The Deans’ Service Scholars (DSS) Program is one of the biggest volunteering and service initiatives here at NYU Shanghai, and with over 70 students participating this year, it has ingrained itself into the culture of our school. A collaborative initiative between the Dean of Arts and Sciences, the Dean of Student Life, the Office of Student Life, and the Academic Resources Center (ARC), it allows students to travel to different parts of China and Asia to conduct and look at service through an academic lens, while learning about social issues. In a nutshell, it allows participants to look past voluntourism, or volunteer travel, at the surface and completely immerse in the culture and ways of the country they are in. This past week, On Century Avenue’s reporter Lathika Chandra Mouli got an opportunity to catch up with Charlotte Evans, one of the staff members responsible for founding the DSS program, to get to an insider’s view about its establishment and workings. Evans and Adam Ebnit, NYU Shanghai’s Associate Director of Student Life, worked together to create community service opportunities for NYU Shanghai students in October 2013. Last year’s NYU Shanghai Alternative Breaks program only consisted of two trips, one to Yunan and the Chi Heng Foundation to aid communities touched by HIV and one to Sichuan, working with Habitat for Humanity. Evans thought that “students really liked a smaller-scale program because it was more intensive and personalized, allowed people to connect on a one-to-one basis and have more lasting friendships; students began to see beyond just the marker of nationality and interact with fellow peers through common and shared interests.” This year’s DSS Program has evolved into six trips focused on the motto “service learning through an academic lens”. Evans and the other people at the helm of the DSS program wanted to make sure that NYU Shanghai students went into their trips educated and aware. Evans explained, “it was decided that the best way to overcome such an obstacle is to educate our group, which takes time and active participation.” Each trip’s participants are expected to fully engage themselves in not only the service trip itself, but also the Pre-Trip day of Service, fundraisers, reflection essays, and the Capstone Project. Evans is so excited about “DSS [because] it allows for the actualization of these phrases like ‘Make the World Your Major’, because we are sending students to locations like Cambodia, India and China to learn about their culture.” Primarily, the DSS trips provide a form of education that just cannot be experienced inside an academic setting. In Evans’ perspective, “I think that all of the courses at NYU Shanghai are really well thought out and provide several different skill sets, and the DSS program provides a way to see an application of those skill sets.” For students, its a chance to use critical thinking and reflection skills that we learn within the classroom. In addition to this, DSS gives students the opportunity to travel, and experience different locations through an altered lens - a global lens. Through the program, students are encouraged to grasp a sense of what it truly means to be a global citizen. In Evans’ words, “as the program expands, we want to explore the phrase “global citizen” and test them out.” As the program improves, it will hopefully become more focused on the service aspects, in a similar fashion to NYU New York’s Alternative Breaks program. In the future, DSS will hopefully run under the supervision of students and become a fully student-led program. However, due to the recency of the program’s inauguration, there are still improvements to be made - as of now, DSS is simply attempting to solidify its foundations. Reading other student’s personal reflections on their wordpress site or articles on their experiences in Shanghai and Beijing or Cambodia, it’s clear that the students are learning what Evans and the rest of the DSS team was hoping for a quarter of the student body applied this year and Evans hopes that this interest will continue in the years to come, because “DSS isn’t just this isolated blip of experience in your NYU Shanghai story, but rather what you learn in the classroom is freshman year transitions into great experiences in DSS in the winter or spring trips.” On Century Avenue would like to thank Charlotte Evans for her time and dedication that was pivotal in establishing the DSS program; all of your hard work has resulted in such a uniquely educational (hopefully, everlasting) program at our school. In addition, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to Dean Visconti, Dean Fitch, Adam Ebnit, Patty Xu, and everyone involved with initiating the DSS Program at NYU Shanghai. To read more about the Winter break trips, check out the DSS Word Press webite (https://shanghaidss.wordpress.com/tag/nyu-shanghai/). The Spring break trips will be taking place from April 1-6, so make sure to continue to check that blog which will be updated by the students leaders during the trip. This article was written by Lathika Mouli and Allison Chesky. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit:NYU Shanghai