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New Chapter Founders for 12-13

By on May 14, 2012 in Chapter Founders, Student Spotlight

Nourish is thrilled to announce 5 of our 2012 Chapter Founders who have been selected from a competitive pool of applicants to found Nourish Chapters on their campus. We are so excited to welcome the University of Minnesota, Randolph-Macon College, Juniata College, and Boston University to the Nourish family!

Read on to learn more about these Chapter Founders:

Hanna Mihalko is a sophomore at the University of Minnesota. She is majoring in Genetics with a minor in Spanish Studies. While studying in Ecuador this past year, she was confronted with the devastating lack of basic needs in many communities. As she left Ecuador, Hanna was motivated to join the global fight to eradicate poverty and found Nourish as a practical way to pursue this dream. In her free time, Hanna loves to go biking in Minneapolis, hike along the Mississippi river, and cook with her friends.

 

Valeria Vargas Brenes is a United World College graduate that is currently a sophomore at Randolph-Macon College, VA. She’s from Costa Rica but lived in Norway for two years while studying at RCNUWC. Her majors are Political Science and Sociology/Anthropology with a minor in Film. She was part of the founding group of the Peñas Culturales in Costa Rica and preformed her own poetry in these events for about three years. Valeria is excited to serve as Chapter Leader for the Nourish International Chapter at R-MC.

 

 

Shuyan Zhan is a rising sophomore in Randolph-Macon College. She is double-majoring in French and Econ/Business and minoring in English. As a Chinese student currently studying in the US, she is always fascinated by cultural encounters and is thrilled by the possibilities that Nourish International offers to foster outreach between different communities. She has a deep understanding of poverty and passion for a possible solution for the problems in impoverished areas. She is eagerly looking forward to the successful launch of Nourish on her campus.

 

 

Andrea Morillo is entering her sophomore year at Juniata College in Huntingdon, PA studying Integrated Media Arts with an emphasis in Business. As a Honduran, she’s always been aware of poverty and has always known she would dedicate her life to improving the living conditions of those in need. She is extremely grateful for her education and she withes to provide other Hondurans with opportunities for education. She strongly believes in Nourish’s capacity to make a difference and she’s extremely excited to be a part of it. In her free time she enjoys drawing, traveling and spending time with her family.

 

 

My name is Pooja Shah, and I will be a junior at Boston University in the 2012-2013 academic year, majoring in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.  My dream is to become a Doctor and ultimately join Doctors Without Borders.  In my free time, I enjoy dancing, reading, and going home to CT to spend time with my family.

My passion for international healthcare stemmed from traveling to India and understanding that underprivileged communities in Third-World Countries need and deserve our help the most.  I love to teach, and I believe that education and the appropriate resources are critical tools in building a successful and sustainable community. I believe that Nourish is the key to providing these tools and making a lasting global impact.  I am excited about bringing Nourish to BU, and I believe that it will flourish here because BU is an integrative university with students passionate about facilitating change.

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Chapter Challenge: April

By on May 2, 2012 in Chapter Updates, Ventures

Chapters have the opportunity each month to compete to win a $50 prize for their Chapter that they may use for start-up capital, project finance, or something fun or special for their Chapter.  The challenges feature Ventures, Projects, Awareness, Marketing and more!

For March, chapters were invited to submit a short blog post on a venture implemented by their Chapter that improved significantly over the course of the 11-12 school year. Chapters included information on any changes in profitability, alterations to planning and implementing the Venture, and how they think their Venture improved.

The winner for the April Chapter Challenge was The University of Georgia! They submitted the following:

Over the course of this the 2011-2012 academic year, UGA’s Sidewalk Symphonies venture has developed significantly. Sidewalk was created when a Nourish member linked their involvement to the school radio program, WOUG, with their participation in Nourish. Every Thursday night two local bands are lined up to play at a local restaurant in Athens, giving the artists exposure, more costumers to the restaurants, and more funding for our project from a percentage of sales. This semester we have made monumental strides in developing this venture. We now have a marketing chair who designs our posters weekly, a poster coordinator who organizes the man power to flyer around campus, a social media chair who advertises on Facebook and updates our calendar with weekly band and location information, and a person who informs the audience about Nourish and our project mid-way through the performance.  Our success has even inspired the University of South Florida to start a Sidewalk Symphony of their own. Our newest plans involve hosting Live Remote through WOUG at the restaurants. This means that the WUOG will have live broadcasts on the radio and the online in real time to reach an even greater, more diverse population on and off campus. We anticipate our promising future with this venture!

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Venture Spotlight: Cooler Sales

By on April 19, 2012 in Chapter Updates, Ventures

The Wake Forest Chapter recently ran a new and exciting venture that was dreamed up at the 2011 Summer Institute.  The Wake Forest and Vanderbilt Chapters won the Venture Competition with their idea for refurbishing coolers used by fraternities on their “Beach Weekends” and selling them on campus. The fraternity members invite girls to accompany them to “Beach Weekend” and, following tradition, the girls paint coolers for the boys.

Wake Forest collected used coolers donated by the fraternity members, refurbished them, and sold them to girls who were invited to this spring’s weekend. The chapter sold 23 coolers at an average price of $30. In total, they believe that they will profit approximately $600.

The money raised will be used to support their project in Nicaragua this summer. They will be partnering with the Penn chapter to work with a local organization, Atraves. The students from Penn and Wake Forest will be working on a project to furnish a computer lab and teach children about health and nutrition with Atraves.

The Wake Forest Chapter Leader, Ellie Meyer, had this to say on the Cooler venture:

It was a great achievement for our chapter to successfully accomplish this venture! It’s been a long process, starting with brainstorming the specific idea at last year’s Summer Institute, and leading up to delivering the completed coolers in the last two weeks. This venture was relevant to the culture of Wake Forest, and it spread our name and mission throughout campus. We are so excited because we are still such a new chapter that this venture will definitely help us grow, in terms of membership and also success, in the future.

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Project Spotlight: Peru, Nicaragua, & India

By on April 12, 2012 in Chapter Updates, Summer Projects

Nourish students around the country have spent the past few months researching and selecting local, grassroots non-profits who are sustainably addressing poverty in their communities. Over the next few months the Nourish Chapters and international partners will work to develop appropriate projects for the students’ skill level and time frame spent in-country. Nourish International is excited to announce a number of our upcoming summer 2012 projects!

University of Tennessee at Knoxville – Moche
The UTK Chapter will be working with Moche, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the standard of living in impoverished communities, preserving archaeological sites, and promoting research and education on the rich cultural heritage of Peru.

http://savethemoche.org/

 

Wake Forest and University of Pennsylvania – Atraves
The Wake Forest and University of Pennsylvania Chapters will be working with Atraves, a non-profit that seeks to support a community of small Nicaraguan organizations that are carrying out creative, locally autonomous approaches to development, education, health and justice.  The goal of the project is to build a computer lab in the William Galeano community of Nicaragua to be used for health resource access by clinic staff and create in-lab educational programs for community members so they will have better access to essential health information.

http://www.atraves.org/about/index.html

University of Texas at Austin – DJMV
The UT Chapter will be partnering with DJMV, a non-profit that seeks to help empower communities & cultivate self reliance through innovation, education, and livelihood initiatives to improve social and economic development of under privileged women and children.  The goal of the project is to promote women’s education in Orissa, India by spreading education awareness through various classes and workshops.

http://djmv.cfsites.org/index.php

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Chapter Challenge: March

By on April 5, 2012 in Chapter Updates

Chapters have the opportunity each month to compete to win a $50 prize for their Chapter that they may use for start-up capital, project finance, or something fun or special for their Chapter.  The challenges feature Ventures, Projects, Awareness, Marketing and more!

For March, chapters were invited to submit a short blog post on a partnership they have been a part of during the 11-12 school year. The partnership can be with a business, fellow student organization, or on-campus department showing the value created for that Nourish Chapter, the value created for the partner, and the long-term sustainability of the partnership.

The winner for the March Chapter Challenge was…The University of Texas – Austin!

The UTA chapter submitted the following:
Nourish International Austin Chapter has made an amazing partnership with an outstanding business this ’11-’12 school year. We have partnered with a local food cart vendor named Naan Stop. As other chapters, we also perform Hunger Lunches throughout the year to raise money for our international projects. As many know, Hunger Lunches are weekly ventures, or events, where we sell delicious and affordable Indian food from Naan Stop to UT students and staff on campus. This is the first time we have sold Indian food, and the response has been very positive. Our chapter makes a weekly  profit of $100 just through Hunger Lunch. Since there are no close Indian food restaurants to our campus, we meet the demand of many individuals craving Indian food. However, not only do we receive $100 from just our sales, the owners of Naan Stop feel extra generous and donate about $50 every other week. Our Hunger Lunches are every Wednesday from 11:00am to 3:00pm and we have Nourish members volunteer to prepare the homemade food to our clientele. We have been so successful that most of the customers we meet are returning customers, indicating that the service we provide is very good. Many customers express that they are excited when every Wednesday comes. Throughout campus, UT students and faculty have already branded us as the “samosas sellers”. Clearly, the partnership we have had with Naan Stop this school year has been very beneficial to our Nourish chapter, UT students and staff, and of course Naan Stop themselves. Since no problems have been encountered between these parties, it has been made official that once again we will continue our partnership with Naan Stop for the next school year, and therefore generate more income for our international projects.

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Venture Spotlight: Pots for Poverty

By on March 22, 2012 in Chapter Updates, Ventures

The University of Florida Chapter recently launched a new and exciting venture in which they partnered with another club on campus to raise money for their summer project in Guatemala.  The UF Chapter partnered with the HOT Clay Club on campus, which facilitates a pottery sale for their artists once a semester. The HOT Clay Club donated all of the proceeds from their pottery sale to the UF Nourish Chapter.

The venture also worked to raise awareness about UF’s summer project.  UF and NC State will be working with is Casa de Alfarero, which translates to ‘the Potters House’. Students from UF will be helping the women artisans at Casa de Alfarero develop their jewelry making business. As part of the HOT Clay Club pottery sale, the UF Nourish chapter made pieces of jewelry to go in each pot to tell people more about their summer project.

“We’re hoping to continue this relationship with the HOT Clay club, and maybe be able to participate in their sales more often. This venture was easy and fun!” said Co-Chapter Leader Katie Connor.

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