Community Engagement News

November 20, 2017

In This Issue:

Make a Difference Day Projects Support Food Security, Homelessness Relief Efforts

Medjine Presendieu Balances College and Community Obligations

Organizers Call for Concurrent-Session Proposals for Symposium

Community Engagement Award Categories Include Community Partnership

CCSI Offering Two Service-Learning Fellowships for 2018–2019

Engaged Scholarship Seminar Set for Next Thursday

Make a Difference Day Projects Support Food Security, Homelessness Relief Efforts

Nearly 100 Barry University students, together with alumni and staff members, contributed recently to community service projects designed to address hunger and homelessness in Miami-Dade neighborhoods.

On Make a Difference Day, students taking university orientation and service-learning courses, as well as volunteers, turned out to support efforts by some of Barry’s community partners to improve food security and respond to the needs of people experiencing homelessness. A few alumni and staff members were there to lend a hand.

Some volunteers did maintenance work in community gardens; others painted buildings that house youth living in crisis; yet others sorted and delivered donations of clothes and supplies. Volunteers also helped to restore facilities damaged by Hurricane Irma in September.

Barry’s community partners for Make a Difference Day projects were American International Relief, Apostolic Faith Church, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Life of Freedom Center, Little Haiti Optimist Club, Miami Bridge Youth and Family Services, Pridelines, and Urban GreenWorks.

Miami Rescue Mission received donations of supplies for its downtown Miami shelter.

The Make a Difference Day project facilitators were student leaders from the Barry Service Corps. Staff members representing the Office of Alumni Relations, the Adrian DominicanSchool of Education’s CARE (Counseling, Assessment, Research, and Education) Center, and the Department of Marketing and Communications contributed to project implementation.

The Center for Community Service Initiatives coordinates community service projects for Make a Difference Day – the fourth Saturday of October – with support from the Major Days of Service Committee. Members of the committee include Meghan Homer, Amanda Knight, Susan Kramer, Amanda McDole, Daisy Santiago, Karen Subran, Kimberly Timpone, and Judisha Williams.

Medjine Presendieu Balances College and Community Obligations

“It makes you feel like you’re doing something right.”

Those are the words of Medjine Presendieu, a junior in the nursing program at BarryUniversity.

Presendieu recalls her freshman year, when she first saw the opportunity to serve as a tutor at W. J. Bryan Elementary School. When she encountered the CCSI work-study opportunity, she declared, “I had to do it.”

Two years after her declaration, Presendieu is now a familiar figure in the classrooms at the North Miami School, and her dedication to impacting the community is still strong. Balancing her college and community obligations is not easy, she says, but seeing the children progress keeps her motivated.

She says statements like “Oh my …, we miss you!” and “We want you to come all the time” make going to W. J. Bryan a little easier, on even the hardest days.

Children at risk of being held back are comfortably moving to the higher grades. Stories of children unable to read and of a child just coming from Haiti unable to keep up, but now excelling in the fifth grade, are common, according to Presendieu.

She says, “If you want this experience, you want to see these kids look up to you, you want to make an impact on someone’s life, then you definitely have to be a part of this.”

And if you need extra motivation, Presendieu has a question for you: “Think about yourself, when you were younger. Did anyone help or motivate you?”

Organizers Call for Concurrent-Session Proposals for Symposium

Concurrent-session proposals for Barry University’s fifth annual Community Engagement Symposium are now being accepted. Like the symposium itself, proposals for hour-long presentations should highlight social responsibility demonstrated through experiential learning.

Successful proposals will emphasize aspects or features of experiential learning activities that engage students, as well as faculty and staff, with community partners at the local, regional, state, national, and/or global levels to achieve social responsibility goals. Proposals should specify the social issues addressed; the strategies, programs/projects, and related activities undertaken; and the social responsibility outcomes achieved.

All proposals for concurrent-session presentations at the March 28 symposium will be peer reviewed and should be submitted by January 26.

Additional information and the proposal form are available in the Community Engagement Management System, accessed from the CCSI homepage, and directly from the CCSI via email, ccsi@barry.edu.

The Center for Community Service Initiatives is organizing the symposium with support from the QEP (Quality Enhancement Plan) Implementation Committee.

Community Engagement Award Categories Include Community Partnership

Community Partnership 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-Based Research, Engaged Scholarship, Community Engagement Educator, Service-Learning Faculty, and Engaged Department.

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

CCSI Offering Two Service-Learning Fellowships for 2018–2019

The Center for Community Service Initiatives will award two service-learning fellowships to faculty members for the 2018–2019 academic year.

The CCSI has offered service-learning fellowships, which include course releases, since 2012. Through the annual fellowships, successful applicants participate in a yearlong faculty development program focused on service-learning pedagogy, practice, and associated scholarship.

Faculty members are invited to apply for next year’s fellowships by January 15.

Engaged Scholarship Seminar Set for Next Thursday

An Engaged Scholarship Seminar is scheduled for next Thursday, November 29, from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. The CCSI will host the seminar in Adrian Hall, Room 208.

The seminar is part of the program of the Faculty Learning Community for Engaged Scholarship, a cross-disciplinary group of faculty members who participate in a collaborative program focused on the scholarship of engagement.

The FLC’s Engaged Scholarship Seminar is open to all faculty members.