Student accepted into Wilks Scholar Program

April 19, 2006

Jamie Viars, a Miami Hamilton sophomore, has been accepted into the prestigious Wilks Scholar Program. She will be the first student from a regional campus to participate in this multi-year curricular project developed in collaboration with the Harry T. Wilks Leadership Institute.

During the 2006-07 and 2007-08 academic years, this select group of students will participate in a university/community partnership project entitled Acting Locally: Civic Learning and leadership in Southwestern Ohio. This one-of-a-kind Miami University program offers a chance to develop leadership skills and gain real-world experience through community interaction and problem solving.

Students and faculty members will work with local communities in the region to understand better the ways in which local communities are challenged, transformed, and sustained in a world where global forces often are as important as local ones in shaping people’s lives.

While exploring the broader impact of globalization on these specific communities, participants will address issues of race and class in the context of urban development and decay; environmental and community sustainability in the context of urban sprawl; and the expansion of a service sector economy in the context of increased Latino immigration and migration.