Sunday, December 16, 2007
Building Bridges 2008 Postponed
Thursday, December 6, 2007
FSU NAACP and GPE Organize Charity Fashion Show
Shay Filkill
Issue date: 12/3/07
The Miscellaneous Fashion Group modeled several different styles during the Rwanda segment of the FSU NAACP Crisis Couture Charity Fashion Show held Saturday night in the Union ballrooms.
Several different styles of clothing were modeled to represent some of the different conflicts in Africa at the NCAACP Crisis Couture Charity Fashion Show.
Several different styles of clothing were modeled to represent some of the different conflicts in Africa at the NCAACP Crisis Couture Charity Fashion Show.
(Far left) Ms. Shakira Williams performed a vocal selection during the Darfur, Sudan segment of the Crisis Couture Charity Fashion Show.
Several different styles of clothing were modeled to represent some of the different conflicts in Africa at the NCAACP Crisis Couture Charity Fashion Show.In honor of World AIDS Day, Saturday, Dec. 1, the Florida State University chapter of the NAACP hosted the First Annual Crisis Couture Charity Fashion Show and one of the goals of this event was to raise money and awareness for the One Here… One There, a program dedicated to covering the costs of children's education in Saharan Africa.The event was co-sponsored by the FSU Office of Multicultural Affairs, the African Student Association and the Global Peace Exchange in order to raise awareness about One Here… One There and other critical issues in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the One Here… One There Web site, "educating just a few children in one school will make a difference to the long term health and well-being of one local community. When tens of thousands of African youth are educated, stability in Africa will be a closer reality." The One Here… One There organization was founded by a mother of three college students who wanted to give less fortunate children the chance to receive an education."We're not actually looking for a certain amount," said FSU junior and FSU NAACP Secretary Amanda Spann, who organized the Crisis Couture Charity Fashion Show. "We're just asking students to give what they can. We understand times are hard, but any amount helps."Spann, a Fashion Merchandising major, organized the event by combining video clips, speeches, power point slides, dances, songs and modeling. Some of the models wore their own designs, while some wore clothes donated by Rag Junkie and Edwin Mackey."This is something (that) we're focusing on; it's one of our initiatives for the year," said FSU junior and President of the FSU Chapter of the NAACP Marvis Barnes of the event's goal to raise money for One Here… One There. Barnes added that their goal for this year is approximately $3,000.One Here… One There targets college students so they can donate money to help send an African student to school. About $20 can send a student to school for an entire year and also test them for HIV/AIDS. Some universities are even able to include the donation with their tuition bill to make it even easier for college students to donate. One Here… One There was brought to FSU by James Arinaitwe, who lived in Uganda until he entered high school. The current president of the FSU African Student Association, he then came to the United States to continue his education. A performance by Miscellaneous Fashion Group, dedicated to the 1994 conflict in Rwanda, kicked off the event. Some models wore outfits that looked like traditional African outfits and some wore military clothes to represent both sides. According to a speech about the conflict between the Hutu and the Tutsi tribes, about a million people were murdered and half a million women were raped. The Global Peace Exchange is, according to their pamphlet that was handed out at the event, "an initiative to coordinate and expand the service based exchange opportunities for students throughout the world." Next summer, for example, a group of 20 students are going to Rwanda to construct the Umuryango Technical School for Orphans in Rwanda. The school will not only provide an elementary education to children that have been orphaned by AIDS, the current conflicts going on or other means.After the segment on Rwanda, was a section on Uganda, FSU student Ecclesiaste Guerrier put on a spoken word performance that was followed by a video interviewing children and young adults that had been mutilated by machetes, lost limbs and siblings and had been forced to kill other people. Several people were moved nearly to tears. The next segment of the program focused on Darfur. After the Darfur presentation, there was a fashion set performed by Elite Modeling Troupe that illustrated some great clothes and helped lighten the mood a little in the Union Ballrooms. "We know that people aren't always aware of the things that are going on cause-wise," said Barnes. "So we thought that using the fashion with the purpose and the meaning of showing people about the importance of what's going on."Next was an intermission, with a vocal selection performed by Shakira Williams and was followed by a performance by the African Student Association Dance Troupe.The last segment of the evening discussed the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. Arinaitwe gave an inspirational speech on his life in Uganda and his desire to help Uganda as a doctor someday. "We're just hoping to increase awareness and to educate people," said Spann. "We have an obligation to help our fellow man and educate ourselves."For more information on the One Here… One There organization, visit OneHereOneThere.org.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
GPE Co-Director Alex Merkovic First in GES Alumni Speaker Series at Northwestern University
Northwestern’s Center for Global Engagement also runs the ENGAGE Uganda program, a hybrid service/study abroad program that has NU students working on sustainable development projects all around Uganda for the summer. GPE plans on working with ENGAGE Uganda in a cross-border partnership during GPE’s two-month stay in Rwanda.
GPE Featured in Tallahassee Democrat
Students offer time, money to Peace Exchange
Some students want to save the world, and they have decided to start in college.
Joe O'Shea, Nick Fiore and Alex Merkovic have decided to create the Global Peace Exchange, which is described as similar to the U.S. Peace Corps at the college level.
The goal of the organization is to gather student volunteers from all over the country and the world to use their talents and skills internationally to serve less fortunate countries.
"Our mission is to reach as many people as possible," Fiore said.
“We're the quarterback school of the whole thing,” Merkovic said. “It's surprisingly easy to network. We're not the only people that care. This generation has a lot to offer and wants to make a difference in the world.”
The group hopes to go to Rwanda to build a school and bring medicine to children. Last year, Merkovic gathered like-minded people to lend a helping hand in Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana. The camp was started in 1990 and houses more than 50,000 refugees from Liberia who fled the civil war.
"We really learned so much," Merkovic said. "We learned more from our village than we were able to teach."
“They have this hope that is so profound,” Fiore said. “We tried our best to improve upon their living conditions, education and hope.”
Merkovic also thinks that his good deeds will foster communion among other countries.
"If the first American you meet is building you a school or providing you treatment for worms, it's going to give you a better view of Americans," he said.
"The one element that binds everyone is that we are all trying to survive," O'Shea said.
The group is looking for donations and grants that will help with the cost of international service projects.
The True Seminole campaign will underwrite some of the costs, O'Shea said. The mission “embraces the values that make FSU so unique.”
GPE co-director Joe O'Shea named Rhodes Scholar
At age 21, Florida State University senior and Student Body President Joseph O’Shea has founded a free health clinic in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, led a coalition for healthcare reform in Leon County, and co-founded an international service-based exchange program for students worldwide.
Now, O’Shea can add “Rhodes Scholar” to his already exceptional resume.
On Nov. 17, the dynamic campus and community leader with a seat on FSU’s Board of Trustees became one of the 32 U.S. college students selected as Rhodes Scholars this year. An FSU Honors Program student with majors in philosophy and interdisciplinary social sciences and a 4.0 grade point average, O’Shea rose to the top of an extraordinary field of finalists during a grueling application and interview process that demands months — some say years — of preparation and practice.
“I was awestruck,” said O’Shea, who hails from Clearwater, Fla. “The Rhodes Scholarship is such a remarkable opportunity and a launching pad to help those in need for the rest of my life. My mom was weeping over the phone when I told her. My father passed away in May. I wish he could have been here to see this. I am so grateful for the exceptional education I’ve received at FSU.”
The Rhodes Scholarship funds up to three years of undergraduate or post-graduate study in England at the University of Oxford. Created in 1902 through a bequest in the will of Cecil Rhodes, a British philanthropist and colonial pioneer, it is the oldest international study award available to American students and widely considered the most prestigious of its kind.
O’Shea is the third FSU student ever to be named a Rhodes Scholar (the first was Caroline Alexander in 1976) and the second since 2005, when student-athlete Garrett Johnson received the honor.
“The entire FSU community joins me in congratulating Joe O’Shea for a stellar record of achievement that will reverberate into the future not only across this campus and community but also throughout our nation and around the globe,” said FSU President T.K. Wetherell. “We’re honored that this inexhaustible and visionary young man chose FSU as his undergraduate home. The Rhodes Scholarship is a fitting recognition of his world-class commitment to both scholarship, social activism and service.”
Then there’s the Truman Scholarship. In March 2007 that highly prestigious national fellowship was awarded to O’Shea in recognition of his outstanding leadership potential and community service. As a Truman Scholar, he’ll receive $30,000 toward the completion of a graduate-level degree at the institution of his choosing in exchange for public service work for three of the seven years afterwards.
With two top national scholarships in hand, O’Shea intends to first earn a Rhodes-funded Master of Philosophy degree in Comparative Social Policy at Oxford, then a Truman-funded law degree. Not surprisingly, he envisions a career dedicated to public service, and he’s already had plenty of practice. Since 2006, O’Shea has founded or co-founded:
- The Lower Ninth Ward Health Clinic in post-Katrina New Orleans, which provides preventive and primary care to about 10,000 patients annually;
- Global Peace Exchange, an international service-based exchange program for students worldwide, modeled after the U.S. Peace Corps;
- Leon County Community Healthcare Coalition, which led the effort to provide comprehensive healthcare reform for the area’s indigent residents; and
- Student United Way, an initiative that mirrors local United Way operations by harnessing student philanthropy and operating as a clearinghouse for student community service.
“The Rhodes Scholarship invests in future leaders who possess a distinct blend of intellect and character,” said Jamie Purcell, director of FSU’s Office of National Fellowships. “Joe is just what the Rhodes Trust aims to support, a starry-eyed idealist with the energy and determination to make a profound impact on the world. He is extraordinarily accomplished yet still brimming with potential.”
As the leader of FSU’s student body and Student Government Association — and in specific roles such as director of the Office of Social Justice and member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity — O’Shea has logged a host of achievements. Among others, he spearheaded the creation of the Men Advocating Responsible Conduct Affiliated Project, which aims to reduce sexual violence and promote gender equality on campus, and helped drive the “True Seminole Campaign,” an effort to unite the FSU community and encourage service to others (profits from campaign merchandise help support FSU student volunteers as “True Seminole Ambassadors” and the construction of a technical school in Rwanda).
Among many other honors earned while at FSU, O’Shea was named to USA Today’s All Academic First Team; was a junior-year inductee to Phi Beta Kappa; won the FSU College of Arts and Sciences’ Academic Leadership Award; garnered an FSU Profile of Service Award; and received the FSU Artes Award — awarded annually to a student who best represents the “beauty of intellectual pursuit.”
O’Shea serves as a trustee on FSU’s Board of Trustees and its Foundation and Athletic boards of directors, and holds a seat on dozens of FSU committees and three local or state-level leadership boards. As a member of the U.S. Public Service Academy’s National Youth Advisory Board, he is working to increase support for a bill to create a public service-centered undergraduate institution modeled after the nation’s military academies.
“Joe not only has made us proud, he has made us better,” said Mary Coburn, FSU’s Vice President for Student Affairs. “His passionate pursuit of social justice has inspired civic engagement in countless others. This is a young leader who truly will be making a difference in the decades to come.”