CONWAY, Ark. (October 8, 2012) -Hendrix College recently became a member institution in the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty.
The 16-member consortium has its roots in the poverty studies work at Washington and Lee University. Each member school commits to developing academic coursework dedicated to preparing students for an intensive summer internship in poverty-related work at a number of sites around the country that is accompanied by two summer workshops for students. The internship experience is then followed by a later project back on campus that serves as a capstone experience.
Hendrix philosophy professor Dr. Chris Campolo will lead the development of curricular pieces on campus, while assistant career services director and internship coordinator Leigh Lassiter-Counts will be the Hendrix liaison to the Shepherd program on student internship placements. The College anticipates four to five Hendrix students participating in the program each year.
Dr. Jay Barth, director of civic engagement projects at Hendrix, will serve as campus liaison to the Shepherd Program.
"This is an exciting opportunity for our students to prepare for poverty-related work, experience that work through the intensive summer internship, and then reflect upon the experience in terms of understanding and alleviating poverty in the United States and the students' own vocational path," he said. "It really reflects the best of the Odyssey program at Hendrix."
For more information on the consortium, visit their website.
Founded in 1876, Hendrix College is a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education. For the fifth consecutive year, Hendrix was named one of the country's "Up and Coming" liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report. Hendrix is featured in the 2012 edition of the Princeton Review as one of the country's best 377 colleges, the latest edition of Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Feel about Colleges, Forbes magazine's annual list of America's Top 650 Colleges, and the 2013 edition of the Fiske Guide to Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit www.hendrix.edu.