2012–2013 Issue - Outreach & International Affairs - Virginia Tech

Elizabeth Gilboy, director of the CommunityDesign Assistance Center. “Wecame up with the idea to make it into amobile chef’s kitchen.” Besides beinga farmers market novelty, the kitchencould also be used to demonstratenutritional meal preparation in theregion’s low-income areas.With a budget of $5,000 and a teamof student builders, Andrew McCoy, assistantprofessor of building construction,retrofitted the chassis of an oldRV as the base for the trailer. Workingwith a small budget meant relying ondonated materials and more than a dollopof creativity. For example, a communitymember donated old fence posts,which students planed and sanded toform the trailer’s exterior.For their collaboration, Gilboy and Mc-Coy received the 2011 Alumni Awardfor Outreach Excellence.Caring, one greenwristband at a timeThoughts of “changing the world” maybring politicians or United Nationsambassadors to mind. Less oftenpictured may be someone takinga simple action that could set off achain reaction of kindness, like smilingat a stranger. Sophia Teie, a fifth-yearVirginia Tech student from Washington,D.C., studying psychology and sociology,believes in this possibility.Teie is a member of Actively Caring forPeople (AC4P), a nonprofit organizationthat began in fall 2008 at Virginia Tech.The organization distributes greenwristbands, some of which have circulatedthe globe, as rewards for randomacts of kindness. With its growth, AC4Phas developed anti-bullying programsthat have been implemented in middleschools in Blacksburg and shared atsummits across the nation. Whenasked what motivates her, Teie replies,“Knowing that what we do works.”Currently, 50,000 numbered wristbandsare in circulation, includingNo. 240, which an Appalachian StateUniversity student received after helpinga man who had crashed his dirt bikethrough a glass window. The man, whorequired 200 stitches, credited his helperswith saving him from death.Teie says, “Something that I havelearned as a Latina and as a woman isthat we all have different values, andthat needs to be respected.” But shealso learned a greater lesson throughAC4P: People from different backgroundsall share the value of caring forpeople.“This foundation has been the catalystfor people all around the world to acton this value,” she says. “The smallthings that people do every day areimportant.”Educating newforesters in Nepal“Some of my friends died in thathelicopter crash,” says Tom Hammett,professor of sustainability, innovation,and design in the College of NaturalResources and Environment, referringto a 2006 tragedy that killed 24 conservationexperts in the Himalayas.A year later, Virginia Tech partneredwith Yale University and PrincipiaCollege to establish a Memorial Centerof Excellence to commemorate thecontribution of the conservationists atNepal’s Institute of Forestry. Hammett’spersonal stake in the project, alongwith a decade’s worth of experience inNepal, made him the ideal collaboratorto work toward the new center’s goal:Continued on page 24(left) Sophia Teietalks about herpay-it-forwardexperiences.(right) Gilboy andMcCoy with thekitchen model.Jim StroupJim StoupOutreach NOW 23