Publication Date
4-16-2025
Presentation Length
15 minutes
College
Interdisciplinary Studies & Global Education
Department
Honors Program
Student Level
Undergraduate
SPARK Category
Knowledge
Faculty Advisor
Jeff Overby
Metadata/Fulltext
Fulltext
SPARK Session
Honors Scholars Collaborative I
Presentation Type
Talk/Oral
Summary
As part of their Honors College requirement, students are required to take Project Planning and Execution classes during their junior year where students utilize “team-based, problem-solving learning strategies coupled with individual research and application”. This year, a group of five female Honor students formed a small group they coined the “Caring Catalyst Collective”. The group perceived a lack of engagement from Belmont students with volunteer opportunities in the Nashville community and beyond. To combat this issue, they sought for tangible ways to inspire a boost of engagement of Belmont students with local Nashville non-profits and organizations, in addition to helping students feel motivated to serve from gaining crucial student, faculty, and staff volunteers’ perspectives. By hosting the WellCore series, “Engaging the Community”- consisting of four different seminars featuring 3-5 panelists and one student interviewer, they were able to bring volunteer opportunities directly to Belmont students. Hoping to incentivize attendance and engagement, they themed each panel around a diverse WellCore theme: emotional, cultural, intellectual, and environmental, that students need to attend to graduate. The series lasted two weeks with two WellCores focused on bringing in non-profit and community representatives that could speak on behalf of their organization about their volunteer work, mission, and needs, and two WellCores focused on bringing Belmont student, faculty, and staff perspectives in hopes to inspire and enlighten students on the importance of service in their lives. At the SPARK Symposium on April 16th, 2025, at 8AM on Belmont’s campus, the Collective will be sharing the insights they’ve gained through hosting these panels, engaging in deep conversation with the incredible panelists, and presenting the data and feedback they received from those in attendance.
Recommended Citation
Anziano, Katelyn; Buettner, Ella; Carrigan, Emerson; Hanna, Karolin; and Watts, Lauren, "Engaging the Community WellCore Series: How a Belmont Honors Collective tackled the problem of the perceived lack of engagement with Belmont students volunteering in the local Nashville Community." (2025). SPARK Symposium Presentations. 78.
https://repository.belmont.edu/spark_presentations/78
