The Honors College

at West Chester University

Dr. Kevin Dean, Director
703 S. High Street
West Chester, PA 19383
Phone: 610-436-2996
Fax: 610-436-2620
Honors@wcupa.edu

Service and Events

Great Job to all those involved in

the Aid to South Africa fund raiser,

2011 "Program of the Year!"

Upcoming events for the

2011-2012 Academic Year

2/2	GA Meeting
2/9	Date Auction
2/16	GA Meeting
3/1	GA Meeting
3/21	Graduate School Fair
3/22	GA Meeting
4/5	GA Meeting
4/15	Aid to South Africa
4/21	HSA Semi-Formal
4/29	HSA Banquet
5/14	South Africa 2012

Community Service

Throughout the year, HSA members volunteer many hours of service on campus, in the local community and surrounding area. Some of the projects and events they participate in are the Chamber Day activities in West Chester Borough, American Red Cross Blood Drives, Philadelphia AIDS Walk, the Salvation Army Food Drive, Safe Harbor Project, Marsh Creek State Park Volunteer Day, WCU Banana Day, Adopt-A-Block, and the Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia. We are also extended out to the international community with our Reaching out to South Africa events.

Reaching out to South Africa

Through the graciousness of a leadership grant I received from the Kellogg Foundation, in March 1997, I had the opportunity to travel to South Africa. In countless ways, South Africa became a "trip of a lifetime," or so I thought. Little could I have imagined that the people met, places seen, causes served or lessons learned would have become such a central part of my professional and personal life.

The seeds of that initial experience have flowered into the development of a course that has reached over 450 WCU students, established Deon's International Shoe Fund that has helped raise Africa and America through the internet and visits to campus from South African leaders, enriched the service activities sponsored annually by the Honors Student Association by focusing on the ability of students to apply lessons learned internationally to communities in the West Chester region, and paved the way for teams of WCU students, faculty and staff to travel to South Africa to participate in community needs assessment projects that have profoundly impacted lives on both sides of the ocean. Since our first project in 2001, we have sent over 100 students!

I am particularly proud of our Honors International South African scholar alumni, many of whom have allowed the South African experience to shape their post baccalaureate lives. WCU Honors alumni are serving through a variety of specialized teaching programs that are connecting them with economically disadvantaged inner city and rural youth, linking research in graduate school to underrepresented populations, planning projects in medical school that will lead to residency and rotation placements in non-traditional settings and even actively committing to international service projects that allow them to return to South Africa.

It is with pleasure that I and a devoted group of WCU faculty and Honors College students who are "alumni" of the South African experiences have begun work for our fifth student/faculty research/service project to South Africa in spring 2012. I am confident that this experience will open additional doors to unanticipated opportunities for all participants.

The funds raised at the Aid to South Africa Event go directly towards the H. E. L. P. Ministry Soup Kitchen, Nikosi's Haven and the Sparrow Village AIDS Orphanage. West Chester students who have gone to the soup kitchen have been touched and shocked by the incredible work these people have done. Every day 5,000 children are provided with a cup of soup and a slice of bread. For most of these children it will be their only meal of the day.

Most recently, the students who went to South Africa in 2010, were also frequent spectators to the harsh realities of the widespread AIDS epidemic. The eye-opening, heart-breaking, and inspiring moments that each student felt in South Africa through interaction with a grandmother caring for a sick child, an orphaned pre-teen caring for siblings, and a community member who opened a two room dwelling to six or more unrelated children who would otherwise literally live in the street, contributes to our passion and drive behind the Aid to South Africa event.

Dr. Kevin W. Dean
Director of Honors