August 9, 2021
IN THIS ISSUE
- Community Engagement Symposium to Focus on Community Impact in Student Learning Context
- Students Support Work of Agency Handling Refugee Resettlement Locally
- Resources for Critical Reflection Available in Community Engagement Library
Community Engagement Symposium To Focus On Community Impact In Student Learning Context
Nationally Recognized Scholar Will Be Keynote Presenter
Community impact and student learning are key elements of the theme of Barry’s eighth annual Community Engagement Symposium, scheduled for the last Wednesday of March next year.
“Effectively Balancing Community Impact With Student Learning Outcomes” will be the theme of the daylong conference, which will feature a nationally recognized community engagement scholar–practitioner as the keynote presenter.
“The theme of the symposium is consonant with the focus of the 2021–2026 strategic plan for community engagement at Barry,” the organizers have pointed out. “Barry’s community engagement initiatives over the next five years will emphasize student success and community impact. Programs and events will be designed to support student persistence and achievement while contributing measurably to community improvement.”
The Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) is working on the strategic plan, which will keep signature programs and events in place while incorporating special projects in support of the university’s strategic enrollment and student retention goals.
Students are among the presenters at the annual symposium.
The symposium supports the continued implementation and evaluation of Barry’s first Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), which is titled “Promoting Personal and Social Responsibility Through Experiential Learning.”
The event provides an opportunity to share strategies for effective university–community partner collaboration while highlighting the outcomes of service-learning courses, community-based research, and cocurricular civic engagement.
The 2021 symposium was a virtual event based on the theme “Engagement in Purposeful Projects: From Awareness to Action.” Dr. Caryn McTighe Musil, former senior vice president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, was the lead presenter.
Students, faculty, and staff as well as community partners will be invited to submit proposals for presentations at the 2022 symposium. The CCSI will issue a call for proposals in September.
Students Support Work Of Agency Handling Refugee Resettlement Locally
Children from Afghanistan and Pakistan arrive on campus for a day of fun-filled activities. The children’s families were given asylum in the United States after fleeing violence in their homelands. Church World Service is responsible for settling the families in their new homes and providing them with social services during their first three months in the United States.
During the first 10 years of the Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI), students supported the work of Church World Service (CWS) South Florida, the agency handling the resettlement of refugees locally.
Students assisted with Welcome Day events on campus and in the community. They also helped with an annual Thanksgiving event in Miami Lakes.
“Barry students provided tutoring and mentoring services, helped to set up apartments for new families, and engaged in multiple advocacy campaigns in support of refugee-friendly policies,” noted CCSI staff member Liz James. “Students and faculty have benefited as well through real-world learning experiences and curriculum enhancement.”
A global humanitarian nonprofit organization, CWS is one of nine U.S. resettlement agencies. Operating in more than 30 countries, CWS offers refugee and immigrant assistance, disaster relief, and sustainable self-help.
Since the 2014–2015 academic year, the CCSI has worked collaboratively with CWS South Florida mainly through the Miami office in Doral.
Academic Year 2015–2016
As part of their orientation, Barry Service Corps Fellows visited the CWS Miami office, where they got an overview of refugee issues from the organization’s resource developer, Phillip Rincon, a Barry alumnus. Afterwards, they helped to prepare clothing donations for refugee families from the Congo and Cuba.
As a Make a Difference Day (October 24) project, a group of students wrote members of Congress urging them to support an increase in the number of Syrian refugees in the United States.
The following month (on November 7), Barry volunteers facilitated sports and recreational activities for children of refugee families as part of the CWS Youth and Family Day. And volunteers also assisted with the 8th Annual Refugee Children’s Thanksgiving Celebration on November 14, when CWS Miami provided special meals to recent arrivals in the United States.
As part of 40 Days of Peace (January 18–February 26)—celebrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—students posted statistics on Syrian refugees. According to CWS, more than four million Syrian refugees were then seeking safety in countries across the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.
Academic Year 2016–2017
Some members of Afghan, Pakistani, and Colombian families are pictured in the bleachers at Buccaneer Field in Miami Shores for a soccer match. With support from Barry Athletics, the CCSI coordinated the Family Day event on a Saturday in October 2016. Barry Service Corps Fellows and students taking service-learning courses assisted with hosting the family members.
Within the space of six weeks, Barry students, supported by staff and faculty, played a big part in making resettling refugees feel welcome in their new homeland. And three months later, the willing hosts were at it again.
First, it was the CWS Miami Family Day, which Barry hosted on October 1. The university welcomed some 35 members of refugee families who had recently arrived in the United States. Families from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Colombia came to campus for the event coordinated by the CCSI.
Next, on Nov. 12, more than 50 resettled refugees from Afghanistan, Burma, Colombia, Congo, Iraq, Pakistan, and Somalia got an early taste of an American tradition, thanks to CWS and local supporters, including Barry University and Miami Lakes Congregational Church. It was the CWS-sponsored 9th Annual Thanksgiving Celebration.
Then on Feb. 25, Barry students hung out the welcome sign for 24 refugees from Afghanistan, Colombia, Eritrea, Iraq, Pakistan, and Somalia. They gathered at Griffing Park in North Miami for the Welcome Day event organized by the CCSI in partnership with the local CWS.
Preeti Charania, the Service-Learning and Social Work Practice (SW 323) course instructor, participated alongside her students and delighted those who, like her, speak or understand Urdu.
Church World Service Miami’s Resource Developer Phillip Rincon (left) and Barry Service Corps Fellow Presler Maxius participate in a deliberative dialogue on the refugee situation.
At a forum in the 2016–2017 Deliberative Dialogue Series, students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members grappled with issues pertaining to refugees in the wake of anti-immigration sentiment reported by the news media. Titled “Welcoming Refugees or Closing Our Borders,” the 90-minute forum focused largely on the complex social, political, and economic issues that influence policy decisions and levels of humanitarian support given to refugee families.
As part of a Civil and Human Rights Awareness Campaign during the spring semester, BSC Fellows circulated a petition asking the government to support refugee resettlement in the United States. The student leaders argued that ending resettlement “undermines our nation’s founding principles of being a beacon of freedom and hope.”
Academic Year 2017–2018
Student Isaias Trujillo talks with a Cuban family attending Church World Service Miami’s 10th Annual Thanksgiving Celebration.
One day during the fall, a 25-member group gathered on campus, where they felt the warmth of the welcome and got a taste of Barry’s cultural diversity. The recent arrivals were originally from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Haiti. As they arrived on campus, they were greeted by “welcome” signs in Arabic, Dari, Farsi, and French.
Kenneth Fuentes, a resettlement program case manager in the CWS Miami office, was on hand to share in the event. Earlier in the semester, Fuentes participated in a service-learning orientation for the Barry students assigned to the agency. The students later assisted with the 10th Annual Thanksgiving Celebration at the Miami Lakes Congregational Church.
Academic Year 2018–2019
Student Kiana Dyer treats an Ethiopian girl to face painting at CWS Miami’s 11th Annual Thanksgiving Celebration in Miami Lakes.
Senior students taking Community/Public Health Nursing (NUR 422) practiced public health interventions by implementing service-learning projects during the fall semester. The group assigned to CWS Miami won a poster competition among NUR 422 students. “Refugees of North Miami: Navigating Health Care” was the winning poster by Olivia Ferguson, Christina Gucciardo, Gabriela Guttierez, Roselaure Isma, Nickayla Richards, Yesenia Serra, and Madison Shields.
The first of three Saturdays of Service on the year’s community engagement calendar supported refugee resettlement. “You are welcome here” was the message conveyed to recently arrived refugees who gathered on campus on October 20. The Welcome Day activities included games such as Pictionary and Jenga, musical chairs, face painting, and pickup soccer. The new Miami-Dade residents left campus with a few small gifts, and broad smiles on their faces.
Also during the 2018–2019 academic year, Ph.D. students in the School of Education completed a community-based research project focused on the refugee experience. With Professor Ruth Ban, the students—Xiaoxi Dong, Orlando Cardozo, Dorise Berrouet, Annette Cardozo, Aleksandar Chonevski, Marvin Hattaway, Marius Knowlin, and Verona Nisbeth-Hart—made a presentation on “Intersecting Communities and Their Stories of Belonging” at a regional conference in February.
The CCSI has been marking its 10th anniversary by featuring programs and partnerships as well as major events reflecting achievements in community engagement.
Because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, students did not serve with CWS during the 2019–2020 academic year. James, the CCSI staffer, served as a volunteer tutor via WhatsApp video calls. She helped a family resettled from Cuba develop conversational English skills.
Academic year 2020–2021 saw a quartet of social work students assisting a Honduran and a Pakistani family settle into their new home. Nicole Ortiz, Rafaela Garcia, Matthieu Walker, and Constanza Veliz worked in pairs, tutoring family members. They used a tutoring guide developed by Dr. Jennie Ricketts-Duncan, an associate professor in the School of Education.
The students also helped the resettling refugees navigate the school system, including the enrollment process, and obtain state-issued identification cards.
James, whose role in the CCSI includes coordinating community partnerships, learned from CWS Miami that 90 percent of Miami-Dade County’s recently resettled refugees reside in North Miami. “This presents an incredible opportunity for Barry University—just 10 minutes away—to continue putting our core commitments into action in support of refugee resettlement,” she said last week.
Barry’s core commitments are knowledge and truth, inclusive community, social justice, and collaborative service.
Resources For Critical Reflection Available In Community Engagement Library
The CCSI’s Community Engagement Library has a collection of resources—books, journal articles, and fact sheets—on reflection. An element of experiential learning, reflection is particularly critical to service-learning.
Below is a list of some of the reflection resources available from the CCSI. Most resources may be shared electronically.
- “ABCs of Reflection: A Template for Students and Instructors to Implement Written Reflection in Service Learning” (Welch, 1999).
- “Analyzing Reflections in Service Learning to Promote Personal Growth and Community Self-Efficacy” (Sanders et al., 2016).
- “The Articulated Learning: An Approach to Guided Reflection and Assessment” (Ash & Clayton, 2004).
- “Connecting Thinking and Action: Ideas for Service-Learning Reflection” (RMC Research Corporation, 2004).
- “Designing Effective Reflection: What Matters to Service-Learning?” (Hatcher et al., 2004).
- “Engaging All Partners in Reflection: Designing and Implementing Integrative Reflection Opportunities” (Rice, n.d.).
- “Evidences of Transformative Learning in Service-Learning Reflections” (Hullender et al., 2015).
- “Facilitating Reflection: A Manual for Leaders and Educators” (Reed & Koliba, 1995).
- “Guide to Integrating Reflection Into Field-Based Courses” (Amulya, 2004).
- “Integrating Reflection and Assessment to Capture and Improve Student Learning” (Ash et al., 2005).
- “Looking Back Across the Years: Alumni Reflections on a Community Design Service Learning Experience” (Plein, 2011).
- “Reading, Writing, and Reflection” (Cooper, 1998).
- “Reflection in Higher Education Service-Learning” (Ahmed et al., 2008).
- “Reflection in Service Learning: Making Meaning of Experience” (Bringle & Hatcher, 1999).
- “Reflection: Linking Service and Learning—Linking Students and Communities” (Eyler, 2002).
- “Reflection Matters: Connecting Theory to Practice in Service-Learning Courses” (Henry, 2004).
- “Reflection Methods and Activities for Service Learning: A Student Manual and Workbook” (Bowen, 2007).
- “The Reflective Judgment Model: Implications for Service-Learning and Reflection” (Wolcott & Lynch, 2000).
- “Methods of Theological Reflection in the Summer Service Learning Program: Integrating Spirituality and Civic Engagement” (Shappell, 2006).
- “What’s the DEAL? Program Level Examination of Reflection Design” (Tolar & Gott, 2012).
CIVIC LEARNING AND DEMOCRATIC ENGAGEMENT: As part of Barry University’s community engagement strategy, a major program, project, and event have been established specifically to promote civic learning and democratic engagement.
HURRICANE RELIEF: Over the years, Barry volunteers and donors supported hurricane relief efforts locally and abroad.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT LIBRARY: During the first 10 years of the Center for Community Service Initiatives, CCSI staff collected, classified, and made available a large number of publications covering service-learning and community engagement.
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