Through new ideas, planning and passion for the homeless, two Belmont students hope to change the way Nashville looks at homeless people.

    Cash Forshee, a junior, and Micah Oelze, a sophomore, both active with Mobile Loaves and Fishes, an organization that feeds the homeless, created an exhibit of photographs taken by homeless people they encountered through Mobile Loaves and Fishes.

    “I believe the first step is always awareness,” Forshee said about his hopes to create change, and the exhibit was a way for him to do that.

    More than 150 visitors, including students and other members of the Nashville community, attended the opening night April 9. The university communications department sent out press releases about the exhibit, which will later travel to five different churches in the area.

    The students’ main goals were to humanize and undo stereotypes about the homeless, Forshee said.  He wants to get rid of misconceptions. “They are just like me.  They just don’t have a house,” he said.

    Forshee and Oelze hope to meet these goals with the exhibit and by continuing to work to achieve them when the exhibit ends. “In a lot of ways, me and Micah are back at the drawing board trying to figure out how to get people more aware,” Forshee said.

    Oelze agreed. “I just want awareness, and I want people to feel the responsibility they have to each other and to take their individual parts,” he said.

    The project wasn’t just the work of two students, Forshee said. They received help from Mobile Loaves and Fishes, the sociology department, the art department and their friends.

    Forshee and Oelze also held a benefit concert for the homeless in January.