Developmental Program Model

The Ozanam Scholars Program is a four-year developmental model with a central purpose to educate and foster students’ academic, leadership, service and Vincentian development, leading participants to the ability to actively research and create solutions to issues of poverty. 

Participants of the Ozanam Scholars Program will research issues of poverty and social justice on the local, national and international level.  Graduates of the program will go into the world well-educated in the charism of St. Vincent de Paul and prepared to live and serve as civic-minded individuals with a preferential option for the poor.

Ozanam Scholars will be afforded the opportunity to study the causes and effects of poverty through classroom study and research, participating directly in service that is in response to community-defined needs and assisting directly in determining pragmatic solutions to the plight of the poor.  As members of a community-based research team, students will work to measure and assess their efforts to connect action and outcome to ensure positive results and real change in the lives of the poor and marginalized.

The following serves as the themes of each of the four years:

  1. Social Justice, Leadership, and the Vincentian Family
  2. Strategic Service, Mentorship, and Research Techniques
  3. Community-Based Research Partnerships and Global Exploration
  4. Research Outcomes: Analyzing and Eradicating Poverty