The Shepherd Poverty Program

Washington and Lee University's Shepherd Program for the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability integrates academic study with community service and reflection. It has three principal aims.

• It endeavors to inform students about poverty and what can be done to foster human capabilities for communities and individuals who have been left behind in domestic and international development.
  
  
• It promotes a structure for student leadership and volunteer service in the Rockbridge community as a part of Washington and Lee's effort to promote a healthy campus environment that accentuates student honor, leadership, and learning.
  
  
• In keeping with our university mission to cultivate a readiness to sacrifice on behalf of others, the Shepherd Program seeks to offer opportunities for students to acquire skills and qualities of character that dispose them to serve communities and disadvantaged individuals.

In combination, this threefold effort helps our graduates develop a stronger sense of vocation. We hope they will be conscious of how their conduct as professionals and citizens will affect the opportunities of disadvantaged persons to contribute to a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities.

The Program currently boasts two interdisciplinary academic courses, an introductory level course and a capstone course; an eight-week summer internship program, the Shepherd Alliance, that this summer placed fifty-five students from Washington and Lee, Berea College, Morehouse College, and Spelman College in domestic and international placements ranging from homeless shelters and free clinics to legal aid offices and economic development corporations; and Project Outreach, a pre-orientation program for sixty incoming freshmen.

Learn more by visiting the Shepherd Program Web site.