Erin Collins, a 2006 magna cum laude graduate of Saint Michael's College, was named assistant director of Edumundite Campus Ministry for Community Service, with principal focus on the MOVE program (Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts).
"Erin has a wealth of knowledge and experience and a depth of understanding for service and works of social justice," said Rev. Brian J. Cummings, SSE, director of Edmundite Campus Ministry, in announcing the appointment last month.
A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Ms. Collins earned her BA in English, with a minor in biology, and won a Saint Michael's Community Service Award in 2006. A resident of Colchester, she worked at Maitri Healthcare for Women in South Burlington from 2006 to 2008, with focus on assisting non-English-speaking patients.
Ms. Collins' extensive service work includes participation in the Vermont Global Health Coalition, coordinating the Committee on Refugee Initiatives, organizing Action Week for March 2009 to highlight International Women's Month. Her activities while a student included coordinating services trip to Kolkata, India, in 2005 and 2006, as well as taking a three-week service trip to Kolkata in 2004.
"One of the reasons I love MOVE," Ms. Collins said, "is that in addition to service, there are opportunities for deep reflection. I hope to inspire social justice thinking and action in students," she added. "I see service as a way of life-if you see a need with another human being-you go there, that's what you do," she said.
In 2003, she participated in a Saint Michael's service trip to Kentucky working with the Christian Appalachian Project in building a home for an 80-year-old woman, cleaning out a local school, and taking part in nightly reflections with Saint Michael's volunteers. She served from 2004 to 2006 helping start a non-profit, the International Partnership for Social Equality, to empower women and children in India and Uganda. She recruited family practitioners and organized health screenings for a home in the red-light district in Kolkata.
Ms. Collins will be co-leading the MOVE service trip to the Dominican Republic over spring break next month, where they will be helping build houses in Acoa, a rural area. Their theme is sustainability in rural areas, to help maintain the natural culture of community that can be destroyed if poor people flock to cities.
Erin Collins is the daughter of Laurie and Richard Collins of Haverhill, Mass.
Saint Michael's College, founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's Best 368 Colleges. A liberal arts, residential, Catholic college, Saint Michael's is located just outside of Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns and less than two hours from Montreal. As one of only 270 institutions nationwide with a prestigious Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus, Saint Michael's has 2,000 full-time undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 200 international students. In recent years Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Science Foundation and other grants, and Saint Michael's professors have been named Vermont Professor of the Year in four of the last eight years. The college is currently listed as one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report rankings.