Unique Honors Opportunities
Summer Internships with the Delta Fellows Program
The Honors College in collaboration with the USA Office of Community Engagement organizes organizes annual community engagement internships through grants received from the Jean O’Connor Snyder Internship Program (JOIP) sponsored by the David Mathews Center for Civic Life.The Center is a non-profit, non-partisan corporation which builds skills, habits, and capacities for more effective civic engagement and innovative decision making throughout all 67 Alabama counties. Delta Fellows Interns collaborate with local communities to build long-term university-community relationships built on immersive civic engagement principles. The goal is to support the needs of the citizens of the Mobile Bay region. During Summer, 2020, four Delta Fellows aim to collaborate with the communities surrounding Blakeley and the Mobile-Tensaw Five Rivers Delta.
The Oxford Consortium for Human Rights
The Honors College at the University of South Alabama is a member of the Oxford Consortium for Human Rights (OCHR). The Consortium hosts teaching and research seminars on human rights, global conflict, humanitarian aid, peacebuilding, and related subjects. Their aim is to understand and develop constructive solutions to the problems of today, drawing from scholars and students from a wide variety of disciplines. Four Honors College students attended the Oxford Consortium Workshop in Oxford, UK in July 2019. Five students attended the OCHR Workshop Series: Community, Identity, and Human Rights in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in October 2019. Students were slated to attend in-person events in 2020, and will continue to attend when in person opportunities resume. In the meantime, South Alabama is active in online workshops such as the OCHR’s first ever Webinar, “Pandemics, Epidemics & Human Rights,” and its subsequent offering, “Inequality, Racial Justice & the COVID Crisis.”
The World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates
The World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates regularly brings Nobel Peace Laureates together to foster their legacy of peace, and to continue to keep peace in the forefront of global attention. The Honors College has joined as a partner in its work, and participated in the most recent Summit. This gathering was held in Merida, Mexico in September 2019, focused on both the Mexican legacy and the nation’s involvement in the global peacebuilding process. The program engaged civil society and youth from throughout the world by providing them the tools and strategies needed to achieve peace at local and global levels. Six Honors College students attended and returned with a wealth of knowledge that they were eager to share. Story available here.