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Students Support Efforts to Increase Community Access to Healthy Produce
A small team of Barry students spent a recent Saturday morning weeding and preparing garden beds at Cerasee Farm in Liberty
The Saturday of Service project was organized in support of efforts to increase community access to healthy produce. The participating students chose to address food access issues as part of a service-learning course in the Department of Theology and Philosophy.
The United States Department of Agriculture classifies Liberty City as an urban food desert.
Earlier in the semester, the students assisted in sorting and packing produce for Barry FairShare, a community-supported agriculture project coordinated by the Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) in partnership with Urban GreenWorks.
A local organization that renews neglected urban spaces and provides nutrition and environmental education, Urban GreenWorks manages the 1,800 square-foot fruit and vegetable farm in Liberty City.
The organization’s mission is to “provide environmental projects and food security programming to underserved urban communities throughout South Florida.” Anita Francetti, Cerasee Farm manager, oversaw the Saturday of Service project and trained students in effective gardening methods.
The CCSI coordinates Saturdays of Service throughout the academic year. The service days are planned cooperatively with Barry’s community partners in order to meet specific community-identified needs.
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Communication Students Complete Social Advocacy Projects
Students enrolled in COM 201: Introduction to Communication engaged in various social awareness and advocacy projects as part of their service-learning course during the spring semester.
The students worked in teams with four community partners – the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, PACT–People Acting for Community Together, St. Mary’s Cathedral School, and the Women’s Breast and Heart Initiative (WBHI).
Emily Escobar, Hunter Mars, Virginia Martinez, and Dagiana Mercia were assigned to the CIW. Mariela Marrero, Tamara Phongsavad, and Le’Tiger Redmond did their project with PACT. Alexus Bush, Melissa Diaz, Chelsie Kendrick, Kasiah Saunders, and Lauren Seyranian provided service to St. Mary’s
Dr. Nickesia Gordon, associate professor of communication, was the course instructor.
“Each team met and engaged with their community partner to gain understanding of the organization’s mission and the social issues addressed through their work,” reported Experiential Learning Coordinator Liz James. “The four teams worked to raise awareness and advocated for issues that included underserved schooling, affordable housing, juvenile justice, gun violence, healthcare access, and farmworkers’ rights.
James assisted the course instructor with coordinating the service-learning components of the course and supported students in developing and managing relationships with community partners. She also supported students in meeting the critical reflection requirement of the course.
“The students used social media, written correspondence, on-campus tabling, and community outreach events as communication platforms throughout the semester,” James explained. “For their final presentations, each student team shared what they learned and gained from their experience. Students demonstrated the integration of their academic learning with community-based activities, shared their personal reflections, and spoke of their expanded views of social issues.”
The students’ end-of-semester presentations were “impressive on multiple fronts – positive student team dynamics, articulated integration with course concepts, and broadened knowledge of various social issues,” James commented.
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Students Share Stories as Part of Anti-Bullying Program
A Barry student group presented personal stories of hardship and perseverance to seventh- and eighth-grade students in Breakthrough Miami’s educational enrichment program recently.
The presentation was the early fruit of a new Barry partnership with MCCJ, historically known as the Miami Coalition of Christians and Jews.
Akil Andrews, Seretse Davis, Sha’novia Warren, and Rajon Wright shared stories in which they described experiences of discrimination and the loss of close friends through acts of gun violence. The college students then facilitated a conversation about social challenges facing the Breakthrough youth.
The four-member group is part of a cohort of 24 Barry students participating in the MCCJ-organized Student Voices program.
Student Voices is a leadership, prejudice-reduction, and anti-bullying program designed to train middle- school, high-school, and college students to explore themes related to identity and diversity so they can effectively share experiences with their peers.
MCCJ Program Director Heather Burdick, CCSI Program Coordinator Ashton Spangler, and International and Multicultural Programs Coordinator Daisy Santiago prepared the students to serve as Student Voices panelists during several weekend training sessions in January.
The presentation at Breakthrough Miami last month was part of Davis and Wright’s ongoing project to provide a platform for urban youth of color to discuss issues directly affecting their communities.
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FLC Members to Present at Engagement Scholarship Conference
Four members of Barry’s Faculty Learning Community for Engaged Scholarship (FLC) will be among the presenters at the 18th Annual Conference of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium (ESC) in September.
Drs. Glenn Bowen, Laura Finley, Pamela Hall, and Celeste Landeros will make a presentation titled “Perspectives on Community-Engaged Scholarship Generated by a Faculty Learning Community.” The presentation is based on a just-completed study, which was designed primarily to assess how participation in the FLC has enhanced engaged scholarship competencies.
Finley also will make a presentation on “Engagement in Domestic and Dating Violence Awareness: Assessment of Student Perceptions of Service-Learning Activities.”
Bowen created the FLC in 2014. Finley is the current facilitator; Hall and Landeros are former facilitators.
Hosted by Auburn
“This Is Engagement: Best Practices in Community-Engaged Scholarship” is the theme of the two-day national conference.
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Bowen Serving as Section Coeditor for International Journal
Dr. Glenn Bowen, executive director of Barry
With Carol Ma of the Singapore University of Social Sciences, Bowen is coeditor of the section covering international service-learning and community engagement research.
The International Association for Research on Service-Learning & Community Engagement (IARSLCE) is publisher of the peer-reviewed online journal. The journal has six sections: Advances in Theory and Methodology; Student Outcomes, K–20; Faculty Roles and Related Issues; Institutional Issues; Community Partnerships/Impacts; and International Service-Learning and Community Engagement Research.
Bowen is a member of the IARSLCE board of directors. He also serves as a co-chair of the IARSLCE Board Development Committee.
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Campus and Community Representatives Discuss Energy Policy
The most recent forum in Barry’s Deliberative Dialogue Series focused on the Turkey Point nuclear power plant located near Homestead, Florida.
The Earth Justice Month event brought together students, faculty, staff, and community advocates to discuss the environmental effects of the power plant specifically and the negative consequences of nuclear energy generally.
Titled “Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant: Endangering the Environment for Cheap Energy?” the forum examined environmental, economic, and public safety factors.
City of South Miami Mayor, Dr. Philip Stoddard, was one of the dialogue panelists. Stoddard, who holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the
Also on the panel was Kelly Cox, the staff attorney and program director at Miami Waterkeeper, a nonprofit organization that “defends, protects, and preserves Biscayne Bay and surrounding waters through citizen involvement and community action.” Cox works extensively on clean-water issues, sea-level rise readiness, and ecosystem protection by implementing environmental laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act.
Dr. Timothy DePalma, an assistant professor in the Emergency Management Program of Barry’s School
Dr. Karen Callaghan, dean of Barry’s College of Arts and Sciences and a professor of sociology, facilitated the forum.
Forum participants made several suggestions for creating an environmentally conscious, cost-efficient, and safe energy program (see box).
The Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) has adapted deliberative dialogue as a method of civic learning and engagement. Students, alumni, faculty, staff, and community members work toward a shared understanding of social issues, practical solutions to those issues, and recommendations for workable public policy.
Topics for the 2017-2018 Deliberative Dialogue Series will be announced at the start of the academic year, in August. To contribute ideas for topics, contact CCSI Associate Director Courtney Berrien at cberrien@barry.edu.
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Florida Campus Compact Director Explains Organization’s Work
Florida Campus Compact engages in advocacy for resources to support the civic engagement of colleges and universities.
According to its director of campus engagement, Florida Campus Compact also organizes workshops and conferences for administrators, faculty, and students.
Director Michael Norris explained the work of the organization as he spoke at Barry’s Community Engagement Symposium recently.
Florida Campus Compact is the third largest state affiliate of Campus Compact, the national organization. Norris noted that 56 of Florida’s 70 institutions of higher education were involved in the state organization.
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CCSI Announces Newsletter Schedule for Summer
TheCenter for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) has announced a change in the publication schedule of its newsletter for the summer.
Only three issues of Engagement News are being published this month. The next issue is scheduled to be out on June 5.
Engagement News will appear twice in June and July, with one issue in August before the start of the new academic year. Regular weekly issues of the newsletter are expected to return on August 21.
Engagement News is published by the Department of Marketing of Communications on behalf of the CCSI.
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CCSI Newsletter
Posted On : May 15, 2017
