Community Engagement News

January 8, 2018

In This Issue:

University Observes MLK Day of Service This Saturday

Community Youth Featured in Students’ Typography Compositions

Community Engagement Award Categories Include Engaged Department

Community Engagement Symposium Set for March 28

Next Deliberative Dialogue Scheduled for February 13

Students to Attend Strategy-Building Event Supporting Farmworkers

Students Support Harvest Without Violence Campaign

University Observes MLK Day of Service This Saturday

Barry University will observe Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service this Saturday, January 13. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni will honor the late civil rights leader’s legacy and learn about contemporary social issues through collaborative service.

The service projects will be focused on youth development, education, and environmental justice inMiami’s communities of color. Volunteers will work in community gardens, landscape public spaces, and beautify community centers in LibertyCity, Little Haiti, North Miami, and Virginia Key.

“Where Do You Stand?” is the day’s theme, which alludes to King’s “Strength to Love,” from his 1963 collection of sermons about racial segregation. In that sermon, King said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday is a major opportunity for Americans to honor the late civic rights leader’s legacy through service. After a long struggle, legislation was signed in 1983 creating a federal holiday to mark the King’s birthday. In 1994, Congress designated the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday as a national day of service and charged the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) with leading this effort.

Taking place each year on the third Monday in January, the MLK Day of Service is the only federal holiday observed as a national day of service. According to CNCS, the day is intended to empower individuals, strengthen communities, bridge barriers, create solutions to social problems, and move us closer to King's vision of a “beloved community.”

Barry marks the MLK Day of Service on the Saturday immediately preceding the King holiday. This Saturday’s event will get underway at 8 a.m. and continue until 1 p.m.

During a post-service barbecue on campus, students will use social media and a visual art piece to promote the day’s theme.

To register, visit www.barry.edu/service, click on the “Get involved” link, and follow the prompts.

For more information, contact the Center for Community Service Initiatives at service@barry.edu or 305-899-3696.

Community Youth Featured in Students’ Typography Compositions

Last semester, students taking ART 335 explored the communication of ideas through the use of typography. Then they produced a dozen typography design pieces featuring youth served by Gang Alternative.

As the semester drew to a close, the students exhibited their work in the DePorres Center’s Thompson Hall lounge.

The participating students were Dorcas Chocolate, Daisean Foster, Francisco Garcia, Chantal Gonzalez, Danielle Harkins, Francesca Marcos, Ashley Nudd, Savannah Parker, Eva Patyi, Daniel Rodriguez, Ruth Similien, and Ana Smith.

Nicole Beltran, associate professor of graphic design, had guided her students in producing positive images reflecting design creativity.

Wearing 3-D glasses, viewers of the exhibits were able to see all three dimensions of the visual compositions.

Early in the semester, Beltran met with representatives of Gang Alternative, the Little Haiti-based organization dedicated to building character through academic, physical, and social activities as well as family support. In October, Gang Alternative staff members came to campus to meet Beltran's students, talk about the organization’s mission, and introduce the community youth via video clips. Then, in early November, the course instructor took her students to Little Haiti to get to know the middle-school-aged youth better.

It was an opportunity for the students to make a note of words that the youth valued and also self-describing words. Those words became part of the typography pieces, which were given to the featured students.

Gang Alternative lead staff member Farllond Alexis called the typography project “exceptional.” She said the students’ work was “so far beyond our expectations.”

Beltran said the typography project was “a rich and rewarding experience” for her students.

Among academic administrators who viewed the typography exhibits were Dr. John Murray, provost; Dr. Victor Romano, associate vice provost for student success and undergraduate studies; Dr. Karen Callaghan, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; Dr. Gloria Schaab, chair of the Department of Theology and Philosophy; and Dr. Gary Grizzle, chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology.

The Center for Community Service Initiatives was a sponsor of the exhibition.

Community Engagement Award Categories Include Engaged Department

Engaged Department is among the categories for which Community Engagement Award nominations are being accepted.

Students, faculty, staff, and administrators are invited to submit nominations by January 26.

The nomination form is available in CEMS – the Community Engagement Management System.

The other award categories are Community Impact, Community Partnership, Community-Based Research, Engaged Scholarship, Community Engagement Educator, and Service-Learning Faculty.

The fifth annual Community Engagement Awards will be held on March 28, 2018.

Community Engagement Symposium Set for March 28

The Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) and the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Implementation Committee will host Barry’s fifth annual Community Engagement Symposium on March 28.

Proposals for concurrent-session presentations are being accepted. The deadline for submission is January 26.

For further information, contact the CCSI atservice@barry.edu or QEP staff at qep@barry.edu.

Next Deliberative Dialogue Scheduled for February 13

The next forum in this year’s Deliberative Dialogue Series will focus on the issue of feminism. Titled “Feminism Today: Inclusive Modern Movement or Outdated Relic?” the 90-minute forum will be held on February 13, in Andreas 112, beginning at 4 p.m.

TheCenter for Community Service Initiatives organizes the Deliberative Dialogue Series as a method of civic learning and engagement in addressing social issues of current concern. The series brings together campus and community stakeholders to weigh perspectives about the issues and to work towards practical solutions.

Students to Attend Strategy-Building Event Supporting Farmworkers

Two Barry student leaders will attend a national strategy-building event in Columbus,Ohio, this weekend, in support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW) Campaign for Fair Food.

Paris Razor and Anel Ramirez will join college students and youth from across the country at the Student/Farmworker Alliance’s (SFA) Encuentro, which includes workshops, in-depth training sessions, and campaign-planning exercises, and a public demonstration.

Razor and Ramirez are fellows in the Barry Service Corps, and Razor is an SFA steering committee member.

Encuentro is described as “an SFA annual tradition where young organizers from across the country build strategy in the Campaign for Fair Food, share organizing skills, and reflect on their role in working shoulder-to-shoulder with farmworkers in the struggle for dignity in the fields.”

The SFA is “a national network of students and young people organizing with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to uproot exploitation in the fields and build a food system based on justice, respect and dignity for farmworkers.”

In a statement, the SFA said, “We’re introducing an exciting twist to our annual gathering this year. As the farmworker community works to get back on its feet after Hurricane Irma, instead of converging in our traditional gathering location in Immokalee, FL, the Encuentro will be hosted at the heart of the Wendy’s Boycott in Columbus, OH.”

The SFA has been leading a boycott of the fast-food chain because of its refusal to support the CIW’s Fair Food Program.

Each year, students and young people from across the country gather for a weekend of creativity, strategizing, skill-building, and reflection to strengthen the SFA network. They build relationships with like-minded youth leaders while interacting face-to-face with the Immokalee farmworker community to better understand how students and young people can work in solidarity with farmworkers in the fight for dignity, respect, and justice in the U.S. food system. 

The 2018 SFA Encuentro will be held at The Ohio State University from Friday (January 12) through next Monday (January 15).

Razor recently organized a public demonstration to support the CIW’s Harvest Without Violence campaign

Students Support Harvest Without Violence Campaign

Some 70 Barry students supported the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW) Harvest Without Violence campaign recently. The placard-carrying students took part in a public demonstration in Miami as part of the campaign to draw attention to the abuses women face in Florida’s fields.

Barry Service Corps Fellow Paris Razor organized the social justice event with support from Center for Community Service Initiatives and CIW staff. Razor is a member of the steering committee of the Student/Farmworker Alliance, an allied or SFA.

In all, more than 175 students, farmworkers and family members, and other concerned community members took part in the march. Most of the demonstrators were from Barry and St. Thomas University.