diko on to college. This grant will be used for the purpose of connecting Diko and our MSON students and faculty. A digital 3amera would be purchased for Diko so that she can record her nursing school days. Our students would also record their nursing school activities and the photos from both will be made into two photo books, one for Diko and one for MSON. In addition, we would like to purchase a stethoscope for Diko as a gift as she enters nursing school.
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Jocelyn Bennett-Garraway (School Counseling Program / Department of Counseling and Addiction Studies): Material support to provide learning materials and refreshments for parent workshops for the Detroit Public Schools Parent Resource Center. The workshops will address the emotional concerns and issues regarding the mergers and closures of schools within the Detroit Public School District. I will serve as facilitator and consultant, providing resources to address current challenges parents, and children are facing during this challenging time in the Detroit Public Schools. There will be three workshops addressing the issues and needs of elementary, middle, and high school parents and children. It is the hope that the content of these workshops will encourage parents to teach others in their community about dealing with the emotional issues resulting from the DPS school closures and mergers.
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Jocelyn Bennett-Garraway (Graduate Student Counseling Association / Department of Counseling and Addiction): Material support to provide food, resources, and gift materials for the Graduate Student Counseling Association (GCSA) Community Service Days at the Detroit Veterans Affairs Homeless Shelter and the Hospital of Michigan Burn Center children’s unit. This year the GSCA and the Counseling and Addiction Studies faculty, students, and alumni will have three community service days; two at the VA homeless shelter and one at the Burn Center children’s unit. The November 17th community service day at the homeless shelter will focus on meals and resources for the veterans. The December 13th community service day at the burn center will focus on holiday candy bags for the children. The December 15th community service day at the homeless shelter will focus on meals and gift bags for the veterans. The overall goal of all events is to provide counseling services to address mental health and addiction issues, provide holiday social activities to children in burn recovery, and serve meals to homeless veterans. The funds will allow the graduate students the opportunity to engage in fun activities with and provide resource materials to veterans and children. The students will be actively engaged in collecting donations to fill gift bags and provide meals, and will use the Mission Micro Grant funds to purchase small items (ex.travel size snacks, candy, toiletries) to add to the gift bags.
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Libby Balter Blume, Stephen Vogel (Architecture / Masters of Community Development Program): Material support for the two-term Community Development Capstone sequence (MCD 5900 & 5950), which requires Masters of Community Development (MCD) graduate students to engage with neighborhoods and partner organizations to which they are assigned. The final step of the MCD program is the creation of a comprehensive community development project that integrates human, organizational, physical and economic concerns and addresses a real situation in a specific community. The project is developed by a team of students and must be pursued in collaboration with a local municipality, community development corporation (CDC), or other non-profit sponsoring entity. Neither the students nor the community partners, however, can readily afford expenditures of their own money for flyers, refreshments, and materials for on-site meetings to promote community engagement. In 2012-13 there are three teams engaging the following partners: (1) Neighbors Building Brightmoor & Detroit Community Schools; (2) St. Aloysius Parish Outreach – Downtown Detroit; and (3) the Fitzgerald neighborhood between UDM and Marygrove. To be eligible for reimbursement, each capstone team will be required to submit a written application to the MCD Co-Directors that includes information typically required by any funding agency. NOTE: This request is based on last year’s MMG-funded material support for student Community Health Nursing health promotion projects.
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Catherine Corrigan, Andrea Kwasky, Carmen Stokes (CHP / McAuley School of Nursing): Material support for the purchase of refreshments for the MSON Freshman Success Seminars. The Level 1 Committee at The McAuley School of Nursing provides Freshman Success Seminars as a way of supporting and retaining students new to the nursing program. Freshman Success Seminars provide students with valuable information related to their academic and professional nursing career. During the 2012-2013 academic year the Level 1 Committee will host four Freshman Success Seminars (two seminars during the Fall semester and two during the Winter semester). The seminar topics include study skills and communication skills; designing your schedule to optimize your success, meet and greet the faculty, and caring for yourself.
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Ann Eskridge (Language & Cultural Training): Material support for a Language and Cultural Training Conversation Partners ice skating event. UDM has 400 international students; more than half are non-native English speakers. Many are referred by their academic advisors to LCT because they are failing their classes. The reason: poor speaking and listening skills are impeding their academic progress. Many struggle with the rapidity of the language as well as idioms. US classroom culture requires students to speak English in class – some lack the vocabulary and confidence to do so effectively. A few students have been referred to the LCT because their English is incomprehensible. These students need a structured environment where they can improve their listening and speaking skills. Conversation Partners is a program that helps students enhance these abilities while making friends with US students. Students apply and are matched based on their interests. Sessions are mediated by an ESL instructor who has trained the domestic students on how to work with English language learners. Partners are trained to "start" conversations, actively listen, and let the dialogue naturally progress. They meet two hours per week for scheduled conversations that are thematic in nature. The students created a schedule that includes on-campus sessions and off-campus activities, including skating at Campus Martius this winter. Skate rental is $5 per person. It is estimated that 30 domestic and international students will participate.
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Beth Ann Finster, SSJ (University Ministry): Material support to improve the productivity of UDM’s on-campus urban garden and maintain membership in the Detroit Garden Cooperative. The goal is to continue to improve the productivity of the organic vegetable garden located on UDM’s campus. The urban component of the University’s mission is important, and any attempt to attain sustainability, in local food production, emphasizes and enhances our commitment to the city of Detroit.
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Lori Glenn (CHP / McAuley School of Nursing): Material support for the printing of dating violence awareness cards for the TeLL Team to distribute to students, and the purchase of candles for a vigil for victims of domestic violence. The printing of dating violence awareness cards to be distributed to students, and purchase of candles to hold a vigil for victims of domestic violence in conjunction with the on campus Domestic Violence Committee lecture October 23, 2012. The mission of this activity is to increase student, faculty, and staff awareness of the issues related to dating violence and the resources available at the University of Detroit Mercy.
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Carla Groh and Andrea Kwasky (CHP / McAuley School of Nursing): Material support for the purchase of wristbands and refreshments to be distributed in conjunction with a February 2013 Self-Injury Awareness event. This program has two major aims. First, to increase student, faculty and staff awareness that self-injury is a serious health issue in college age students. We will accomplish this aim by hosting a panel discussion on self-injury. The panel would consist of a professional, a person who self-injurers, and a family/friend. The professionals would present the statistics, characteristic of a person who self-injurers, reasons why people self-injurer, and treatment options; the person who self-injurers will share his/her story; and the family/friend of the person who self-injurers will discuss the issue from their perspective. The panel discussion will be presented as a “Chili Tuesday” event (e.g., we will provide the chili, beverages) on Tuesday, February 26. The second aim of this program is to provide educational material on self-injury and to distribute orange wrist bands that say “Self-Injury Awareness” (orange is the designed color for self-injury awareness) at the Fitness Center for 4 hours Wednesday, February 27. We will have brochures available that address self-injury along with a list of services that can help students who self-injure.
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Erin Henze (UDMPU / Department of Psychology): Honorarium support to bring in a speaker from Southwest Counseling Solutions to discuss with Psychology graduate students factors to consider and strategies to use when working with low-income and disadvantaged populations. The graduate students within the School Psychology Program are placed in public schools in the Metro-Detroit area throughout the three-year program. Although the program seeks to arrange field placements for our students that expose them to diverse populations (ethnically, linguistically, socioeconomically,, and geographically), it is not guaranteed that each student will have experiences with each of these populations. Because school psychologists represent a critical link between schools, key services, and children/families, it is imperative that our students have the necessary knowledge and skills to work with a variety of children and families. Although they receive instruction on this throughout their coursework, I would like to supplement this instruction with a speaker from Southwest Counseling solutions who works with low-income populations. Additionally, I would like to explore the idea of a follow-up to the presentation by having students attend a parent training session at Southwest Counseling Solutions if possible. I believe hearing from community-based professionals who can discuss their experiences in this area and present practical strategies for working with diverse children and families will be a great learning experience for our students and possibly establish an ongoing relationship with this organization.
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Gary Hillebran (CES): Material support for the renovation of a new space for the Image of God Crisis Pregnancy Center. In May, 2013, the Image of God Crisis Pregnancy Center, which currently resides in the school building at St. Augustine and St. Monica parish in East Detroit, needs to move to the basement of the parish’s rectory building. The school building is being re-purposed to house a new charter school. This grant money would be used to purchase painting and redecoration supplies to prepare the new location in the rectory for the Image of God center. The UDM Titans for Life pro-life student organization, which supports Image of God through baby shower and bottle drive events, will donate service time to help redecorate this space, using the materials purchased through the grant.
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Sue Homant (McNichols Campus Library): Material support for the purchase of food and gas cards and bus tickets to be distributed by the Pay It Forward fund to UDM students in need of immediate assistance. Pay It Forward is a new fund started by a small group of people concerned with supporting UDM students’ immediate needs of transportation (cars or buses), or food. We each have had personal knowledge of students in need. In fact, this fund was started after an Education student’s car broke down, her husband drove her to campus but between them, they had no money and didn’t know if they had enough gas to make it home. Pay it Forward provides $10 gas cards, (but is looking to up that to $20/$25), enough, hopefully, to get a student home and maybe even back to campus; $10 bus passes, again, to commute back and forth to classes, and $10 Munch Money cards for hungry, broke students. There is no vetting of this need. We conceive of Pay It Forward as an honor system; however, it is anticipated that most students will be referred by faculty, or any UDM employee. There are four locations where students may obtain these cards seven days a week: Campus Ministry, Titan Information Center (Student Life Office), UAS or The Learning Center, and the Research and Information Services Desk in the McNichols Library. Students can receive both transportation and food cards up to a maximum of $100 per semester.
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Jean Kristyniak (Green Team): Material support for the startup of a Reno Hall Green Team recycling program. We would like to model ourselves after the law school and purchase an attractive three-way dispenser to have in a common space for all to participate; students, staff, clients from psychology clinic. Recycling is an ethical issue. We all (meaning staff and students) need to work cooperatively. If there are convenient bins to place trash and recyclables, individuals/students/staff will respond. We can set an example for the general public who enter our building to visit the psychology and counseling clinics, career services, and language department.
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Jill Loewen (School of Dentistry / Department of Patient Management): Material support for the purchase of a Tobacco Use Prevention and Treatment Program table-top display. The School of Dentistry received a grant to develop and launch a Tobacco Use Prevention and Treatment Program in the Fall of 2002. I was hired to coordinate the program. The funds received allowed for the purchase of needed supplies and materials to create the program and provide coverage to run the program for the first year. Third- and fourth-year dental students, second-year dental hygiene students, and our Periodontal, Advanced Education in General Dentistry, and Accelerated Dental Program Residents are provided with training by me and have case study assignments that are required. We provide a tobacco dependency treatment service for our dental patients who use tobacco and that would like help quitting. So far, just under 500 patients have received this service. When the grant funds ended, the dental school decided to keep the program but funding could only support the program on a part-time basis (I also coordinate our Quality Improvement Program). I continued in the role of coordinator since then and am proud of the program we have greatly improved since that time. I do lots of promotion regarding tobacco use prevention and treatment in various venues, to provide exhibits and displays for patients, students and other health care professionals. To encourage other health professionals for take a more active role in helping their patients stop tobacco use and to promote a tobacco free lifestyle to both patients and our students is an important part of my role. I have a display I have used since 2002 that is in desperate need of replacement. I would use the funds for purchase of a new display board.
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Kathy Marshall and Andrea Kwasky (CHP / McAuley School of Nursing): Material support for the purchase of stress-relief items to use during stress management presentations. Multiple times a year we speak on a voluntary basis to a number of community groups throughout Metro Detroit and Ann Arbor on the topic of stress and stress management. We discuss stress and mental health issues via a power point and interactive group discussions. In addition we provide a basket of simple stress relieving items (calming lotion, squeeze balls, hard candy etc.) We have included in the basket our one “stress man.” He has attracted a great deal of attention and provided a lot of laughs for the audience as he was passed around. A concept in our discussion on mental health and stress is keeping a healthy perspective and attitude during stressful events and times. The stress man is used as a concrete example and reminder, as when he is squeezed he exclaims “relax, calm down now, don’t stress, take it easy”. We would like to continue to use the stress man in our community engagement activity as an effective reminder of our mental health promotion message. It is cost prohibitive to provide each attendee with a stress man, but we would like to give a token few out at each speaking engagement.
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David Nantais (University Ministry): Material support of the “Discover the D” Program trips for UDM students. “Discover the D” (DtD) is a new program University Ministry is offering to students this year. It is part of a larger effort created by our office called “Faith in the City.” DtD is a monthly tour for UDM students (primarily for, but not limited to, campus residents) where we explore a different Detroit neighborhood. So far we have traveled to Eastern Market, Belle Isle, Corktown (and played ball on the old Tiger Stadium park), and Southwest Detroit. Plans for Semester II include a trip to the Motown museum, Dearborn (and the Arab-American Museum) and the Dequindre Cut. The cost of this program is relatively low—the primary expenses are gas and food—we provide lunch or dinner to the students so they can experience a variety of ethnic foods at restaurants in the city. UDM is located in Detroit and the school cares about the city of Detroit, but students do not often have opportunities to explore the city outside of the Six Mile and Livernois area. There are a number of great neighborhoods in Detroit and by taking UDM students to these areas and showing them how vital and fun these parts of the city are, it encourages students to explore on their own and to be less afraid of the urban environment. Students will hopefully be proud that their school is located in Detroit and will take advantage of the many amenities the city has to offer.
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Patricia Rouen and Elizabeth Nagle (CHP / McAuley School of Nursing): Material support to sponsor a Healthy Cooking class for the uninsured, low-income women who participate in the McAuley Health Center WiseWoman Program. This program provides screening, education, and lifestyle counseling services to reduce women’s risk for cardiovascular disease. We focus on stress management, exercise and diet. As most of our women are low income, we are challenged to help them find ways to make healthy meals on very tight budgets. We have made contact with Gleaners Food Bank to provide a cooking class that includes tips on stretching a food budget to make healthy meals. The class will include a cooking demonstration and preparation of a meal that the women will enjoy during the class. As part of the class, Gleaners will also provide the women with the food and materials to recreate that meal for their family.
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Mitzi Saunders (CHP): Material support for the purchase of refreshments for a UDM-hosted meeting of the Michigan-Clinical Nurse Specialist (MI-CNS) organization. The MI-CNS is a relatively new professional nursing group in Michigan. The role of the CNS is still not very wide spread in this state as it is in other states across the country. We do have a successful CNS program here at UDM that I started in 2007. Part of its success is that it is all on-line and a great majority of our students are out-of-state where the CNS role is better known and widely used. Our program has grown our alumnae population of CNSs over the years in Michigan and has contributed to health care organizations nation-wide by developing students in this unique role. CNSs are leaders who influence health care delivery and a vital link to enhancing safety and quality in nursing practice. The best hospitals in the U.S. employ CNSs. Michigan, unfortunately, has one of the lowest populations of CNSs and I am working to change this statistic. Enhancing participation in our own state CNS organization helps us to articulate who we are and how we can affect patient care outcomes. The purpose of our meetings is to discuss current issues as a group and to share knowledge to improve health care outcomes. By hosting a meeting at UDM, and most likely in the Maureen Faye Center of the The McAuley School of Nursing, we assist in bringing together CNSs in the Detroit area as well as the state at large.
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Constance Schmidt and Greg Grabowski (Physician Assistance Studies Program / Department of Biology): Material support for a Gesu student winter health event conducted by UDM’s Pre-Physicians Assistance student club. The Pre-PA club is a new organization started in Fall 2012 that is dedicated to undergraduate students who are looking for information and opportunities relevant to their application and acceptance into an accredited PA program. One of the requirements for acceptance is experience in healthcare and service learning. The Pre-PA club would like to conduct an informational day with Gesu students, educating them on how to wash their hands and avoid spreading germs in order to keep themselves, their families and their teachers healthy this fall/winter cold and flu season. This initiative was successfully implemented last year on a larger scale by the graduate PA students funded by a Ford grant. We have already been in contact with Gesu and they are receptive to the opportunity. Students will be educated on what causes a cold/flu; how you get a cold/flu; proper hand washing techniques, and other methods of avoidance such as covering your mouth, and using a tissue. We would like to provide the students with a small bottle of antibacterial gel and a packet of tissue as a reinforcement of these techniques.
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Constance Schmidt and Sharon Moser (Physician Assistance Studies Program): Material support for a recruitment and education “Students of the CHP” video, to be created collaboratively by Nursing, Physician Assistant, Health Service Administration, and Communications Studies students. The production of this video is to serve a dual purpose: education and information. The video will highlight the rules, responsibilities and education of each of the respective disciplines in the CHP as well as provide information about these career paths. The video will also highlight what types of service learning opportunities are available for students pursuing a healthcare education and will document the numerous ways these students are involved in the community including collecting donations, volunteering time to World Medical Relief and other UDM sanctioned activities such as Safety Street. We would like to post the video on the CHP website for review by interested students pursuing a UDM education and also use it as a recruitment and education tool for High School students interested in the programs offered at UDM.
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Shirley Sherrick-Escamilla (McAuley School of Nursing): Material support for The McAuley School of Nursing “Blessing of Hands” student ceremonies. In the spirit of the Sisters of Mercy and the Jesuits, the McAuley School of Nursing - building on the Celebrate Spirit Theme of Healing Hands - would like to continue this with a “Blessing of Hands” ceremony for the new sophomore and second degree option nursing students as they have completed skills lab and are going into the acute hospital setting for the first time. The ceremony will take place on the last day of skills here in the CHP 207. We plan on inviting both Dr. Pacini and Dr. Baiardi. Dr. Pacini will be asked to repeat her message from Celebrate Spirit and Dr. Baiardi will do the blessing of the hands. We plan on buying oil for the hands as a symbol of the blessing and having cookies and punch for after the brief ceremony. We have saved the “Healing Hand’s” Posters from Celebrate Spirit and will reuse them for this ceremony.
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Karen Springsteen (UDM Writing Center): Material support for travel to the annual Conference on College Composition and Communication to present on community literacy work with veterans' writing groups. I have been invited to speak at the 64th annual Conference on College Composition and Communication, which will take place March 13-16, 2013 in Las Vegas, NV. I will be presenting on my community literacy work with veterans' writing groups as part of a panel titled Productive Tensions: Ideological Conflict and the "Next Generation" of Support for Veterans. The working title of my presentation is “Veterans Writing and Civilian Witnessing.” My presentation will allow me to detail how rhetorics of witnessing and listening allowed the explicitly anti-war origin of the writing group I have facilitated (as part of the national Warrior Writers project) to be cast in such a way as to draw in student-veterans and veteran community members who embody a wide range of ideological standpoints. Gathered together in writing, veterans have revealed that stringent critique of war and military culture is not incompatible with pride in military identity or commitment to post-war peace and reconciliation. Thus, witnessing and listening to veterans’ writing may complicate civilian notions of a pro-vet/anti-war dichotomy and reduce the likelihood that our attempts to connect with veterans will stall or backfire on ideological grounds. Because they are effective in these ways, rhetorics of witnessing and listening may be of interest to anyone who works with veterans on campus or within community literacy contexts in Detroit.
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Mary Tracy-Bee (Department of Biology): Material support for bus transportation of Detroit Cristo Rey High School students to UDM campus. In collaboration with UDM Physician Assistant students, we have invited a unique group of high school students from Cristo Rey to the campus. Detroit Cristo Rey High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school located in Southwestern Detroit, Michigan. The school formed in August, 2008 with 100 students in its initial freshman class. It operates within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit and is sponsored by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Basilian Fathers. The students will reinforce their understanding of anatomy as they visit the anatomy lab, view the simulation labs housed in the nursing college, view a physiology demo at the Biology department, and have an opportunity to meet with college athletes on a visit to Callihan Hall. Students in this group represent the future for their families. Many are the first to attend school past the 8th grade and many will be the first high school graduate in their family. With some of our UDM team members having prior experience tutoring several of these young people and serving at Cristo Rey high school, it is apparent the Cristo Rey students have the aptitude for college and a strong desire to learn. Exposure of the students to a graduate anatomy laboratory, university students, and high-level demonstrations will nurture their passion for learning and motivate them to realize their potential to eventually becoming university students.
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Colleen Trombly and Chantal Letts (McAuley Health Center): Material support to provide several McAuley Health Center patient families with a healthy holiday meal. Our project would give five needy families from our clinic the opportunity to receive a healthy nutritious holiday meal. Educational information on healthy eating as a necessity would also be included in their meal basket. The clinic would be responsible for using resources such as community partners and couponing to ensure the effectiveness of each fifty dollars dispersed per family. In a community that lacks funds, we are trying to not only provide for the community but educate them in the process. As a clinic that the community looks to for help we hope to provide them by meeting basic needs and influencing future lifestyles. Many statistics show people in poverty do not always consciously choose bad decision but are rather uninformed of positive beneficial ones, such as health eating. Through meeting the needs of the community we will build a stronger relationship which will be positive when patients are more receptive to educational information we provide.
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Coleen Trombly and Tiffanie Dobbins (McAuley Health Center): Material support for a “Let’s Get Healthy” project to market the McAuley Health Center’s Schulze Academy location. Due to the low patient volume and visibility at McAuley Health Center’s Schulze Academy location, the implementation of a marketing project will assist to combat these inefficiencies. This marketing project, “Let’s Get Healthy”, will promote the importance of primary care and promote preventive services. It will market to parents, informing them of this convenient location that is a “one-stop shop” for the entire family. A packet will be sent home with students that will include a flyer of information about McAuley Health Center (MHC) and an authorization form that will allow MHC staff to treat a student for emergency situations and provide much needed primary/preventive care. The flyer will contain information about the services provided at MHC, by whom, the insurances accepted, contact information, etc. To make this initiative exciting for the student population, students will be competing with other grade levels to turn in the most authorization slips. For example, the kindergarten classes will be split in half to compete against one another, first graders will be competing against second graders, and third graders will be competing with fourth graders and so on. There will be a total of five winning grades. The winning classes will be rewarded with pizza and water for their participation in returning of the authorization forms. The “Let’s Get Healthy” initiative will also create a bulletin board at the school outside of the clinic with health tips and health information in addition to being presented at parent-teacher conferences to inform parents of its location on-site at Schulze Academy.
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Carol Weisfeld and Sarah Frost (Department of Psychology): Material support for the design and printing of campus posters addressing the issue of miscommunication between males and females. Men misinterpret friendliness as sexual interest whereas women misunderstand men’s sexual interest as friendship. We would like to create a poster to depict some situations in which miscommunication could arise between males and females when it comes to sexual interest. The poster would encourage a clearer understanding of when a female’s non-direct answer means “no.” The poster will be designed in collaboration with a cartoonist and will be posted in buildings on campus. Furthermore, Residence Hall Directors will incorporate this poster into a dorm activity to help raise awareness. This poster will raise awareness for women that their communication style should be more direct and inform men that they need to pay attention and interpret what the woman is saying, even if it is a rejection.
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Kathleen Zimmerman-Oster (Institute for Leadership and Service):

  1. Material support for the Emerging Leaders Program student workshops. Emerging Leaders Program—Leading for Mission: Students pursuing a Leadership Pin/Medallion will participate in a series of workshops that include the nine components of the UDM adaptation of the Social Change Model (Astin & Astin, 1996) to help them better understand that “leadership” and “service” are inextricably linked at UDM. Last year, undergraduate students created and presented a workshop on the Introduction to the UDM Social Change Model.  In addition, graduate students created modules for each of the nine leadership values. However, having content provided by service learning agency representatives and service recipients will have broader impact than having workshops presented by ILS Co-Directors. These workshops will focus on encouraging Emerging Leaders to engage in servant leadership and social change to serve the mission of UDM.  In November, the first two “Leadership Empowerment Sessions” will be offered by Institute staff on 1) Self Awareness/Reflection and on 2) Character/Integrity. The workshops proposed with these funds will be promoted to all students and presented in the Spring; coinciding with preparations for Alternative Spring Break and preparation of next year’s PTV leaders. This initiative is driven by the mission of the Institute which states: The University of Detroit Mercy’s Institute for Leadership and Service provides opportunities for all members of the UDM community to engage in social change for the common good. The Institute upholds the ideals of our founders who believe in the promotion of justice and compassionate service to those in need as we are: Transforming Lives to Lead and Serve.
  2. Material support for the Emerging Leaders Program marketing materials. We realize that in order to grow our Emerging Leaders Program, we must be innovative and eye-catching: it is time for new marketing! Using the talents of our students and faculty, we are already creating a new flyer and brochure to market our program to students on campus. The problem that we are having is coming up with the funding to actually print the flyers and to print them on something other than the typical letter size paper. The Emerging Leaders Program has only been around for three years, but has attracted over 200 UDM student leaders. We want to continue to grow and reach every student, but find it hard to speak to every student on campus. We are all so busy and having marketing that speaks for us is essential. There are so many students on our campus that do not even know about the Leadership Pin, Medallion, or Minor. It is a disadvantage to us and to these students who are already being great servant leaders in our community and are not getting the recognition that they deserve and that is available to them.
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