The Vanderbilt Initiative for Scholarship and Global Engagement was recognized for its unique approach to studying abroad from the Institute of International Education and NASPA, a professional association for student affairs administrators.

VISAGE received a bronze NASPA Excellence Award in the category "Careers, Academic Support, Service-Learning, Community Service and Related" for combining educational study abroad as well as community service opportunities. Vanderbilt also received an honorable mention in the study abroad category of the IIE's annual Andrew Heiskell Awards for Innovation in International Education.

The program officially started in spring 2008. In its second year, about 40 students are involved.

According to Professor of History Marshall Eakin, the faculty director of the Nicaragua program, planning for the program began in 2006 when Assistant Provost for International Affairs Joel Harrington formed a committee to develop a study abroad program that combined both service and learning.

"This has been a collaborative effort from the beginning," Eakin said.

VISAGE offers students a yearlong learning experience that begins with a spring semester course in preparation for a four-week summer service project abroad. In the fall semester, students engage in a seminar, capstone research project and community service work in Nashville.

Students said they appreciated the extended experience. Junior Clair Birkhauser went to Managua, Nicaragua last year as part of the VISAGE program that focuses on "Family, Community and Social Justice." She said the semester course before the group's departure helped her to understand the political, economic and social structure of the country before she even arrived.

"VISAGE requires its participants to take this class so that one can become immersed in the culture upon their arrival, or at the very least be an informed tourist, rather than a typical tourist," Birkhauser said.

"You spend an entire semester learning about the country's history and culture before you even go there, which for me really gave the experience more meaning," said senior Annie Freyman, who also went to the Managua site last year. "Standing in the rundown city center of Managua, I could appreciate and understand what had brought the people to this state. I was more intellectually and emotionally involved in what I was seeing."

"Each VISAGE site is exploring, overall, the same issues of global citizenship and social justice," said Director of the Global Education Office Ara Pachmayer.

The summer 2009 sites are located in South Africa, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Faculty directors work with students on specific themes geared toward the different locations.

According to Pachmayer, students and faculty evolve their research and local community service depending on the summer experience. This spring, the faculty directors intend to work closely with Hands On Nashville, among other programs.

"On the most basic level, I hope that this combination of service and academics will make (students) take a hard look at their own values, worldview and life - to become aware of who they are, and who they are not. I hope the experience will be transformative for them," Eakin said.