2022 Cohort
17
edits
Changes
no edit summary
<span style="font-size:x-small;"><big><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="text-align: left; color: rgb(29, 28, 29); text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; word-spacing: 0px; display: inline !important; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; float: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span>Many students, especially those with dietary restrictions, believe that they do not have enough options for campus dining. Additionally, many former freshmen talked about their struggles when they were adjusting to campus life, as it was their first time being truly independent from their families and away from their hometowns. Our solution for increasing diversity and inclusion and helping those whose diets are incompatible with campus dining is to hold an annual cultural food festival on campus. This festival will include tabling events held by both students and local restaurants. Doing so would increase cultural representation and inclusivity, promote local small businesses, and promote community across campus overall.</span></span></span></big></span>
<span style="font-size:x-small;"><big><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="text-align: left; color: rgb(29, 28, 29); text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; word-spacing: 0px; display: inline !important; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; float: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span>To execute this idea, we would need to contact the Deans as well as the executives who manage campus dining to make sure that this festival complies with campus policy and can be feasibly held. Vanditha and Julia would handle contacting the Deans, while Eden and Ojaswi would contact campus dining and other staff on campus. We would also need to find students and local restaurants who are interested in hosting tables at the event. As someone with experience in the restaurant industry, Eden would take the lead here, with the rest of the teammates focusing on cold-calling, research, and gathering student input. Additionally, due to the potential for this event having high costs, we would need to figure out if admission fees and payments to table hosts are necessary, which may or may not affect the the level of interest for potential attendees.</span></span></span></big></span>=<span style="display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(29, 28, 29); font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Strategy 2: More Vegan/Vegetarian Options (2022 Fellows)</span>= <span style="font-size:x-small;"><big><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="text-align: left; color: rgb(29, 28, 29); text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; word-spacing: 0px; display: inline !important; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; float: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span>Type here (Eden)</span></span></span></big></span>=<span style="display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(29, 28, 29); font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Strategy 3: Therapy Dogs for Mental Health (2022 Fellows)</span>= <span style="font-size:x-small;"><big><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="text-align: left; color: rgb(29, 28, 29); text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; word-spacing: 0px; display: inline !important; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; float: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span>Animals have been used for therapeutic causes in various settings – mental health clinics, yoga centers, and even at some universities! At Fordham, however, that isn't a reality. Students complain about midterms and finals week just like they do everywhere else, but the lack of available appointments with Fordham Counseling makes coping with stress and low mental health extremely difficult. Our solution to this problem lies in the implementation of therapy dogs for mental health, particularly by partnering with local shelters and clinics and bringing the dogs over to campus during the last few weeks of the semester, which are often the most stressful times of the year.</span></span></span></big></span> <span style="font-size:x-small;"><big><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="text-align: left; color: rgb(29, 28, 29); text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; word-spacing: 0px; display: inline !important; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; float: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span>Specifically, our plan is to harness the power of student input – each of us will survey Fordham's student body at different points during the training in order to gain the widest variety of answers in terms of how students feel about therapy dogs. Vanditha's survey from 8/10 indicates that almost 93% of students at Fordham (out of her 1,034 followers) support therapy dogs for stress relief, with only 7% feeling indifferent and a whopping 0% that disagree. Julia and Vanditha will be responsible for contacting the Deans and setting up meetings to discuss the idea, while Eden and Ojaswi will contact other staff, namely social psychology professors on campus and possibly the counseling department. We plan to continue surveying the student body to look for changes and are thinking about setting up a stand at the Club Fair where we would set up an "opinion jar," allowing students to silently contribute their thoughts on our solution.</span></span></span></big></span> <span style="font-size:x-small;"><big><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="text-align: left; color: rgb(29, 28, 29); text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; word-spacing: 0px; display: inline !important; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; float: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span>The next step is to arrange the dogs themselves, and we would work with local clinics and organizations for this. All four teammates would call and visit shelters and clinics, and we expect this process to take a while. Finally, if this idea works out and we are able to secure the dogs, we will all survey the student body and the end of the year to find out if our solution actually helped.</span></span></span></big></span>
=<span style="display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(29, 28, 29); font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">2021 Change Story Video</span>=