OMEA - Programs

An Opportunity to Engage with Others and Give Back

Each summer, OMEA affords ten students of diverse backgrounds an opportunity to assist, at no cost to themselves, a non-profit organization with a project, or projects, that may be completed in four days. 

Over the course of those four days, students document both their individual and collective experiences: of the other participants, of the lessons learned, and of their personal viewpoints about the service they are helping to provide. Maintaining an account of the experience via a daily journal, a record of expenses, recordings of conversations, photographs, video, etc., culminates in a presentation made to a campus audience during the Fall semester.

Students are able to use skills from their own academic study and knowledge in real-life situations within different communities with the goal of improving the lives of others. Leadership skills, civic involvement, “social challenges awareness” and more all come into play for participants.