Presenter | Presentation | About the Presenter |
Amy Holway | Opportunities to serve internationally through ASU (PPT, 4 MB) |
Appalachian & the Community Together (ACT) is Appalachian State University's clearinghouse for community service, service-learning, and community-based research opportunities within the NC High Country area, as well as across the state, nation, and world. We offer diverse opportunities for individuals and student groups to get involved in human services and environmental advocacy, as well as assist faculty members and community partners with integrating community service projects into their academic courses and local agencies. |
Jesse Pipes | World Camp: Empowerment to Make a Difference (PPT, 8 MB) |
World Camp is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization and registered non-governmental organization in Malawi. World Camp began as the effort of a group of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students to combat the spread of HIV in Malawi - one of the most heavily affected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Today World Camp is an international non-governmental organization focused on addressing urgent problems in rural communities in Malawi. We believe in people and in the power and importance of education to bring about improvements. Our mission is to develop simple solutions to the complex problems of poverty and disease. |
Isabel Richardson | Working with the poor of Chennai, India: Our story (PPT, 3 MB) |  Ms. Isabel Richardson is the Executive Secretary of the Madras Christian Counsel of Social Service (MCCSS) in Chennai, India and will be the keynote speaker of the Global Opportunities Conference.Ms. Richardson has seventeen years of professional experience in social work primarily among women and in community development. She has worked tirelessly for women’s and children’s issues in India, through networking, women’s development, program coordination, lobbying and working directly with children and youth. She is active in addressing important human rights issues such as human trafficking, sexual harassment, child abuse and violence against women. She is currently overseeing projects in Chennai, India focused on women in development, STI/HIV/AIDS intervention among slum dwellers and prevention of trafficking in women and children. MCCSS runs a night shelter for street children and a family counseling center. Isabel received the Loyola College Best Social Worker Award in recognition of her achievements. She serves as a board member of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance in Geneva and is the president of the National Christian Council of Churches in India. Ms. Richardson completed an M.A. in Social Work, P.G. Diploma in Public Relations, P.G. Diploma in Guidance & Counseling, L.Th in Counseling from St. John’s College, Nottingham , UK. Ms. Richardson will be accompanied by S. Anand, one of the young former rag-pickers that her organization has helped. |
Whitney Howard and Ethan Herman | Malawi: Mchezi Maize Mill Project (PPT, 63 MB) |
Panelists:
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Michael Pournaras and Javier Medrano | Entrepreneurship and Positive Impact in Vietnam (PPT, 3 MB) |  During their time in Vietnam students visited Streets International, a social enterprise with the goal of teaching disadvantaged youth the skills they need for carrers in the hospitality sector. Students also worked with Reaching Out, a social enterprise with the goal of employing disabled Vietnamese. The panel will discuss the needs that both ventures fill in their communities.Panelists:
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Anne Traister and Laura Martin
| Students serve in Uganda (PPT, 6 MB) |
Panelists: Anne Traister, Elementary Education |
Dillon Thilo and Bennett Daley | Sixteen WCOB students spent spring break in the Amazon studying economic development and sustainability. Activities ranged from planting Açaí trees in native communities, to studying the creation and exchange of carbon credits. | |
Matt Ellingson | Since 1997 Matt Ellingson has worked in humanitarian assistance in countries throughout Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. During this time he has served in various roles for three separate organizations including logistics, project management and program administration. Matt has worked with Samaritan's Purse since 1999 and served as the Regional Director for Asia from 2002 to 2004. From 2005 to 2007 he worked for Food for the Hungry as the Director of Relief. He recently served as Samaritan's Purse Country Director for Haiti shortly after the devastating earthquake in 2010. Matt currently serves as the Director of Program Development. He has participated in numerous grant writing efforts as writer, editor assessment officer and advisor. He has been trained in Samaritan's Purse's DART emergency relief approaches and has responded to emergencies on behalf of Impact Teams International, Samaritan's Purse or Food for the Hungry for over 14 years. He has been involved in programming in North Korea and has made numerous trips there. Matt graduated with a B.A. from Trinity Western University in International Studies/Political Science and has an M.A. in Conflict Transformation and Analysis from Eastern Mennonite University with a focus on aid in contexts of conflict. Matt is married and has two children. They currently reside in Boone. | |
Jessica and Erin Mitchell | Dr. Erin Mitchell is originally from Texas and graduated from Texas A&M University with both a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and a Master of Business Administration degree. He is the co-founder and President of Stand as One, Inc. He has over 10 years of experience working in Latin American countries as part of medical teams assisting the impoverished areas of the region and as missionary with his wife, Jessica, in Honduras where they started a sustainable children's home and leadership development center for youth. Jessica is a Medical Doctor by training and has a Master's Degree in Public Health. She is co-founder of Stand as One Inc. She was born in Costa Rica and raised part of her life in Nicaragua. She has established a unique worldview due to her mother being a journalist specializing in international affairs for the United Nations, thereby moving and experiencing multiple cultures, languages and ideologies. This has afforded her a broad lens with which to view the world and understand different cultures. She has over 12 years of experience working in community development, sustainability and public health programs. Together, they are actively involved in projects whose purpose is the restoration of families, empowering women and the fight against human trafficking. They speak at conferences, universities and different communities of faith nationally and internationally bringing awareness and activation about issues related to setting the captives free from human trafficking. Stand as One is a 501(c )(3) organization that partners with "at risk" communities in Latin America to intervene on behalf of men, women and children who are trapped in sexual exploitation and prostitution. We accomplish this by providing discipleship, education, vocational training, and employment opportunities that encourage and empower their transformation. | |
Chris Guttenberg | Please attend this year's Global Opportunities Conference to hear Chris Guttenberg share first-hand information about Peace Corps and his experience volunteering in the Solomon Islands. Peace Corps service is a life-defining leadership experience. Since 1961, the Peace Corps has shared with the world America's most precious resource – its people. Volunteers serve in 76 countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico, South America, Europe, the Pacific Islands and the Middle East. Peace Corps Volunteers live, learn, and work with a community overseas for 27 months, providing technical assistance in six program areas: education, youth and community development, health, business and information and communications technology, agriculture, and environment. | |
Steven Jesseph | Steve Jesseph, President and Chief Executive Officer with WRAP, will be speaking on how students can make themselves marketable for an international career. WRAP certifies factories to a 12-point code of conduct covering legal, labor, environmental, security and customs compliance areas for labor-intensive consumer products manufacturing. |
Amy Holway is a graduate assistant in the ACT office and a former participant in two international service-learning experiences. She spent three weeks in South Africa studying the Apartheid in comparison with the Civil Rights Movement, and participating in service projects at local schools. She spent two weeks in Bolivia learning about leadership for social change, living with local families and volunteering at Manos con Libertad ("hands of liberty"), a UK non-profit providing vocational training for women in prison.
Jesse is the co-founder and Director of Operations for World Camp. When he was a junior at UNC, he drove through South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, and Malawi with nine friends, camping and living out of a van. They had developed a two-day life-skills program, which is now a full-length program, and were testing out ideas. They visited schools, and in exchange for lodging and being able to camp at the schools, conducted their program and left them the curriculum. World Camp grew out of this passion and vision for what young people could do.
The Mchezi Maize Mill Project was devised by a group of eleven study abroad students along-side the village leaders of Mchezi in one of the poorest countries in the world, Malawi, Africa. The project will fund the construction of a self-sustaining corn mill in the village which will in turn create employment and socioeconomic stability for the region.
Appalachian students have traveled to Kitoola, Uganda for the past 4 years to work with a non-profit organization called YOFAFO, standing for the Youth Focus on Africa Foundation. This organization is a grassroots effort to empower and educate the women and children of the Kitoola area. This presentation will discuss the people of Uganda's value of community and the positive impact this has had on the people of Kitoola.
