College of Arts and Sciences Newsroom

By Dave Larsen

The University of Dayton’s Health Equity Fellows program received global recognition as one of the best solidarity service-learning experiences in Catholic higher education.

The program received honorable mention in the 2024 Uniservitate Global Service-Learning Awards for the North American region. Its director, Moses Mbeseha, will participate in the fifth Uniservitate Global Symposium Nov. 6-9 in Rome. The event will include an opportunity to have an audience with Pope Francis.

“An honorable mention from the 2024 Uniservitate Global Service-Learning Awards is a testament to the unique qualities and assets UD’s Fitz Center brings to the community,” Mbeseha said. “Our Health Equity Fellows program is designed to maximize the skills and talents of our students while addressing strategic challenges our community partners are facing. The program prepares students academically and practically through the quality of the service-learning experience.”

Launched in fall 2023, Health Equity Fellows is a three-year cohort program that annually recruits 10 to 15 UD first-year students who are committed to working in a health-related field, with a recruitment focus on students from Ohio. A three-year commitment from the Scarlet Feather Fund provides significant support for the program’s first three cohorts.

“Health Equity Fellows arose out of community-identified needs to impact the cycle of health injustice in Dayton and Montgomery County,” said Nancy McHugh, executive director of the Fitz Center for Leadership in Community, which houses the program. “Through engaging in community-informed systems change strategies, this program immediately impacts the lives of Dayton and Montgomery County residents and the lives of the students in the program through the more than 8,000 hours of service in which they engage in the community and the learning they do in community with our nonprofit partners and residents.

“The program also creates long-term change in who provides care in our region, how they provide it and how they understand their responsibilities to the communities they serve. These students are the next leaders and partners in health care in our region and can help us envision what a just future looks like for Dayton and Montgomery County.”

Mbeseha said the three-year program provides students with a comprehensive academic and experiential learning experience on how to address health inequities in the Dayton community and beyond.

Currently, the first 11 fellows are placed with Dayton Children’s Center for Health Equity, Daybreak Dayton, Homefull and Miami Valley Child Development Centers. The second group started orientation Aug. 12.

“Fellows are taught about the challenges and assets in Dayton on health inequity and provided the tools, support and structure to address health equity gaps in areas such as health care access, food insecurity, early childhood education, health and wellness, and homelessness, among others,” Mbeseha said.

Based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Uniservitate is the program for the promotion of service-learning in Catholic higher education. Organized biennially, the Global Service-Learning Awards carry a total prize fund of 84,000 Euros, distributed across awards and special mentions in each of the Uniservitate’s seven regions. In addition, a coordinating teacher from each institution is selected to participate in the global symposium.

The most recent Vatican documents on the mission and identity of Catholic higher education institutions call for the connection between science and faith, academic excellence and community service, knowledge production and Christian witness in society, of a socially committed university.