November 23, 2020

IN THIS ISSUE

• Faculty Learning Community Continues to Promote Community-Engaged Scholarship
• Community Engagement Educator: One of Seven Categories of Awards for Community Engagement
• Proposals for Presentations at Community Engagement Symposium Now Being Accepted
• Barry University’s Second Annual Founders’ Day Of Service: A Pictorial Report
• Permaculture Presentation Highlights Orientation for Founders’ Day of Service

Faculty Learning Community Continues To Promote Community-Engaged Scholarship

Experiential Learning Book Now In Production

Barry’s Faculty Learning Community for Engaged Scholarship (FLC) has made its mark in encouraging and supporting faculty integration of teaching, research, and service as part of a strategy to respond to social issues and community needs.

Since 2012, faculty members have published nearly 50 journal articles and book chapters classified as community-engaged scholarship. Included in this number are 10 chapters in the forthcoming FLC book, Experiential Learning in Higher Education: Issues, Ideas, and Challenges for Promoting Peace and Justice. 

FLC records maintained by the Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) also show that faculty and staff members—with students, in some cases—have made 126 presentations, mostly at conferences, over the same eight-year period.

Community-engaged scholarship products also include program evaluations and technical reports.

The precise numbers of publications and presentations in various categories are as follows:

• Journal and newspaper articles; book chapters: 48
• Books/monographs: 3
• Conference and other public presentations; creative works: 126
• Program evaluations, technical reports, and research reports: 5 

Experiential Learning in Higher Education is in production and is expected to be out during the spring semester of 2021. The book’s editors and authors are all FLC members. 

The FLC is a cross-disciplinary group of faculty members who participate in a collaborative program focused on community-engaged scholarship. Formed in 2012, the FLC promotes the pursuit, advancement, and application of knowledge to benefit the wider community.

A CCSI-coordinated program, the FLC seeks to achieve three primary goals: (1) To facilitate faculty development in the area of community-engaged scholarship; (2) to promote and support community-based research toward scholarly presentations and publications; and (3) to foster reflective practice in community-engaged teaching and learning.

The FLC provides an intellectual venue in which faculty members exchange ideas and learn from one another’s experiences. FLC members take part in seminars and other professional development activities through which they become familiar with the tools and resources that facilitate the practice of engaged scholarship. 

Any faculty member interested in community-engaged scholarship, including the scholarship of teaching and learning, may join the FLC. For further information, contact Dr. Glenn Bowen at gbowen@barry.edu.

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Community Engagement Educator: One Of Seven Categories Of Awards For Community Engagement

Community Engagement Educator is one of seven categories of community engagement awards in which nominations are being accepted. The nomination deadline is January 29.

The Community Engagement Educator Award honors employees for significant contributions to the institutionalization or enhancement of community engagement at Barry University. Winners of this award are faculty members, staff members, or administrators who have promoted institutional commitment to community engagement, contributed to campus–community partnerships, and supported students and colleagues in community engagement activities. 

The winners of the Community Engagement Educator Award for 2020 are Dr. Lilia DiBello, an associate professor of education; and Dr. Sean D. Foreman, professor of political science.

Also the associate dean for curriculum, instruction, and research, DiBello has been instrumental in establishing collaborative partnerships between Barry and several community organizations in the Greater Miami area. In addition, she has played a major role in Barry’s partnerships in northwestern Haiti, supporting teacher education and student learning. DiBello’s efforts have helped to build capacity as well as contribute new knowledge for all those involved.

Foreman, who is also chair of the Department of History and Political Science, has served for several years as a leader of Barry’s Campus Democracy Project, organizing civic learning and democratic engagement events, including legislative forums. Regularly providing political commentary on radio and television, he is an election analyst for 610 WIOD and a frequent panelist on WPLG Local 10’s This Week in South Florida.

The other categories of awards are Community Impact, Community Partnership, Community-Based Research, Community-Engaged Scholarship, Service-Learning Faculty, and Engaged Department.

The Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) has issued a call for nominations for the 2021 Community Engagement Awards. Students, faculty, and staff members, as well as community partners, are invited to submit nominations by the deadline.

The CCSI will host Barry’s eighth annual Community Engagement Awards Ceremony on March 31, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. It is likely that the 2021 event will be held remotely, the organizers say.

The nomination forms are available at the CCSI website <barry.edu/service>. For additional information, contact the CCSI at service@barry.edu.

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Proposals For Presentations At Community Engagement Symposium Now Being Accepted

Barry’s seventh annual Community Engagement Symposium will take place next March, and the organizers have called for presentation proposals.

The theme of the symposium is "Engagement in Purposeful Projects: From Awareness to Action.” In relation to community engagement, purposeful projects include experiential learning practices such as service-learning, community-based research, fieldwork, study abroad, capstones, and internships.

Proposals should address the theme of the symposium and identify the experiential learning practice that was implemented. Successful proposals will specify the course or co-curricular project, the social or community issue addressed, the related activities undertaken, and the actual learning outcomes. Proposals should also emphasize how the project was designed to be purposeful and how student awareness was translated into action.

Students, faculty and staff members, and community partners are invited to submit proposals for presentations by January 29.

In the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the 2020 symposium was cancelled.

The annual Community Engagement Symposium supports the continued implementation and evaluation of Barry’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). Scheduled for March 25, the 2021 symposium will highlight student learning outcomes of community engagement practices in the context of the QEP titled “Fostering Personal and Social Responsibility Through Experiential Learning.” Social responsibility is one of the key elements of the QEP. 

The symposium is expected to feature a nationally recognized community engagement scholar as the lead presenter.

A student poster competition will be a highlight of the event. Entries will be on display in Room 112 of the Andreas Building on Barry’s main campus, and prize winners will be announced during the closing session of the symposium.

For additional information on the symposium, contact the CCSI at service@barry.edu or qep@barry.edu.

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Barry University’s Second Annual Founders’ Day Of Service: A Pictorial Report

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Permaculture Presentation Highlights Orientation For Founders’ Day Of Service

A presentation on permaculture was the highlight of the orientation for the Barry Founders’ Day of Service earlier this month. The orientation set the stage for collaborative service with an emphasis on food security and resilient communities.

Jared Aslakson, permaculture specialist for the Adrian Dominican Sisters, explained the permaculture model and shared specific ways in which the Adrian Dominican community practices permaculture.

According to information at the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ website, “Permaculture is an ethical design system for human habitations and land use that emphasizes sustainability, integration, and cooperation with – as opposed to domination of – natural systems. Further, permaculture systems strive to minimize reliance on fossil fuels, which cause climate change and are finite resources which will likely not be affordably produced for long.”

Together with Jaedyn Amaro, an AmeriCorps VISTA member, Aslakson told students about the opportunity to see the permaculture model being demonstrated on the motherhouse campus in Adrian, Michigan. The opportunity is part of the annual Environmental Leadership Experience (ELE) in which Barry and Siena Heights University students participate. 

Amaro, who volunteers in Barry’s Office of Mission Engagement, participated in ELE when he was a Barry undergraduate.

The Founders’ Day of Service orientation was conducted fully online for volunteers who would serve remotely and mostly online for those who would serve on-site. The on-site volunteers met in a classroom on campus, from where they joined their peers online.

The remote project involved writing letters to legislators, requesting federal government support of anti-hunger and other programs proposed by Bread for the World, the nonprofit organization. 

Students and administrators taking part in person painted four classrooms at Hubert O. Sibley K–8 Academy, adjacent to the university’s main campus.

A project in the Barry Urban Garden (BUG) was cancelled because of a rainy-day forecast. The BUG is designed on permaculture principles. Also cancelled was a cleanup project in La Paloma, the neighborhood targeted for a CCSI-coordinated project based on the model of resilient communities.

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Contact Brittney Morales, Barry Service Corps program facilitator, at BriMorales@barry.edu.