Breaking the Barriers of ‘Voluntourism’: A Workshop to Help Students Volunteer-teach Abroad

Clara Cullen

BS ’17, International Studies

For over 10 years, The Quito Project (TQP) has collaborated with communities in Ecuador to meet the ever-changing needs of Quito’s urban poor. Each summer, TQP partners with a local university to run an educational program for 60 students, and throughout the year we recruit undergraduates from U-M to serve as tutors. Despite the successes of our program, we recognize that very few of our tutors possess formal backgrounds in education and feel that our organization would benefit from the guidance of faculty with more experience in international education. For this reason, we propose a faculty-led workshop on community-engaged education to prepare U-M students to be more effective teachers and ambassadorial figures of U-M during their time abroad. We envision this workshop as an interactive learning experience open to any student traveling abroad for the purpose of community-engaged education. Ultimately, we recognize that students’ actions abroad reflect upon our university and its values, and hope this project will have a positive, far-reaching impact for both our university’s international reputation and the communities in every corner of the world where U-M students are engaged in international education.

Library Mentor: Gabriel Duque

How Will Shared-Use Mobility Impact Low-Income Communities in Detroit?

Tarlise Townsend

PhD & MPP ’21, Department of Health Management and Policy (PhD) & Ford School of Public Policy

Many communities in Detroit lack access to affordable, safe, and reliable transportation. Yet without adequate transportation, an individual is less able to arrive at work or school on time, shop at grocery stores that supply healthy foods, use social services and programs, access health care, and maintain social connections. The emergence of ridesharing and car-sharing services like Uber and ZipCar has created alternative modes of transportation for some groups. However, preliminary research by our team of Dow Fellows and public health PhD students has found that these new models (together termed “shared-use mobility”) may actually reinforce the challenges faced by already disadvantaged communities. Building on this initial, more informal investigation, we hope to conduct rigorous qualitative research examining three unstudied but important questions regarding mobility among underserved communities in Detroit. (1) In what ways is shared-use mobility creating opportunities and/or new barriers to mobility? (2) How do these opportunities and barriers vary by subgroup (age, racial and ethnic identity, gender, and so on)? (3) What policies or programs have potential to overcome any identified barriers? Our project is built on the premise that shared-use mobility could disparately impact more versus less advantaged communities, and that—because of their rapid emergence in recent years—these issues have received insufficient attention from researchers, government, and industry. We aim to help fill this gap.

Library Mentors: Darlene Nichols and Judy Smith

Jejueo Talking Dictionary: A collaborative online database for language revitalization

Moira Saltzman

PhD ’20, Linguistics

Talking dictionaries are online tools for language acquisition and revitalization, which feature audio and video materials along with words and definitions. Jejueo is a critically endangered language spoken by 5,000-10,000 people on Jeju Island, South Korea, and in a diasporic enclave in Osaka, Japan. Under contact pressure from Korean, Jejueo has undergone rapid attrition (Kang 2005, Kang 2007), and most fluent speakers of Jejueo are now over 75 years old (UNESCO 2010). The present situation in Jeju is one of language shift, where fewer than 10,000 people out of a population of 600,000 are fluent in Jejueo, and Jejueo rapidly shifting structurally to Korean (Kang 2005). The Jejueo Talking Dictionary features audio clips of Jejueo words, and video clips of natural language use to allow Jejueo learners to see each word within the context of its cultural and historical significance, as well as in Jejueo grammatical constructions. The dictionary compiles existing annotated video corpora of Jejueo songs, conversational genres and regional mythology (Kim, Yang, Rositano, Tran) into a multimedia database, supplemented by original annotated video recordings. Words and definitions are accompanied by audio files of their pronunciation and occasional photos, in the case of items native to Jeju. The audio and video data is tagged in Jejueo, Korean, Japanese and English so that users may search or browse the dictionary in any of these languages. Our intention for the Jejueo Talking Dictionary is to create a language revitalization tool suited to the needs of diverse user groups, such as elder speakers within the community, young semi-speakers in schools, and the international scientific community.

Library Mentors: Yunah Sung and Jennifer Nason-Davis

Understanding the Development of Multicultural Identities

Shima Sadaghiyani

BA ’19, Psychology

Culture is often considered in psychology as a monolithic construct, but that does not accurately represent the ways multicultural individuals experience their cultural identities. Multicultural individuals, as I define them for this project, include biracial individuals, migrants, and those holding hyphenated identities (i.e. Muslim-Americans). Beyond a simple measurement of the degree to which one identifies with each cultural group, we are interested in the relationship between these multiple identities. In this project, we seek to shed light on some factors that might contribute to an individual’s sense of Bicultural Identity Integration. Photovoice methodology (https://photovoice.org/) will allow us to achieve our research goals while putting power into the hands of the participants. After our participants have taken their photographs and created captions, we will have them engage in debriefing focus groups where they will have a chance to discuss their photographs. The photographs, captions, and the focus group discussions will be coded to identify common themes that may arise for participants, answering our research questions. These photos will be displayed in the form of an exhibit to help educate the public, and based on the findings and the directives of the community group, we will write a report for policy makers, university officials, or some other institution of power, informing them of our results and encouraging social change in a way that our participants suggest.

Library Mentor: Rebecca Price

BLUElab India Low-Smoke Stove Mass Implementation Project

Rachel Ross

BSE ’17, Biomedical Engineering

BLUElab’s purpose is to co-design sustainable technology in Gujarat, India to improve quality of life. We work with our partner community in Dolatpura to understand problems community members face daily. Our team brings together a diverse group of students: engineers, scientists, artists, and business leaders. Furthermore, we collaborate with faculty along with external experts on the topic of human-centered design. Lastly, we collaborate with the SETCO Foundation in India to better understand Indian culture and the community we work with. Our current project is expanding our low-smoke stove into two communities. There are very distinct qualities to our stove design and implementation plan. Our stove design maintains the mud stove base women are already accustomed to resulting in high acceptance of our stove. Likewise, our stove cost is extremely low compared to alternatives. Our design features a ceramic pipe that diverts smoke away from the user, ensuring more complete fuel combustion that results in safer, colorless smoke. Through reducing volatile organic compound emissions by 50%, our stove prevents respiratory health problems while reducing symptoms of existing conditions. Furthermore, our implementation plan empowers women. Our plan relies on our first woman stove builder training women of other communities about the stove’s technical aspects. Next, the trained women will be able to bring the design into their communities. Through stove building, women will be entrepreneurs and gain some income independence and power within their households. For more information, please visit: https://bluelabindia.wordpress.com/.

Library Mentor: Preet Rana

Unpacking the Spice: Understanding Reproductive Health in Grenada

Sade Richardson

MPH/MSW’18, Health Behavior and Health Education & Management of Human Services

According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Women’s sexual and reproductive health is related to multiple human rights, including the right to life, the right to be free from torture, the right to health, the right to privacy, the right to education, and the prohibition of discrimination.” For this project, I will be working with the Grenada Planned Parenthood Association and will be developing a research protocol for the National Sexual and Reproductive Health Survey, an estimated budget to execute the national survey, and by extension, improve the human rights of women through learning more about their reproductive health needs. This survey has implications on the services provided by the agency and on policy for the country as it is the first survey of its kind in Grenada. This project will assist the organization with creating the steps for administering a National Sexual and Reproductive Health Survey and by extension, improve the human rights of women through learning more about their reproductive health needs. I believe that implementing this survey can improve social justice as it provides a voice for women and an opportunity for women to take control of how their sexual and reproductive health is perceived. Furthermore, expansion of services by the agency will result in better health outcomes for the community regardless of socioeconomic status.

Library Mentor: Kate Saylor

Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Overseas 2017

Arthi Nadhan

BSE ’19, Chemical Engineering

The purpose of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Overseas program is to provide participants and the general SWE community the opportunity to develop global awareness through an international Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics(STEM) Outreach program. We believe that outreach events are key to enhancing our organization’s mission as they provide a platform for individuals of all ages to realize their potential. Through programs like this one, we are able to bring out passion for science and engineering hidden in children of the next generation. We bring together a diverse community in which individuals can express themselves and their interests regardless of gender, ethnicity, and economic background. We hope to achieve this by conducting our SWE Overseas program in India, because the Indian STEM education system is very different from our own and provides a challenging environment to adapt alternative teaching methods. India houses a very diverse environment, and is therefore an ideal location to help develop global awareness and open-mindedness in our participants. Currently, we are building the SWE Overseas STEM Outreach Camp in Bharat Children’s Academy (BCA) in Walchandnagar, Maharashtra, India. We plan to reach out to organizations like Teach for India, and conduct workshops for underprivileged children, and teachers in the Indian community. We hope that we can extend our impact to such communities, while providing our participants an expanded cultural sampling of the diverse nation. We also plan to expand cultural awareness of our participants, our SWE section, and the University by travelling to different parts of India and sharing our experiences through social media and informational meetings.

Library Mentor: Jeff Martin

Intelligent Ground Vehicle Team 2017 – First Year Development

Adarash Mishra

BSE ’19, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science & Electrical & Computer Engineering

 

We are a group of individuals who see autonomous robotics as an exciting new field with endless opportunity to solve many problems we face as a civilization. As Michigan Wolverines, we have the determination, skills, tools, and the calling to innovate robotic systems and impact the world around us. We started this team to produce a competition ready robot for the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition in 2018 at Oakland University. Ultimately, our vision is a premier robotics team at U-M which fields teams in various competitions but also acts as a catalyst and hub by spinning out entrepreneurial and social ventures; a place where anyone regardless of background can come join the robotics family. We are fundraising to acquire all the components needed to complete our prototype robot. With the money you supply us, we plan to finish our first robot, perform testing and optimization, and finally send it out for educational outreach activities and competition. In addition to the competition, we want to engage and educate our campus and local community about autonomous systems. Outreach efforts will include demo days with hands-on sessions where young students in the local area schools can learn and interact with our vehicle and get exposed to STEM fields early on! This will be a great opportunity to show everyone the relevance of robotics in today’s world and to help build excitement for this field. Robotics is a multidisciplinary field, and we realize that our team must be multidisciplinary too. We are pursuing collaborative partnerships with the School of Information, Center for Entrepreneurship, Stamps School of Art & Design, and Robotics Institute. We are also talking with existing robotic teams UM:Autonomy and Michigan Autonomous Aerial Vehicles to work towards our vision of a premier competitive robotics team at Michigan.

Library Mentor: Paul Grochowski

We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884–1915 by Jackie Sibblies Drury

Matthew Kunkel

BFA ’17, Theatre & Drama

“We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884–1915,” will be the senior thesis assignment for Matt Kunkel as he prepares to graduate the University of Michigan’s Department of Theatre and Drama. The project will be a full scale production of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s 2012 piece, “We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884–1915,” which is about 6 actors coming together to tell the largely forgotten Herero and Namaqua genocide which took place in Namibia between 1904 and 1907 when the region was a German colony, after Germany confiscated tribal lands and the Herero people rebelled. The retribution over four years by German soldiers resulted in more than 65,000 deaths. The play deals with the enormity of this story by introducing it through the actors of a “presentation” which is intended to tell the story, and shows how the various players respond to the gruesome facts during first rehearsal. This will be a full scale production utilizing a full team of student designers and performers across various disciplines at the University of Michigan to present this very relevant and topical piece.

Library Mentor: Loyd Mbabu

What We Carried: A Glimpse into the Refugee Crisis

Nicole Khamis

BA ’17, International Relations

Our capstone event of the Michigan Refugee Assistance Program, “What We Carried: A Glimpse into the Refugee Crisis,” advocates for diversity and inclusion by giving members of the University of Michigan community the opportunity to directly hear from former refugees as they share their moving stories about resettling in the United States. We seek not only to raise awareness about this issue through educational events, but also work to pair students with incoming refugees through a partnership with Jewish Family Services, a local resettlement agency, and the Detroit Mayor’s Office. Our club relies on human interaction to break down stereotypes and the power of education to equip our campus community with the necessary tools to be engaged citizens in this unprecedented issue. To further this interaction, our capstone event will be a panel discussion. We will host recently resettled refugees and professionals within the refugee sector who will each speak about their involvement in the current crisis. Freelance photographer Jim Lommasson will also be joining us at this event, where he will be presenting his exhibit “What We Carried,” which captures stories of displacement, loss, and preservation of identity by people who have fled their homes to seek asylum. Through this event, we hope to humanize refugees by allowing them to reclaim their own narratives by allowing them space to speak about their stories of displacement. This is unique in that we are the first student club to host recently arrived refugees, and allow students to directly engage with those most deeply affected.

Library Mentor: Chuck Ransom