National Office Blog

Nourish International is committed to continuing to improve our extensive student leadership curriculum. In keeping with this, the National Office is excited to announce that alumni will be serving as mentors to current student leaders at the Summer Institute for the first time ever.

Alumni will attend Summer Institute workshops alongside students and will be able to provide instant feedback on ideas for ventures, projects, leadership, and more. This presents a unique chance for students to receive advice from past students who have gone through the same challenges they currently face as campus leaders. This also presents an opportunity for alumni to stay connected to and give back to Nourish.

The following alumni will be serving as mentors at the Summer Institute:

• Alex Ahearn: former chapter leader at Duke University
• Logan Couce: former NINO staff member and UNC chapter alumnus
• James Dillard: former NINO staff member and UNC chapter alumnus
• Alison Dorsey: Duke chapter alumnus and Argentina project participant
• Joel Thomas: first executive director of Nourish and UNC chapter alumnus
• Bryon Zandt: former NINO staff member and UNC chapter alumnus

We are excited to welcome these esteemed alumni to the Summer Institute!

Some of the schools in Urubamba, Peru, pose significant safety threats to students. Collapsing walls and roofs would not only disrupt the educational environment, they could also harm students and teachers while they are engaged in learning. Additionally, many of the students' diets are lacking proper nutrition, making it difficult for them to pay attention and learn to their maximum capacity.

This summer, the University of Texas at Austin and Duke University Nourish chapters are repairing dilapidated infrastructure and improving the educational environment at two schools in Urubamba. School walls and roofs are being rebuilt, and the project team is also creating vegetable gardens to improve the academic experience for students physically and nutritionally.

“In my opinion, providing proper education is the cornerstone to bringing communities out of poverty, for you give people the tools to help themselves,” says project leader John McCreary of UT-Austin.

The project team is partnering with local nonprofit Nexos Voluntarios. NeVo works to support social development in Peru through projects pertaining to public health, education, business, human rights, and the environment. “Because NeVo is located in the same communities that it works to help, it is very well in touch with the needs of these communities,” says McCreary.

The team is already hard at work in Peru and blogging almost daily about their experiences, including details of sight-seeing trips, lessons in high-altitude baking, and heart-touching anecdotes about the children they encounter at the project sites.

At the end of the trip, McCreary will have the opportunity to fly to the Chipaota community in Peru, where he led a project last summer. “I look forward to seeing the fruits of our efforts and the impact we made on the community,” he says.

Bridging the gap between students and impoverished communities is key here at Nourish. Really, we like to build bridges anywhere we can, because there are always connections to be made. So often it seems that alumni feel distant from the current student body at their school; too distant in fact, that they are unable to take advantage of opportunities to get involved. We want to change that. At Nourish, the options for involvement are endless. We think alumni have a great chance to support their alma mater by supporting the Nourish chapter on their campus. After all, these students are doing amazing things. We are showcasing Duke's achievements coming up on December 2^nd at 6:00 pm right in the heart of Duke's campus at the Perkin's Library. We've invited all of the local Duke alumni to come out and hear what these awesome Nourish students have been doing. Whether they want to mentor, volunteer or donate, we're just excited to get them on board. Of course, anyone in the public is welcome; the more the merrier! If you want more information, e-mail Sara at sara.storms@nourishinternational.org. Hopefully we'll see you there!

Hey Everyone-

We just set up blogs for the five projects that we have for this summer! This past spring has been an amazing one for Nourish and we are thrilled to continue the trend with these summer projects. 2008 brings a wide mix of themes and locations, from clean water in Peru to education in Uganda to food security in Honduras. All of these projects are the result of collaboration between Nourish students and a non-profit partner organization already working in the destination community.

Though the projects haven't started yet, some of the teams have begun writing on their blogs. It makes for an incredibly interesting read that has just begun to unfold. Go ahead and take a look at what we have so far--and don't forget to keep reading throughout the summer!

• Brazil - Palmamix (Musical Instrument Factory)
  led by students from Duke University
• Honduras - Biodiversity and Food Security
  led by students from UNC
• Mexico - Community Learning Center
  led by students from UNC
• Peru - Sustainable Clean Water Systems
  led by students from UNC
• Uganda - Educational Program Additions
  led by students from the University of Michigan

Oh, and and one last thing: if you have any questions and comments for the students on these projects, or just really like hearing about their experiences, I encourage you to create an account and leave a comment on their blogs. Really, they would love to hear from you!