The program aims to prepare the next generation of nursing students to participate in global health and citizenship in an equitable, respectful and meaningful way. Within a global context of increasing need for community resilience post disaster, this innovative project wraps student educational and research experiences around sustained UVA faculty research with long-term community partners in Bluefields, Nicaragua. Groups of UVA students and faculty and groups of partner students and faculty from Nicaragua will participate in bidirectional exchange throughout the year in order to actively participate in ongoing research and community health projects related to community resilience post disaster. This mutual engagement, underpinned with a spirit of cultural humility will be transformative for all student and faculty participants.
The Human Library
The Human Library, Charlottesville developed from an initiative out of Copenhagen, striving to tackle stereotypes and prejudice through conversation. It represents a safe space for expression of the innermost, genuine parts of ourselves, a place where vastly different lives can intersect and ignite challenging yet much-needed conversations. We all have a unique story embedded in the threads of our lives, and The Human Library aims to find people to share those incredible stories so that we as a society can work to dismantle stereotypes and prejudices. In this way, The Human Library serves as a place of solace for individuals who feel isolated, overlooked, or unimportant; they can be comforted by others’ stories, and share their own. The Human Library bridges the gap between the University of Virginia and the Charlottesville community, allowing each to benefit from interactions with the other. Ultimately, The Human Library desires to foster learning, growth, and long-term social change.
The Ridley Scholars Outreach Video
The Ridley Scholarship Fund is an organization that contributes to a superior learning environment at the University by providing scholarships to African-American students of high academic caliber and addressing issues of importance to African-American students and alumni. In response to the recent violent, racially-motivated protests at the University and in Charlottesville, the Ridley Scholars will produce an outreach video during the 2018 calendar year to be released in November 2018. The video will target prospective African-American students and is estimated to impact 20,000 prospective students and their families. A hired videographer will record footage of several student-planned events as well as testimonials from University students, faculty, and alumni for the video.