Break Through: A Student Interfaith Group

Break Through will bring together UNC students from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim backgrounds to create a series of events that promotes interfaith collaboration on campus. We will organize discussions that address topics of religious differences and their political repercussions at home and abroad, and we will work with faith-based groups on campus—including the Interfaith Council—to plan interfaith dialogues and collaborations. To help reach these goals, our group will develop a website devoted to clarifying each religion’s beliefs and to promoting on-campus interfaith activities. In all of these events, we will work to break down stereotypes and to foster lasting friendships that will promote a deeper understanding between students of different faiths at UNC.

Carolina Entrepreneurial Commune

The Carolina Entrepreneurial Commune (CEC) will collect the resources and information necessary for students to turn their ideas into enterprises. An extension of the UNC Carolina Entrepreneurship Initiative, this cross-campus organization will gather materials to support student business plan developments, to provide patent consultation, and to connect students with legal research resources and peer mentoring. We will also provide a space for idea exchange and social networking among campus entrepreneurs, and we will work with other campus groups to bring entrepreneurial speakers and resources to UNC.

Chart(er)ing a New Course in Public Education

In Chart(er)ing a New Course in Public Education, we will seek to form a charter school in Orange, Chatham, or Durham County that will be developed, implemented, and administrated entirely by UNC students. To reach this end, we will have guest speakers on various educational topics, do background readings on educational theory and alternative forms of education, and visit model schools in the surrounding area. Through networking with several clubs, departments, and community groups, the project will form an interdisciplinary team, each individual bringing a unique knowledge and background to the challenge of completing a charter application. We will also produce a guidebook outlining the vision for the school, which will be determined by the project members.

Closing the Gap

Closing the Gap will investigate the achievement gap between black and white students in public education. We will study the factors affecting the prevalence of this gap—including segregation, socio-economic status, and racial culture—through research, guest speakers, and group discussions. Our group will then use this knowledge to plan and to conduct activities that promote racial interaction in local high schools and on UNC’s campus. We will collaborate with organizations such as Student Government and the Black Student Movement, and we will combine our knowledge and action in the hopes of creating a more racially interactive Chapel Hill community.

The Dialogue Project: You Don’t Have to Be a Philosopher to Think

In the Dialogue Project, students will explore a set of intellectual topics through a series of interdisciplinary seminars and discussions. We will bring together professors and students from various backgrounds—e.g., English, Religious Studies, Biology, Political Science—to approach questions about the nature of truth or the existence of God in a grounded and accessible way. Our project will then take these questions outside of the classroom through public art exhibits, multimedia performances, and a traveling conversation couch that invites students to join in a dialogue about philosophical issues in their day-to-day lives. The group will choose two major philosophical questions or topics to focus on each semester, and we will end the year with an art/performance exhibit that presents the range of student ideas and responses gathered in our conversations and encounters.

Orienteering

This project will focus on orienteering, a sport that combines the art of navigation with trail and off-trail running and hiking. We will establish an orienteering club on campus and host an informational event in the spring to promote interest in the sport. In preparation for this event, we will explore the elements of orienteering by collaborating with the Geography department to produce a topographic map of UNC and nearby parks, and by studying the athletic and environmentally-minded lifestyles the sport promotes. We will also participate in local orienteering events and attend the national intercollegiate championship in the spring.No orienteering experience is needed or expected, and people of all athletic abilities are welcome!

Rock Around the Clock: Ugandathon

Our project will organize and conduct a twelve-hour fundraising concert to aid those suffering from genocide in northern Uganda. We will collaborate with the Invisible Children’s Fund to plan the event, and all of the money raised will go directly to them. The concert will bring together a range of student musical talent to provide students with a ready way to aid the people of Uganda. We hope to establish the Ugandathon as a semi-annual event on UNC’s campus and thus to stimulate greater awareness and involvement in international human rights.

Student Life Blogging Project

The Student Life Blogging Project will create an Admissions blog for UNC, one that showcases a range of UNC student experiences and that provides an insider portrait of life at the university. To prepare for this blog, we will invite well-known bloggers to campus to give talks and workshops to interested students, and we will study successful Admissions blog sites from other schools. Our project will affiliate with both technology-based centers on campus and creative writing groups to produce a useful Admissions tool for the university and to reach a better understanding of this new, exciting mode of writing.

Swing for Life

This project will research cancer prevention techniques and bring the information to UNC students through information booths in the Pit and in the form of a campus-wide fundraiser. We will begin the year investigating the causes of cancer—focusing on skin cancer and lung cancer—and we will collaborate with local oncologists and cancer experts to arrange speakers and events. In the spring, we will organize a fundraiser called “Swing for Life,” in which students get sponsors to donate a certain sum of money for every baseball they hit out of 100 throws. Throughout the year, our project will combine research, volunteer work, and fundraising to give UNC students an opportunity to join the fight against cancer.