By Jeff Brumley
Mercer University said it will send forth this year its largest Mercer On Mission cohort in the program’s eight-year history.
Launched in 2007, Mercer On Mission blends study abroad with research and service. Participants experience a combination of academic instruction, cultural immersion, service and spiritual reflection.
This year, 180 students — the previous high was 144 students — and 30 faculty will travel to a dozen locations around the world.
Projects include improving access to education, health care and clean water and fitting amputees with prosthetics.
Also new is a pilot program in journalism that will be added, the university said in a news release.
“Mercer On Mission is pushing new boundaries as we prepare to launch our ninth year,” said Craig McMahan, dean of chapel and university minister who oversees the initiative. “We will be bigger than ever, and we will be engaging in some of the most diverse, creative and important projects that we have ever undertaken.”
The journalism program involves the Center for Collaborative Journalism. It will send journalism students around the world to document the Mission on Mercer students at work.
“These [journalism] students will learn the craft of storytelling and advocacy journalism and then use those skills to tell the stories of Mercer On Mission teams in Cambodia, Honduras, Kenya and Vietnam,” said CCJ Director Tim Regan-Porter.