By Taylor Phillips, CCL Student Staff
On March 18th, Rice University students, alum, and CCL staff had the opportunity to speak on a panel about the Owl Vision Grant pilot program at the Gulf-South Summit. This year, due to COVID-19, the summit was held virtually and hosted almost fifty institutions and universities representing 12 states in the Southeastern United States. The theme for the Gulf-South Summit 2021 was Building (and Rebuilding) Healthier Communities through the practices of civic engagement, ethical research, community partnerships, and creating sustainable programs.
Associate Directors Jessica Khalaf and Morgan Kinney facilitated a panel discussion about how the CCL, in partnership with local organizations, was able to accomplish a successful pilot of the Owl Vision Grant program, generously supported by the Rich Family Endowment for Student Community Engagement. The program, introduced last summer, worked with Houston partners and alumni mentors to mobilize students on issues at the intersection of COVID-19, anti-racism, and the 2020 election cycle. By forming local partnerships, student leaders of Owl Vision Grants carried out their respective projects and mobilized university peers from Rice and University of Houstons as well as local high school students to execute their proposals during the fall of 2020.
On the panel, student leaders, Kamil Cook ‘22, Sana Mohamed ‘21, and Saniya Gayake ‘21, discussed the process of developing their project, forming proposals, and working with community partners. Throughout the panel, they emphasized the importance of forming relationships with local organizations and stakeholders by setting early expectations and being adaptive to the needs of everyone involved. Alumna mentor, Reilly Brooks, who is a Senior Intrapreneur at ASHOKA, spoke about how her past experiences with the CCL provided her with valuable insights and knowledge about project management and community partnerships that she was able to pass on to her two teams of mentees. Two student participants, Daanesh Jamal ‘24 and Taylor Phillips ‘21, also shared how their involvement during the fall introduced them to the inner workings of civic engagement and enabled them to feel like they made an impact in the Houston community.
After the successful pilot run of the program, the Center for Civic Leadership staff was amazed by the results of the Owl Vision Grant projects and plans to implement aspects of the experience into other CCL programs.
“We were really proud of the program and its reach and took away many lessons learned for both COVID and non-COVID times. For instance, we’re reaching out now to alumni to make matches for alumni mentors and establishing a more robust ‘CCL Alumni Mentorship Network,’ which we’ll be rolling out across more of our programs as we develop it,” said Morgan Kinney.
During the panel, the student and alumna participants engaged in a meaningful reflection and robust discussion about their involvement and the valuable lessons learned through the program. The CCL staff hope that the panel served as an opportunity for other institutions to learn best practices in engaging stakeholders and mobilizing students during such an unprecedented time.