February 18, 2019 | ||||
Campus Garden Providing Experiential Learning Opportunities to Students and Community Youth Middle-School Children Learning Math with a Little Help from Barry Students Faculty Learning Community to Meet This Afternoon at 2 o’clock Key Questions about Opioid Addiction to be Answered at Thursday’s Deliberative Dialogue CCSI Accepting Applications for Service-Learning Course Designation College Brides Walk to Raise Awareness of Dating Violence Postponed Organizers Urge Continued Support for Box Tops for Education Drive Full-time and AmeriCorps Positions for Graduating Seniors Available at Impact America
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How Does Our Garden Grow?
By Glenn Bowen
Seeds have been germinating, roots emerging, shoots sprouting. Most of the vegetables and herbs in the garden on campus are at the vegetative stage; some are beginning to bud; a few are already flowering.
The promise of experiential learning opportunities is already being fulfilled.
The Barry Urban Garden – aka the BUG – is an initiative that has grown out of the Barry FairShare project and now encompasses it. Launched last November, the BUG is described as “a values-based community agriculture initiative” that will provide produce to low-income residents in nearby neighborhoods categorized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as “urban food deserts.”
The garden itself is occupying small spaces adjacent to Powers Hall – on the southwestern side of the building, which is home to the Adrian Dominican School of Education.
Students in Barry’s undergraduate nursing program did some research regarding the medicinal properties and benefits of plants. They surveyed local community residents to find out the medicinal plants they knew from their native countries and would like to see in the BUG.
There is now a garden plot reserved for medicinal plants. Aloe vera has taken root there. So have calendula, chanca piedra, comfrey, and vervain.
People use aloe vera gel as a salve for burns and skin ailments; calendula has been used for treating various conditions – from diaper rash and sore throat to jaundice and hemorrhoids. Some householders swear by comfrey; they used it as a tea for upset stomach, ulcers, heavy menstrual periods, diarrhea, and the like. Chanca piedra and vervain are considered good medicinal plants as well.
Springing up in the garden are root vegetables such as carrots, sweet potatoes, and radishes as well as fruit such as papaya and banana. There you’ll also find flowering plants – amaranth, marigold, and Spanish needle among them.
Kale, green onions, bell peppers, corn, basil, oregano: Those are growing in the garden too.
Supervised by BUG Coordinator Asha Starks, students have been checking the seedlings regularly to ensure that they get sufficient water and light, and are left in soil at the right temperature.
Meanwhile, a small team of Barry math students are using the garden as an experiential learning site for their service-learning project benefiting middle-school children in Miami’s Gang Alternative program. The Gang Alternative group will solve “a real-life problem” pertaining to an irregularly shaped area that the garden occupies.
The Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) launched Barry FairShare in January 2017 as a project to advance community-supported agriculture. The project was focused on providing produce to campus and earnings for small farmers while improving food security in neighborhoods near campus.
The CCSI developed the project in partnership with Urban GreenWorks, a local environmental and food-access organization, whose Cerasee Farm is located in Liberty City. Faculty, staff, and students have participated in Barry FairShare by purchasing produce harvested from Cerasee and other sustainable small farms.
Now part of the BUG, Barry FairShare will resume this month with a farmers stand on campus. Produce from community-based farms will be sold on campus.
Roger Horne, director of community health initiatives at Urban GreenWorks, is a special advisor to the BUG Committee.
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Middle-School Children Learning Math with a Little Help from Barry Students
Tracey Presume, Kerri Richardson, and Melody Williams are helping middle-school children get excited about math.
The Barry undergraduates are applying skills learned in Dr. Sanja Zivanovic’s calculus class as they tutor children in Miami’s Gang Alternative program.
The children themselves expressed their need for help with math.
By semester’s end, the children are expected to learn how to “solve a real-life problem with the lessons learned,” said Liz James, experiential learning coordinator. “The students and GA youth will work to design a planting pattern for an irregularly shaped area of the Barry Urban Garden.”
Gang Alternative is a faith-based organization dedicated to fostering academic excellence and character development of inner-city youth. The organization provides programs aimed at preventing violence and delinquency while promoting self-sufficiency.
Presume, Richardson, and Williams go to Gang Alternative’s Little Haiti site once a week to work with the children.
As part of their reflection, the tutors and Gang Alternative are expected to share elements of their service-learning project during the Poster Session of Barry’s Community Engagement Symposium on March 27.
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Faculty Learning Community to Meet This Afternoon at 2 o’clock
The semester’s second meeting of the Faculty Learning Community for Engaged Scholarship (FLC) will be held this afternoon (February 18). The CCSI will host the meeting from 2:00 to 3:15 p.m. in Adrian 208.
Members as well as prospective members are invited to the meeting.
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Key Questions about Opioid Addiction to be Answered at Thursday’s Deliberative Dialogue
What role have pharmaceutical companies played in the growing rates of drug addiction? Does Florida’s booming drug rehabilitation industry provide needed resources to individuals and families seeking help, or does it contribute to the numbers of drug addicts on our streets? Will changes to drug laws prevent drug-related deaths or push users and dealers further underground? What creative solutions can help to stem the rampant overdoses and high rates of addiction?
Those are key questions to which answers will be sought during Thursday’s deliberative dialogue on Florida’s opioid epidemic.
Community experts, students and alumni, and faculty and staff members will participate in the forum. The 90-minute forum is slated for Andreas 112 beginning at 4 p.m.
For more information, contact the Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) at service@barry.edu or 305-899-3696.
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CCSI Accepting Applications for Service-Learning Course Designation
The Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) is inviting faculty members whose courses include a service-learning component to apply for the service-learning designation.
Sections of courses, internships, practicum assignments, field education, capstones, community-based research, and similar community-focused or community-based work also may be designated as service-learning.
“Designating courses as service-learning promotes deep integration of thoughtfully organized community service into the curriculum and high standards of service-learning practice,” according to a statement from the CCSI. “Service-learning courses demonstrate the value of applied learning, student engagement with the community, and critical reflection.”
The statement also says the service-learning notation in the course schedule “confirms that Barry University is using the curriculum to meet its commitment to collaborative service in community settings.”
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College Brides Walk to Raise Awareness of Dating Violence Postponed
The ninth annual College Brides Walk, which is part of a campaign to raise awareness about dating and domestic violence, has been postponed. Slated for February 15, the event will be rescheduled for next month.
College Brides Walk commemorates the death of Gladys Ricart, who was murdered by an ex-boyfriend on her wedding day in 1999.
Each year, hundreds of college and high school students, faculty and staff, and community members take part in the event, highlighted by the walk from Barry’s campus to Johnson and Wales University in North Miami.
For additional information, contact Dr. Laura Finley, College Brides Walk organizer, at lfinley@barry.edu.
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Organizers Urge Continued Support for Box Tops for Education Drive
Faculty and staff members, as well as students, are urged to continue supporting the Box Tops for Education Drive.
Proceeds of the project benefit two South Florida elementary schools – North Miami in Miami-Dade County and Sheridan Hills in Broward. The schools earn 10 cents for each Box Tops clip.
Box Tops clips from household products may be dropped in the labeled boxes found in the CCSI office (Adrian 208), the Monsignor William Barry Memorial Library, and Thompson Hall. Alternatively, donations may be sent to Dr. Stephanie Bingham in the Department of Biology, Siena 309.
Cereals, household-cleaning supplies, paper products, and school supplies are on the list of eligible products found at the following site: <http://www.boxtops4education.com/earn/participating-products>.
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Full-time and AmeriCorps Positions for Graduating Seniors Available at Impact America
Impact America is inviting current college seniors and recent graduates to apply for full-time and AmeriCorps positions that will become available in July.
The nationally recognized nonprofit organization has announced that full-time positions will be available in Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina.
AmeriCorps member positions at Impact America combine service with Impact America’s “nationally unique initiatives,” including FocusFirst, a high-tech vision-care initiative for preschool children; SaveFirst, a tax-preparation initiative serving low-income families; and SpeakFirst, a debate initiative for talented and motivated middle- and high-school students in Alabama. An additional initiative, Stories from the Line, “navigates the complexities of poverty through the development of a series of short films.”
AmeriCorps member positions will be available in Birmingham, Ala.; Memphis, Tenn.; Tallahassee, Fla.; and Greenville, S.C.
According to Impact America, applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and the priority deadline for applications is March 3.
To apply: <https://impactamerica.com/corps-program-application/>
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