Community Engagement News

November 13, 2017

In This Issue:

Campus Offers Warm Welcome to Recently Arrived Refugees

Presentation Proposals for Symposium to Highlight Social Responsibility

Community Engagement Award Categories Include “Community Impact”

AmeriCorps VISTA Member Ashton Spangler Completes Service at Barry

Faculty Member Coauthors Chapter on Community-Based Project

Newsletter to Spotlight Students Contributing to Community Impact

Campus Offers Warm Welcome to Recently Arrived Refugees

More refugees are beginning to feel right at home in South Florida, thanks to the collaborative efforts of Barry University’s Center for Community Service Initiatives and the Miami office of Church World Service.

Just the other day, 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 are originally from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Haiti. As they arrived on campus, they were greeted by “welcome” signs in Arabic, Dari, Farsi, and French.

They played Pictionary and musical chairs with students and took part in other fun-filled activities. Later they were fans in the stands at Buccaneer Field, where they watched the Barry Bucs blank Saint Leo Lions 2-0 in a Sunshine State Conference women’s soccer match.

An Iraqi refugee noted that although he and his family had been in the United States for four months, this was the first time they were able to spend time with others.

“We are very grateful for your hospitality,” he said.

The new residents left campus with gifts of household items, school supplies, and toys – and with pleasant memories besides.

Kenneth Fuentes, a resettlement program caseworker in the Doral-based CWS Miami office, was on hand to share in the event.

Earlier this semester, Fuentes participated in a service-learning orientation for the Barry students assigned to CWS Miami. He gave an overview of the refugee resettlement services provided by CWS and outlined ways in which the students could contribute meaningfully.

In all, 30 students enrolled in theology and sociology courses are participating in CWS-related work this semester.

Twenty-four of those students were involved in the Welcome Day event on campus. They generally felt that it was not difficult to connect and communicate with the visitors – adults and children alike – despite some language barriers.

Experiential Learning Coordinator Liz James organized the campus event with assistance from Barry Service Corps Fellows Presler Maxius, Anel Ramirez, and Rajon Wright.

James thanked Barry Athletics for supporting Welcome Day.

Church World Service is a faith-based organization “transforming communities around the globe through just and sustainable responses to hunger, poverty, displacement and disaster.” Since 1946, the organization has provided assistance to refugees, immigrants, and other displaced people.

– By Glenn Bowen

Presentation Proposals for Symposium to Highlight Social Responsibility

The Center for Community Service Initiatives and the QEP (Quality Enhancement Plan) Implementation Committee have issued a joint call for proposals for Barry University’s fifth annual Community Engagement Symposium.

Scheduled for March 28, 2018, the symposium will highlight social responsibility demonstrated through experiential learning.

Proposals are being accepted for concurrent presentations during an hour-long session of the symposium. Successful proposals should highlight 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 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.

There will also be a symposium poster session, for which peer review of proposals is being offered as an option. Further information on the poster session is available from QEP Project Assistant Daniqua Williams at qep@barry.edu.

Community Engagement Award Categories Include “Community Impact”

“Community Impact” is among the categories for which Community Engagement Award nominations are being accepted. That category is reserved for students – individuals as well as organizations.

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 Partnership, 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, beginning at 5 p.m.

AmeriCorps VISTA Member Ashton Spangler Completes Service at Barry

Ashton Spangler, an AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) member completed two years of the service to Barry University on November 3. She served as a program coordinator with the Center for Community Service Initiatives, where she oversaw projects designed to promote equitable communities.

Spangler played a key role in the creation of the Barry FairShare community-supported agriculture project, which was launched in January 2017. Through a partnership with Urban GreenWorks, Barry FairShare provides organic produce to students, faculty, and staff at discounted rates while contributing to the nutritional requirements of low-income residents of Little Haiti and Liberty City.

Coordination of the university’s major days of service was another responsibility assigned to Spangler. Working collaboratively with community organizations, she planned collaborative service projects for the 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance; International Coastal Clean-up Day; Make a Difference Day; and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service.

Spangler served as a mentor to the Barry Service Corps fellows addressing equitable community issues such as poverty and poor educational outcomes. Much of the related efforts involved collaboration with three community partners: Gang Alternative, the Little Haiti Optimist Club, and Little C. Evans K–8 Center in Liberty City.

In addition, Spangler was one of the coordinators of the university’s Move-Out Drive, which diverts mainly clothing and household items from landfills for distribution to community-based organizations.

VISTA members are placed in colleges, universities, and community-based organizations to leverage higher education resources to build organizational and community capacity. Supported by a grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service, Florida Campus Compact placed Spangler at Barry after the CCSI’s successful application for Barry to serve as a VISTA project site in 2015.

Spangler relocated to Miami from her home in Kentucky. Now that her term of service is complete, she will be moving to Shanghai, China, where she will work as an English teacher.

– By Courtney Berrien

Faculty Member Coauthors Chapter on Community-Based Project

Dr. Pamela Hall, associate professor of psychology, is a coauthor of a book chapter on a community-based summer program for Haitian youth.

“Discovering Haitian Youth’s Spiritual Epistemology through a Culturally Based Summer Program in Florida” is the title of the chapter by Charlène Désir, Pamela Hall, Stephanie Shaw, Wideline Seraphin, and Suzanne Gallagher in Les jeunes Haïtiens dans les Amériques / Haitian Youth in the Americas.  

Edited by Louis Herns Marcelin, Toni Cela, and Henri Dorvil, the 2017 book was published in Quebec City, Canada, by Presses de l’Université du Québec.

Désir and Hall are the founders of the Haitian Empowerment Literacy Project, designed primarily “to mentor Haitian youth along the path to college.”

Newsletter to Spotlight Students Contributing to Community Impact

Barry students whose civic engagement has contributed to community impact will be featured in Community Engagement News this academic year.

“Community impact involves sustainable improvements or lasting changes in community conditions that improve people’s lives,” the CCSI said in a statement. “We will profile students who demonstrate the knowledge, skills, values, and motivation to address issues of public concern and to make a difference in the community.”

To nominate a student to be featured in the newsletter, send an email to the editor, Community Engagement News, at service@barry.edu. Student leaders in the Barry Service Corps are not eligible for selection.

Evan Dixon, a graduate assistant in the Department of Communication, has been assigned to write the student profiles this year. His first article will appear in next Monday’s issue of this newsletter.