Service-learning pioneer Nadinne Cruz will be the lead presenter at Barry’s Community Engagement Symposium in March.
Cruz is a long-time advocate, administrator, and veteran practitioner of service-learning in higher education. She was the director of the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University, where she was also the founding director of the Public Service Scholars Program.
At Stanford, Cruz taught service-learning courses in the urban studies program.
Before her tenure at Stanford, Cruz served as executive director of the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA), leading 18 Upper Midwest colleges and universities in developing community-based learning programs in Minneapolis–St. Paul, Latin America, Scandinavia, and other parts of the world.
As the Eugene M. Lang visiting professor of social change at Swarthmore College, she piloted service-learning for the Political Science Department’s Democratic Practice Project.
Cruz is a co-author (with Timothy K. Stanton and Dwight E. Giles, Jr.) of the book, “Service-Learning: A Movement’s Pioneers Reflect on Its Origins, Practice, and Future.” She has been a presenter at numerous professional development conferences in the United States and abroad.
She is a recipient of the National Society for Experiential Education’s Service-Learning Pioneer of the Year Award, the National Youth Leadership Council’s Alec Dickson Servant Leader Award, the California Campus Compact Richard Cone Award for Excellence and Leadership in Cultivating Community Partnerships in Higher Education, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst Distinguished Citizen Scholar Award.
Cruz’s work and achievements have been recognized also with honorary doctorates from Carleton College (Minn.) and Marlboro College (Vt.).
The Fifth Annual Community Engagement Symposium will be held on March 28, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., on Barry’s main campus. Cruz will lead a morning workshop and an afternoon seminar on community engagement topics.
In addition to the lead presenter’s workshop and seminar, the program will include a concurrent presentation session for faculty, staff, students, and community partners and a poster session.