North Mississippi VISTA Project:
Fighting poverty through education
T
he North Mississippi VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) Project sponsors 20 organizations and has the capacity to recruit 25 full-year VISTA members to serve throughout north Mississippi and the Delta. The McLean Institute is proud to have an eightyear relationship with the Corporation for National and Community Service and to lead the next Albert Nylander (left) and members of the North Mississippi VISTA Project chapter of the North Mississippi VISTA Project. at the Fannie Lou Hamer statue in Ruleville. “The McLean Institute’s mission of advancing transformative service and fighting poverty through education in Mississippi is bold,” said director Albert Nylander. “This initiative will continue establishing and fostering Many VISTAs have been recent graduates of UM programs mutually beneficial partnerships and programs that advance such as the Croft Institute for International Studies and Sally education in underserved communities across the state.” McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. Bryce Warden, who The mission of the North Mississippi VISTA Project is to graduated from UM in 2016 and served as a VISTA with the build sustainable systems that connect the University of UM School of Education, is now studying higher education Mississippi and its resources to low-income communities policy at the Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. throughout a 23-county area. Whenever possible, NMVP de“The VISTA experience offered extensive opportunities velops projects in communities with underperforming schools in designing and implementing community action service and/or schools eligible for Title I School Improvement Grants. programs for college access in low-income communities,” VISTA members build capacity by developing new, Warden said. meaningful and sustainable connections between the Warden created a partnership with the Quitman County university, with its abundant resources, and the schools, Middle School to bring over 50 students to the University of education agencies and community organizations already Mississippi on Saturdays throughout the spring semester for working to move the people of the north Mississippi region tutoring and enrichment activities. toward academic success and higher education. “I saw the benefit of those interactions, where students In the next year and beyond, NMVP will continue to – many of them potential first-generation – could find out develop host sites around north Mississippi, cultivate projects what college life was really like, and I was eager to create and place VISTAs with community partners that fight such an environment for the kids from Marks,” Warden said. poverty through education. In the 2018-19 program year, the “Now, these middle school students get to receive tutoring on VISTA project contributed more than $680,000 to the region. a college campus, which they may have never seen.” Many other VISTAs have followed a similar path, going NMVP service members are serving with several into graduate programs at Brandeis, Harvard, New York, organizations based on campus and in Oxford. This includes Princeton and Stanford universities. the UM School of Education, M Partner, Doors of Hope “Community partnerships inspire the work of the McLean Transition Ministries, Luckyday Academic Success Program, the Center for Mathematics and Science Education, Lafayette Institute,” said Laura Martin, associate director. “We are County Literacy Council and Yoknapatawpha Arts Council. thrilled to support VISTA members as they build capacity Partners outside Lafayette County include the Sunflower among our campus and community partners to impact County Freedom Project in Sunflower, DeSoto County Youth quality of life in Mississippi.” Court in Hernando, Quitman County School District in Nylander, too, said he was inspired by the success of the UM Marks, Rosedale Freedom Project in Rosedale, the Union VISTA Project. County Heritage Museum in New Albany and the Rust “We look forward to NMVP’s future growth and continued College Community Development Corp. in Holly Springs. success.” n
Summer 2019
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