Most students at Tufts hope to make some sort of contribution to their community during their four short years on campus. Approximately 60 Jumbos known as Tisch Scholars, though, sit down with professors and members of the surrounding communities at the start of their college careers to map out exactly how.
The passionate students who elect to participate in the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service Scholars Program, a leadership program, strive to improve the communities surrounding the Tufts campus by collaborating with local organizations to effect positive change. To do so, they take a course designed to help them develop the social and leadership skills necessary to solve community problems, and they each plan and carry out a personally designed annual public service project — the capstone of the program.
Each of the following four students has a different goal as a Tisch Scholar, but they all share the common belief that public service is an essential part of their educational careers. Chela Surum: Lawyers for low−income immigrants
Sophomore Chela Surum is still drawing up the blueprint for the Tisch project she plans to take on. She is working with LIFT−Somerville, a non−profit organization that provides housing, legal and professional resources to disadvantaged people, particularly to low−income immigrants.
Surum is specifically concerned with the shortage of quality legal advice available to those living in poverty — which is why she wants to organize a group of lawyers who will offer legal services to the people who turn to LIFT.
"Some of the problems these people face can't be solved by student volunteers and require a lawyer they can't afford," she said. "Law firms are required to work some pro−bono hours a year, so [I am] looking to work with that."
To strengthen her initiative, Surum has decided to involve the Tufts Lawyers Association, a group of Tufts alumni who have gone on to build legal careers and — through its partnership program with Tisch College, the Tisch Citizen Lawyers — continue to contribute to the Tufts community.
Surum was first drawn to Tisch College and its variety of programming when she happened upon its brochures in Kenya, where she grew up.
"I knew it was something I wanted to do," she said. "Active citizenship has been a part of my life, and it is something that I always want to incorporate in my education. For an education to be well−rounded, there should always be an aspect of active citizenship."
Being a Tisch Scholar has allowed Surum to accomplish far more than just her work with the immigrant communities in Somerville; the program has helped her examine all issues in a critical way, she said. In addition, it has brought to her attention the vast civil work her generation — and her nation — still has ahead of it.
"My concept of America has developed, and I have realized that there are still lots of problems that people face here," she said. "Getting to meet these people has really changed me. I hope to apply these things when I go back home." Alon Agai: Health education
Junior Alon Agai is beginning his second year as a Tisch Scholar and hopes to expand upon the project he worked on last year, the Somerville Committee of Suicide Prevention and Mental Health, the main objective of which is to increase awareness about the importance of mental health.
Previously known as the Mayor's Taskforce of Suicide and Mental Health, the organization strives to educate the local community, especially youth, about emotional health by arranging activities and events through which they can feel personally connected with the issue at hand, Agai said.
"We put together the ‘Making Connections' campaign, where we have [held] monthly workshops for adults and children and met with youth groups around Somerville," he said. "We are doing art workshops with them to teach them about mental health, and this month, we are putting art pieces together in the Somerville Museum."
Agai explained that the Tisch Scholars program has not only allowed him to help members of surrounding communities learn about health, but has also helped him reach his own maximum potential while at college, allowing him feel productive beyond the classroom.
"It is very empowering to [work on a project] like this during college because you really feel like you are making a difference in whatever sense you might take that," he said. "Tisch is another community at Tufts where I feel comfortable; we all help each other go through these [projects] and depend on each other for advice." Sasha deBeausset: The interpreter
Like many participants in the Tisch Scholars program, junior Sasha deBeausset joined because she was itching to get involved with the communities beyond the Hill, "to go beyond our little bubble at Tufts and see the issues our next−door−neighbors are having," she said.
And deBeausset plans to do so on their terms — specifically, in their language. This year, she will be working with the Welcome Project, an immigrant advocacy and education organization in Somerville. She plans to focus on one of the organization's offshoots, the Liaison Interpreter Program of Somerville and, with a small group of bilingual members, will help the community with language interpretation.
DeBeausset also plans to integrate her academic interests into her civic work and research the communities with which she works.
"My personal interest is nutrition and obesity among the immigrant population, so ideally I will also be doing research and developing some sort of curriculum to work with the Welcome Project people," deBeausset said.
In the next few weeks, the bulk of deBeausset's efforts will be channeled into working with Centro Presente, a Latin American immigrant rights group in Somerville, with which the Welcome Project will hold a joint forum to discuss the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act — the piece of legislation in favor of student−immigrants that was recently held up in Congress — in conjunction with the Welcome Project.
But despite all the work she continues to put into the project, deBeausset insists that the return is always greater.
"I don't hesitate to say that I've gained more than I've given, [and] I think that is what the program is about," she said. "People find their passions through Tisch and discover what they want to do for the rest of their lives." Tomas Valdes: Spreading the census
For his Tisch Scholars project last year, senior Tomas Valdes worked on increasing participation rates for the 2010 U.S. Census, specifically in the community of Somerville and other nearby neighborhoods. Valdes attempted to get the most accurate count he could in hopes that the community would be rewarded with more government funding to be spent on education and other social services.
A political science major with an interest in economics, Valdes decided to employ the tools he learned in the classroom to benefit society.
"I was particularly interested in applying the economics I had learned when it came to sustainable development in the surrounding neighborhoods," Valdes said. "The project targeted Somerville's two hard−to−count populations: immigrants and college students, which align with my areas of interest."
With the help of the Somerville's Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development, Valdes helped to coordinate events throughout the year to promote the census and met with non−profits, NGOs and private companies that might be interested in supporting his cause. Together, they created the Complete Count Committee, through which they worked to get the word out on the importance of participating in the census.
And with the completion of his project, Valdes experienced the satisfaction the Tisch Scholars program aims to help its students achieve — that of effecting real change.
"Not only did the project align perfectly with my areas of interest, but I was also able to use my Spanish and other skills I possessed in a real−world situation in order to make a change in the community," Valdes said. "Looking at the high return rates for the areas that were made up of hard−to−count populations let me know that my work had made a difference."
