Tisch CEF Recipients 2006-2007

Project Descriptions

Bridging Connections: Democratic Principles in Community Arts Practice
Maggie Beneke, ’07 Child Development
Bridging Connections provides art classes for children in the Medford-Somerville community, ages 7-9 at the Evelyn G. Pitcher Curriculum Resource Laboratory in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development. This project extends local children’s art experiences outside of school, and encourages them to develop meaningful, ongoing relationships with materials, tools, and ideas. Child Development undergraduate and graduate students teach art classes as weekly volunteer counselors; projects are based on children’s interests and experiences, as well resources and recycled materials available in the new Curriculum Lab Recycle Center. Artwork and documentation from the project will be displayed on the Tufts campus and within the community.

Yonso Project PenPals
Anthony Caccavo, ’08 History
Sonja Good Stefani, ’07 Child Development/Peace and Justice Studies
The Yonso Project PenPals program was started through the Yonso Project in association with the Yonso Students Union of Yonso Ghana. This program connects approximately 300 Ghanaian students of all ages with students here in the United States. Although the program initiated in Vermont, it is currently expanding to the Medford, Somerville and Greater Boston area. The PenPal program acts as a means of expanding children’s global and cultural horizons while also providing a way to learn basic reading, writing, and English skills. Tufts students give presentations in classrooms explaining the culture of Ghana, writing tips, and serve as liaisons between the students and teachers to the culture of their penpals.

Engaging Local Veterinarians in Community-based Disaster Preparedness and Response
Emily Christiansen, ’08 Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
Nadia Stegeman, ’08 Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
This project is designed as an effort to get veterinary students involved in engaging local veterinarians in disaster planning and response for both agricultural and companion animals. While most communities have rudimentary emergency response plans, many do not involve plans for animal evacuation and rescue. Students involved in this project speak with veterinarians about how they can help in developing local plans in the case of a disaster as well as how they can be of assistance. In addition, information resources, such as a website and a brochure, are being developed for the education of both veterinarians and the general public on how they can be prepared.

Preschool Paper Retrievers
Kate Daniel, ’08 Political Science
Preschool Paper Retrievers is a fundraiser for CEOC Childcare, a local preschool serving low-income families in the Somerville community. Using Abiti Consolidated's Paper Retriever program, the center is paid for the amount of recyclable paper they collect. Businesses in Davis Square, Tufts students and faculty, and family members of the preschool students are encouraged to use the collection bin at CEOC to dispose of their paper. In addition, environmentally themed lesson plans incorporate the fundraiser into the preschool's curriculum.

The Somerville Maple Syrup Project
Maisie Ganz, ’07 Child Development
The Maple Syrup Project is an environmental education program that teaches elementary school students in Somerville about maple syrup production. Beginning with in-class lessons on tree physiology, New England history, and tapping technique, children have the opportunity to tap trees in their own neighborhoods, collect the sap, learn how to boil sap into syrup, and reflect on their experiences through art, music, math, and writing. The concepts of evaporation and seasonal cycles are emphasized, along with awareness of local weather patterns and the natural processes occurring within an urban landscape.

Tufts volunteers are critical in this project, providing their time to participate in the tapping of trees and collecting of sap, teaching classroom sessions, and organizing the culminating boil-event, a two-day extravaganza of boiling sap, outdoor activities, and eating pancakes, open to the Somerville and Tufts communities. This project has proven a natural link between Tufts students and the surrounding community of Somerville, exposing both its young people and its college students to one another and creating lasting positive connections for both. The syrup that is produced is shared with the children and volunteers, used in fundraising efforts, and donated to local food-assistance programs.

Girlz II Women Cooking Classes
Leah Gauthier, ’07 Studio Art
Girlz II women is an after-school program designed to help 5th - 8th grade girls flourish socially, emotionally, and academically. Cooking classes offered at the Girlz II Women program is a continuation of work started over the summer though Somerville Community Growing Center. This project aims to: teach the girls to cook, engage them in the community created by shared meal preparation, encourage them to share their family and cultural experiences, create a cookbook filled with original art and stories of the girls, and create a website documenting the cooking classes.

Emerging Black Leaders Service Project
Janice Johnson, ’07 International Relations
Emerging Black Leaders (EBL) is an organization founded on the strong principles of service, education, leadership and progression of the African diaspora in the United States. EBL has established a college counseling group on Medford High’s campus during their lunch periods providing them with resources to make their academic goals in higher education a reality. EBL provides assistance with the whole college process covering topics such as “picking the right college for you”, “personal statement assistance”, “financial aid and merit scholarship opportunities” and “SAT preparation.”. EBL also provides students with access to scholarship opportunities. EBL aims to provide students with the tools to become effective leaders and advocates for their communities and for themselves.

“Looking Back, Moving Forward: Twenty-five Years of AIDS” Symposium
Dora Levinson, ’07 History
Looking Back, Moving Forward: Twenty-Five Years of AIDS, sponsored by the Tufts HIV/AIDS Collaborative (THAC), is a symposium held to raise awareness about the continued importance of HIV/AIDS in both local and global communities. This event incorporates a series of presentations by Tufts University faculty and alums, followed by a moderated discussion. This event comes at a significant time, as it marks both the 25th Anniversary of the emergence of AIDS, as well as the annual week of global AIDS awareness.

Teach in CORES
Matthew Malinowski, ’07 International Relations
Bridget Kearney, ’07 English
Carter Koppelman, ’09 Undecided
Betsy Aronson, ’09 Undecided
Teach in CORES is a Tufts University student volunteer program that provides English language and citizenship classes to immigrants at the CORES community center. The majority of students come from the neighborhoods around Tufts, but some students also come from Everett and Revere.

Aside from academics, this initiative represents a crucial intermediary between the students’ homelands and the United States. Teach in CORES provides its students with the knowledge necessary to integrate themselves into U.S. society. At the same time, Tufts students learn about the realities of immigrant life and the culture of each student’s home country. The reciprocity of this initiative represents one of its underlying strengths; both the students as well as Tufts teachers walk away from this experience as changed individuals and, more importantly, changed citizens in the community.

The Future of Food and Nutrition: A Multidisciplinary Graduate Research Conference
Christine McDonald, ’07 Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
“The Future of Food and Nutrition: A Multidisciplinary Graduate Research Conference” will take place on March 10th, 2007 at Tufts’ Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. The conference will cross disciplines, covering topics from clinical nutrition and biochemistry to food policy and agriculture in both domestic and international settings. Students will not only be able to share their work and gain skills in research presentation, but will also be able to build partnerships they will utilize for the rest of their careers. Additionally, the conference will feature a panel discussion of the proposed “Green Revolution for Africa”. Registration and abstract submissions are now being accepted. Please visit www.friedmanSRC.com for more details.

MBCC Community Activation Project
Samantha Moland, ’07 Economics
The Annual Against the Tide swim/walk/kayak event is held each summer as the premier fundraiser for the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition. This project involves the Hopkinton and Brewster communities through active participation to create a successful Against the Tide event, but more importantly to solidify community cohesion, consciousness, and ability to mobilize and support breast cancer prevention. Feature news stories about event participants for local media coverage and organizing practice swim and walk clinics
leading up to the event contribute to building a successful 2007 event.

LIVERight 5k Run/Walk
Jonathan Moy, Biology
Janette Heung, Physics/Biomedical Engineering
Hepatitis B is a liver disease that disproportionately affects people of Asian descent, and Chinatown has the highest incidence of hepatitis B of all of Boston's neighborhoods. In order to raise awareness about this disease, the LIVERight Run/Walk will bring together students, medical professionals, and members of the AAPI community. This event will take place at Artesani Park on Saturday, April 28, 2007 in conjunction with the Hepatitis B Initiative (HBI). The proceeds of the run/walk will be donated to HBI for hepatitis B outreach in Chinatown.

Our Eyes
Anjali Nirmalan, ’09 School of the Museum of Fine Arts
Our Eyes is a photography workshop for Haitian-American teens in Somerville
who would not otherwise have the chance to learn photography. Partnered with the Haitian Coalition of Somerville, Our Eyes aims to help teens forge an avenue of self-expression as well as a sense of accomplishment and self-worth. Each week, the teens explore a part of Somerville by visiting different organizations, businesses, and events in the community to document "behind the scenes" of the lives of Somerville residents. The teens also shoot film both during the workshop and their own and come together to comment on each other's work and how their "seeing" of their surroundings differs from person to person. The long-term goal will be a public exhibition of the created work.

Somerville Conversations Project
Lillian O’Donnell, ’07 Peace and Justice Studies
The Somerville Conversations Project will bring together members of this community through round-table discussions to talk about the issue of youth and young families in the city. The aim of the program is to build relationships and greater understanding among Somerville residents, while discussing the future of the city. The project will run for two-hour sessions once a week throughout the month of March 2007. Working with the Somerville Human Rights Commission, residents and community groups will be recruited to participate in the program and identify leaders to facilitate the discussions.

OT Gulf Support
Gayle Offenberg, ‘08 Occupational Therapy
Amanda Hamm, ’08 Occupational Therapy
Michele Ferrelli, ’08 Occupational Therapy
Theresa Leed, ’08 Occupational Therapy
Lindsay Malarky, ’08 Occupational Therapy
Paula Querido-Kahn, ’08 Occupational Therapy
Amy Urquhart, ’08 Occupational Therapy
OT Gulf Support was created by seven Occupational Therapy Master Students who wanted to volunteer to help and learn from those affected by the 2005 hurricane season in the Gulf Region. This team will return in January 2007 to continue prior efforts to integrate and expand students’ occupational therapy knowledge and practice through experiential learning in the disaster recovery process in the Gulf Region. Plans include volunteering in healthcare settings and relief clean up efforts.

Young Leaders Working Toward Making Lawrence Flourish Again
Yissy Perez, ’07 Civil Engineering
Young Leaders Working Toward Making Lawrence Flourish Again aims to address the high pregnancy rates at Lawrence High School. Surveys conducted at Lawrence High School and meetings with administrators, school committees, and community members, will yield valuable information about the influences on teen pregnancy and practical ways in which teen pregnancy might be addressed. As research is conducted, a program will be developed for students to emphasize the importance and role of education in the advancement of families.

Read about 2005 Civic Engagement Fund recipients here.