2008 Woodie Awards
Acting on advocacy
A professor's passion encourages students to find their voices
Katie Bray
Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: Features
He is the voice for Oxford residents when they need to take a stand, an activist, helping holocaust survivors share their stories to the public. To Miami University, he is a professor who wants his students to learn to make a difference in the world by fighting with passion.
Students can't seem to add his class fast enough to be one of the 40 to take Ben Voth's capstone course, Advocacy in Contemporary America.
Voth has been teaching this class for 10 years, prompting students to use their five first Amendment rights in order to have a voice in society.
"I love America," Voth said. "When I think about the First Amendment, I'm like 'Wow, it's so awesome that we can say what we want.' And this advocacy class makes (the students) able to speak for themselves to make a difference, not just for profit in jobs, and that's my vision."
Some of the things his students have spoken up for in his capstone class can be seen around campus, from ash trays that are now located further away from campus buildings to benches next to the Bachelor Hall bus stop to aid disabled passengers.
Many of the projects are also lasting in more ways than physical structures, such as a project that now provides free housing for students who have been in foster care up through college.
Last year, Miami graduate Drew Johnson took students to New Orleans on a trip sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ as his advocacy project, aimed toward providing relief from Hurricane Katrina.
For Johnson his passion didn't end with his final grade in the class, as he is currently facilitating the Katrina Spring Break trip for 2008.
And Johnson is far from the only student Voth remains in contact with.
When former student Terri Donofrio had to find a speaker for summer workshops with holocaust survivors at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., she asked Voth to fill that position.
This was an experience he said has fulfilled his dream as a teacher-to give others the power to find a voice in order to tell their stories.
Students can't seem to add his class fast enough to be one of the 40 to take Ben Voth's capstone course, Advocacy in Contemporary America.
Voth has been teaching this class for 10 years, prompting students to use their five first Amendment rights in order to have a voice in society.
"I love America," Voth said. "When I think about the First Amendment, I'm like 'Wow, it's so awesome that we can say what we want.' And this advocacy class makes (the students) able to speak for themselves to make a difference, not just for profit in jobs, and that's my vision."
Some of the things his students have spoken up for in his capstone class can be seen around campus, from ash trays that are now located further away from campus buildings to benches next to the Bachelor Hall bus stop to aid disabled passengers.
Many of the projects are also lasting in more ways than physical structures, such as a project that now provides free housing for students who have been in foster care up through college.
Last year, Miami graduate Drew Johnson took students to New Orleans on a trip sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ as his advocacy project, aimed toward providing relief from Hurricane Katrina.
For Johnson his passion didn't end with his final grade in the class, as he is currently facilitating the Katrina Spring Break trip for 2008.
And Johnson is far from the only student Voth remains in contact with.
When former student Terri Donofrio had to find a speaker for summer workshops with holocaust survivors at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., she asked Voth to fill that position.
This was an experience he said has fulfilled his dream as a teacher-to give others the power to find a voice in order to tell their stories.
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