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(09/28/19 7:05pm)
Mercer University kicked off study abroad week with the announcement of their newest study abroad financial aid, the Global Leader Scholarship. The scholarship will be offered annually to up to 10 students for up to $8,000. The scholarship will be available to those who have been accepted to one of Mercer’s long-term study abroad programs, according to a press release from Mercer University.
These programs must be at least eight weeks in length and be an official Mercer exchange program or through one of the programs provided by an approved affiliate organization.
“It gives students who are in an awkward financial place ... an opportunity to participate in study abroad,” Dr. Julie Strecker said. Strecker is the director of international programs and the English Language Institute at Mercer.
Through the increase of more streamlined financial aid opportunities, Mercer students now have a greater opportunity to expand their worldview with over 30 programs offered in a number of various disciplines.
“I gained more knowledge that I wouldn’t have gained in the United States,” current Mercer nursing student Jaleighya Townsend said. “I had the opportunity to learn about several new cultures ... and confirm the field which I am pursuing is for me and my plans after graduation are still my passion.”
The benefits of the study abroad financial aid go beyond that of global interconnectedness, however, as the financial aid and several programs like it have granted more students access to go places they otherwise never would have imagined.
“I think everyone should go abroad for at least a few months because it really is a life-changing experience,” said current junior public health major Isis Barnes, who studied abroad in Beijing last summer. “When you’re in a different environment, you’re not familiar with where you are and you really see your true potential.”
Applications for the scholarship will open Oct. 15 for the spring 2020 semester abroad. The deadline is Nov. 15, and winners will be announced at the end of the fall semester. For more information on study abroad opportunities and scholarships, visit mercerabroad.com.
(09/10/19 10:00am)
The fall semester of 2019 marks the 13th year that students from Mercer Law will participate in the Habeas Project. The Habeas Project was founded by Mercer Law’s current dean of students, Sarah Gerwig-Moore, and has since been taken over by Brian Kammer. This project gives Mercer Law students the opportunity to work with incarcerated Georgians who are facing habeas corpus cases.
Kammer signed onto the project after Gerwig-Moore transitioned to the role of associate dean of academic affairs in July, according to a press release by Mercer Law.
Prior to becoming the new director, Kammer had experience in both state and federal law, having worked for 23 years in the Georgia Resource Center, a firm dedicated to providing free representation for death-sentenced prisoners in habeas corpus proceedings.
According to the Wex Legal Dictionary, habeas corpus cases — Latin for “that you have a body” — are those in which prisoners have the opportunity to bring their cases to court if they feel that their imprisonment is unconstitutional due to mishandling of their case in court. All individuals have a right to competent and fair representation in court.
“The kind of people that the clinic represents are the poor, people who have come from very deprived backgrounds and those who are in need of assistance,” Kammer said in a phone interview with The Cluster.
The clinic, since its conception in 2006, has assisted with over 90 cases in Georgia and won over half of them. The clinic is the only one of its kind in the state of Georgia to handle habeas corpus cases on a pro-bono basis.
The clinic has been an ideal opportunity for Mercer Law students to gain not only real-world experience but also a brand new perspective within their legal careers.
“I have seen the difficulties in balancing both sides of the scales,” current participant Randall Edwards said in an email to The Cluster. “I have learned that while the roles of criminal defenders and prosecutors appear only adversarial, they are in fact both tasked with ensuring a fair balancing of our justice system.”
The selection process for the program begins during the spring semester, and students are admitted based on their resumes and cover letters.
“The students are going to be encountering people who really need their help and perhaps people who have come from circumstances that perhaps the students themselves are not familiar with,” Kammer said. “The potential for professional and personal growth is very high. I think it really gives the opportunity for students to both develop real practical, professional legal skills but also in the context of helping people who really, really need help.”
Students within the program are eager to gain more legal experience as well as an opportunity to help the community around them.
“I have been fortunate enough to find opportunities and support within the Habeas Project and Mercer University School of Law,” Edwards said. “To develop my skills as an attorney while being able to ponder the big questions: ‘who can I help? How can I help?’”
(04/23/19 6:43pm)
A new service organization, The Buddy Bunch, is coming to Mercer’s campus with a goal to serve individuals with developmental disabilities.
After being approved by the Student Government Association (SGA) unanimously last month, the club plans on working primarily with Woodfield Academy, a local school serving students with learning differences.
Started by freshman Aniya Watts, the club was founded in response to the overall lack of resources for children with special needs. One of the group’s main goals is helping to build social skills.
“How can one foster self-esteem and social skills if you’re not interacting with the general population, if you’re being left out, if you're in different, isolated environments by yourself? How are you going to grow and learn?” Watts said.
Watts said she was motivated to launch The Buddy Bunch after living with her sister, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
“I definitely played a huge role in her life with us growing up together, and just seeing her struggles, I learned how to be the most helpful through my sister,” she said. “That’s really where my passion started and it grew based on that.”
The Buddy Bunch held its first informational meeting April 18. Starting next semester, they plan on making biweekly visits to Woodfield Academy in hopes to create meaningful, long-lasting connections with students.
“The Academy is a small private school established by parents in 1997,” Head of School Becky Sessions said. “Our mission is to empower students with learning differences to their potential.”
Watts estimated that approximately one in 10 students in Macon have special needs, not including those enrolled in private schools. This experience can be isolating, according to Sessions.
“Sometimes they have to go through a lot of being misunderstood before the dust settles and people realize you got this behavior going on because of unmet needs of students,” Sessions said. “They are frustrated, and they are melting down.”
Sessions said that Woodfield provides them the services and understanding they need to adjust to life in school and beyond.
“Woodfield is not the real world,” she said. “The level of encouragement, support and understanding that’s available is just not everywhere.”
School leadership is excited to work with the Mercer students involved in The Buddy Bunch.
“We’ve all got a lot to give, and we are really cutting our nose off to spite our face in society if we don’t do something to encourage more accommodations and access for individuals who have disabilities in the workplace or elsewhere in everyday life,” Sessions said. “The Mercer connection could be a stepping stone for Mercer and Woodfield."
(04/09/19 8:52pm)
After two years of planning, Mercer students are set to move into Carlyle Place to begin an intergenerational housing project.
Carlyle Place is a “life plan community formerly known as a continuing care retirement community,” according to Chief Administrative Officer Thomas Rockenbach.
They house various geriatric residents from those living independently to those requiring supported care.
The Intergenerational Housing Project began as a Service Scholars initiative by seniors Carson Outler and Anna Stallings. The duo thought of several other ideas, ranging from getting Mercer students more involved in programs such as Meals on Wheels to a lawn care service. However, the students eventually decided that they needed a more sustainable option.
Thus, the two settled on an intergenerational housing model after studying a model they found from the Netherlands.
“You want something that’s going to make a long-lasting impact because [the residents] can feel so isolated and lonely,” Outler said.
Outler said providing activities and friendship for the residents is about more than keeping them company.
“The purpose of it really, looking at our research and our plan, is that seniors who experience loneliness easily fall into depression,” Outler said. “Forming those meaningful relationships between young adults and the elderly can help decrease those negative health consequences. There was even research about how that loneliness and depression could be correlated to Alzheimer's.”
The students are expected to move in during Mercer move-in day in the fall semester. After which, the students will be expected to establish 8-10 hours of programming per week for the residents. The programming pertains to activities established by the students in collaboration with Carlyle Place residence life department.
The activities can range from those of the students’ choosing or the students may choose to bring in other Mercer student organizations for programming opportunities.
“We’re hoping for an opportunity for our residents to benefit from the various backgrounds, interests and skill sets of the university students,” Rockenbach said.
The students selected for this program will live at Carlyle Place during the academic year in exchange for free housing and three meals a day. Outler and Stallings said they are already in talks with Carlyle Place for securing a second year.
She said she hopes the students involved will be dedicated to forming positive relationships with residents.
“It’s just having someone who’s ... not just there to check if they ate their lunch or if they went to an activity,” she said. “Instead, to have someone just to get to talk to, just to get to know them, learning their story and be able to communicate that through this program, like through a diary or something like that, and not having those stories lost. Especially not through the hands of mental illness.”
(03/18/19 3:16am)
Mercer University Georgia Baptist College of Nursing (GBCN) will welcome its first class in the Accelerated Bachelors of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program in May 2019. The program was created in response to Georgia’s ongoing nursing shortage and is designed to be a cost-effective way for students with a non-nursing bachelor's degree to earn their BSN in as few as 12 months.
The program is a collaboration between GBCN and Orbis Education, a company that partners with universities in order to expand and improve on their existing pre-professional programs, primarily in the nursing and occupational therapy fields.
“In terms of why look at an accelerated program, the answer to that really comes at looking at the healthcare shortage that we see. Georgia is one of the more severely understaffed states,” Aaron Van Berg, an admissions counselor at GBCN, said in a phone interview March 11.
The state of Georgia needs an estimated additional 13,510 nurses by 2026 in order to keep up with the rapidly growing population, according to Daily Nurse. Because of the current shortage, Atlanta was named one of the best cities for nurses by Forbes with an estimated salary of $63,862.
The ABSN program differs in both the time period as well as the cost. It’s expected to cost approximately $59,850 in total, while the regular BSN program offered through GSCN is expected to cost $24,102 per year.
Catie Snee, a junior public health major on the Macon campus, said the ABSN program’s shortened timeline made it a more attractive choice than other nursing schools.
“I thought financially, it’s a lot better because I won’t be in school for as long and I’ll have to pay less,” Snee said.
The expected curriculum for the ABSN program includes a total of 56 credit hours over the course of three semesters. The credit hours consist of online courses, hands-on labs and clinical rotations, according to the ABSN website.
“We’re looking at the Georgia core requirements, and really just focus on the nursing courses themselves and really get through it in as quick a time period as possible albeit while maintaining a high quality of education as we can provide,” Van Berg said.
Though still early in the admissions process, the program is looking to admit eight lab groups with 12 students per group. The first semester begins May 2019.