Now in its 11^th year, the Office of Service Learning and Community Action (SLCA), designs, executes and assesses curricular service projects, organizes special events for service learning courses, awards faculty innovation grants, runs co-curricular service programs, manages a staff of student employees and liaises with nonprofits across the globe. The scope of this office supports every one of the College’s core values:  engaged student learning, teaching excellence, research and creative expression that strengthen instruction, innovation, the exemplary and thoughtful use of technology, diversity of thought and people, ethical engagement, moral courage and active, meaningful interaction with local, national and global communities.

On the academic front, faculty and their students collaborate with community-based organizations through the SLCA to advance pedagogy, scholarship, creative work, and knowledge and skills, bringing innovation, depth and diversity to the disciplines—and to contribute to and learn from community members. Similarly, through co-curricular programs, staff and students partner with nonprofits to help build communities and capacities, thereby building student leadership abilities necessary for them to innovate in 21^st century communities and industries. Emerson’s institutional commitment to service has earned the College a spot on President Obama’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll every year since the award’s inception in 2006.

Emerson College celebrated the installation of the College’s 12th president,
M. Lee Pelton, in its 132-year history. Photo credit: Emerson College

While units across the college are involved in a broad variety of community and civic engagement, President Lee Pelton plans to bolster Emerson’s commitment by establishing the Elma Lewis Center for Civic Engagement and Learning. Lewis (’43), a Boston-based national arts and social justice advocate, worked with local youth to introduce them to arts and culture, and to provide them paths to leadership otherwise unavailable. The Lewis Center will bring existing civic engagement programs under a “single administrative structure and support the development of new Emerson College–community partnerships that serve the common good,” Pelton announced at his inauguration. Preliminary conversations are beginning to identify ways to enhance the existing foundation of civic engagement at Emerson.

President Pelton’s Inaugural Address >>

“New office to focus on civic engagement,” Berkeley Beacon, Nov 15, 2012 >>

Claudia Castañeda

Dr. Claudia Castañeda’s Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies (IN200) in the Institute of Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies, is designed to give students the opportunity to explore women’s and gender issues from a feminist perspective.  The course is organized around location, moving in concentric circles from students’ home location to Emerson, Boston, Massachusetts, the US, and the world, to examine women’s and gender issues as they arise for students themselves and for people around them. It is a highly interactive and research-intensive course, but also uses the academic and activist literature to provide a context and ways of thinking about the particular trajectories each student traces in relation to her/his own life story. A key component of this design is to link the “personal” to the “political”–a standard feminist trope–while also emphasizing the need to be rethinking constantly what kinds of social, political, cultural, and economic dimensions each category might contain.

The service learning component of the course forms a core part of student learning in terms of the time spent with local nonprofit organizations, combined with student research focused on the specific impact issues addressed by the nonprofits. Each student chooses an organization with whom they work for 15 hours across the semester; those organizations include: The Women’s Lunch Place, Our Bodies Ourselves, Jewish Vocational Services, Mass Equality and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Project. At these sites, students prepare and serve meals, assist with voter education through phonebanking tasks, tutor refugees and work on various social media and archival projects. Through this kind of service, Emerson students gain the opportunity to experience and learn about women’s and gender issues that may be unlike those they have encountered in their own lives; students make personal discoveries that, when shared in class discussions, enrich what would otherwise be a more limited discussion given the relative homogeneity of Emerson’s student population.  Students reflect on their service in discussions and in written work.

Cynthia Rothschild, Gunner Scott, and Alejandra St. Guillen

Another unique element of this course is a panel presentation featuring feminist activists discussing how feminism informs their activism.  This semester, panelists included Alejandra St. Guillen, Executive Director, ¿Oíste?, The Massachusetts Latino/a Political Organization; Cynthia Rothschild, Author and International Human and Sexual Rights Consultant; and Gunner Scott, Executive Director, Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition. Castañeda moderated the panel, which was free and open to the public.

The Innovation Grant supported honoraria for panelists and their organizations.

In Castañeda’s Power and Privilege (IN123) course, also in the Institute, students explore questions of power and privilege by combining their own experience with broader perspectives and theoretical resources that situate that experience in a broader set of social, political, economic, and cultural conditions.  The aim is for students to be able to identify, articulate, and analyze dynamics of privilege and power (and so also oppression) with regard to key categories such as race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, and age, using the tools provided in the course. Class discussion focuses on how an understanding of power and privilege can be used to act–to navigate and transform private and public lives, with particular emphasis on how this can be done from positions of privilege.

All students complete ten hours of service with St. Francis House, a nearby day program and residential shelter for people experiencing homelessness. Service there consists of working to prepare and serve meals to guests and helping sort and distribute donated clothing. In discussion and written work, students reflect on their experience with guests and other students and volunteers serving at St. Francis House.

Outside organizations and activists present trainings and workshops for the students. This semester, Every Person Has a Story, a nonprofit organization created by Emerson alumnus Ryan Ansin, presented a lecture on the power of images to give voice to those whose voices are seldom heard; Emerson alumna Jesse Begenyi shared experiences from her local advocacy and activism with Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth (BAGLY); and Boston Mobilization/SubUrban Justice provided an anti-oppression training.

The Innovation Grant supported the workshops and trainings for students.

Tamera Marko

Tamera Marko, Ph.D., also received funding for work she manages across several Emerson classes, including two yearlong multilingual sections of Writing for Research (WR120 and 121) in Writing Literature and Publishing, and the English class she teaches for maintenance workers who are part of the Emerson community.

The collaboration supported by this grant involves two of Tamera Marko’s classes at Emerson:  36 undergraduate first-year students who applied for spots in her two sections of the year-long bilingual research writing course, and eight students who are taking an English class (in its third iteration) for members of the Emerson community working on the maintenance staff, and who are immigrants from Latin America. All of these students work on readings about immigration, translingualism and community-based practice in the Americas. All of these classes are conducted in English and in Spanish. While they are studying at Emerson College under different institutional affiliations, together, all 44 students write, edit, design and launch a translingual journal.

The journal, to be launched at a public event when the courses end in April 2013, features essays, drawings, photographs and videos that students produce regarding their experiences with immigration, bilingualism and ways in which these two issues impact their 21st-century identity. The journal serves as inspiration and focus:  a concrete product that deepens and allows students to apply analyses of course readings and pedagogical goals. Also included in the publication are reflections about what both groups of students have learned working together to produce this journal. Lastly, the work highlights—in photograph, written word and video—the behind-the-scenes process of creating the publication.

The idea for this journal emerged first in the maintenance workers’ class upon completion of a session writing about recent U.S. immigration policy, including initiatives like the Dream Act and laws in Arizona and Alabama; all of the maintenance workers have children affected by the Dream Act, and many have family or friends in these states. As a way to test how this collaboration might work between both groups of students, the maintenance workers suggested that Marko invite three undergraduates to sit in on their English class last semester; these undergraduates became so invested in the maintenance class that they attended sessions all semester and completed several class research projects about it, including field research on janitorial English classes at Harvard University. (Four of Marko’s former undergraduate students who are now in their sophomore, junior and senior years have maintained integral roles in this ongoing work.)

The service learning dimension of the collaboration is bi-directional:  the undergraduate students help run workshops with the maintenance staff students on writing, editing, and journal design and production, while the maintenance workers teach the undergraduates about their perspectives as immigrants from Latin America and also how they wish to write about these experiences, where they want to circulate their writing, and why. The maintenance workers also critique the undergraduate student writing.

This project helps students integrate theory and community-based practice in several ways. Undergraduates have the opportunity to collaborate with the maintenance workers who clean their dorms, classrooms and toilets—not in terms of social welfare, but in terms of actively collaborating on a publication. The undergraduates come face-to-face with stereotypes and “worker invisibility” and their effects on people they know personally. The collaboration also encourages intergenerational community because the maintenance workers are seven to 50 years older than the 18-year-old undergraduates.

When the maintenance workers wrote and sent an opinion piece to the Berkeley Beacon last year, they were informed by the section editor that the newspaper did not understand what an opinion voiced by a maintenance worker at Emerson “ha[d] to do with Emerson.” The journal, as a group project, seeks to reveal the diverse ways the expression of this opinion has everything to do with Emerson.

This project builds on Emerson’s mission to deepen community and expand diversity efforts at the College. Both the Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s newsletter, The Luminary, and the Emerson Staff Newsletter now appear in English and Spanish, thanks to the time and translation skills offered by Marko’s undergraduate students.

The Innovation Grant is supporting the preparation for and a public launch of the journal.

Four seniors enrolled in VM 420 Documentary for Social Action, a service learning course in the Department of Visual and Media Arts, partnered with Haley House this fall to produce a documentary about their Transitional Employment Program (TEP).Haley House is a bakery café in Roxbury that offers pathways to a new life after incarceration. The film follows three strong characters who convey in words and powerful live action how their lives have been transformed by experiences at Haley House.

Employees at Haley House designed TEP to assist individuals re-entering the workforce and transitioning back to their community. The program is based on a bakery-training program born from the culinary skills and interests of Haley House clients in the mid-90s. Since then, the program has evolved to provide hands-on work experience that develops the necessary skills for future employment in a safe and stable environment.

Student filmmakers Ryan Egan ’13, Christine Maroon ’13, Megan McLaughlin ’13, Gina Varamo ’13 and faculty member and filmmaker Bob Nesson premiered the 15-minute documentary, Re-enter: My New Community, to a packed room Friday night at Haley House. Students spent the semester conducting interviews with individuals enrolled in the program and documenting their daily activities. This work included occasional filming of workers opening the café at 4 am and delivering baked goods across Boston before sunrise.

Over the summer, the Office of Service Learning and Community Action received over 40 documentary proposals from organizations across Greater Boston, demonstrating the immense need for individuals with the skills necessary to produce well-planned and professionally executed videos. Increasingly, nonprofits are using these videos for various and multiple purposes, including training, awareness-raising, volunteer recruitment, and fundraising.

The students were tasked with creating a documentary capable of building awareness for the organization and an important social cause, but the experience was far richer than any of them had expected. As Christine Maroon notes, “I think we all surprised ourselves by our final project and how beautiful it came out. It’s astounding to me how much I learned in this process. We learned technical elements…as well as how to interact with interview subjects and how to form a relationship built on trust so that your characters feel comfortable telling their stories. It is by far one of the most rewarding experiences of my Emerson career.”

Varamo says that she’s grateful for the experience and to be “part of the Haley House family through our work.”

Photos from the premiere:

Re-enter: My New Community

Photo credit: Suzanne Hinton

Hydration stations are water fountains designed to eliminate the use of bottled water by accommodating reusable water containers. Since phasing out bottled water in March 2012, 42 hydration stations have been installed across the college and more are on the way (list of locations). The stations not only save valuable resources and money, they also promote sustainability and send a clear, environmentally responsible message to the Emerson community.

Jon “Satch” Satriale, member of the President’s Committee on Sustainability and advisor to Earth Emerson, said, “the student groups, Earth Emerson and Emerson Peace and Social Justice, have been educating the Emerson community for years about the value and importance of access to clean, free drinking water and the destructive impact of the bottled water industry on the environment. Emerson’s installation of reusable bottle filling stations and the elimination of the sale of bottled water is a testament to the hard work of the Emerson students and the administration’s understanding of environmental sustainability.”

Students distribute reusable water bottles during the fall organization fair.
Photo credit: Jon Satriale

This fall, six units at Emerson combined resources to research, purchase, and distribute 375 stainless steel water bottles: Earth Emerson, Emerson Athletics, Emerson Peace and Social Justice, Service Learning, Student Life, and The President’s Committee on Sustainability. Student recipients were encouraged to sign a sustainability pledge to commit to reducing their negative impact on the environment. Bottles were also distributed to all dignitaries and representatives who took the stage at President Pelton’s inauguration.

Between the installation of hydration stations and distribution of reusable water bottles on campus, the college has significantly reduced the sale of bottled water while maintaining access to portable water. The President’s Committee on Sustainability is currently exploring options to order additional bottles for distribution to the Emerson community.

Joel Wool ’10, Susan Edwards, Marion Stoddart, and Bob Nesson after the screening.
Photo credit: Claude Bartholomew

The Nashua River was once one of the ten most-polluted rivers in America. “Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000,” the award-winning documentary by local filmmakers Susan Edwards and Dorie Clark, tells the inspiring story of how Stoddart, a self-described ordinary woman in Groton, Massachusetts, was able to accomplish the extraordinary in mobilizing the cleanup of that river. Sponsored by The Office of Service Learning and Community Action, The Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies, Office of the President, Emerson Peace and Social Justice, Imagine Students Reaching Out, Earth Emerson, and Clean Water Action Massachusetts, the film screened in Emerson’s Semel Theater on Wednesday, November 14^th, followed by a question and answer session with Edwards and Stoddart. Filmmaker Bob Nesson, part-time Emerson faculty member and director of photography for the film, moderated the discussion.

The event was well-attended by Emerson students and advocates for clean water and eco-knowledge in the local community. For more information, visit www.workof1000.org

All spring breaks are not created equal. Each year since 2001, groups of Emerson College students have decided to spend their break serving communities around Boston and across the country through the Alternative Spring Break (ASB) program. This year, application records were shattered when the ASB leadership team gathered to review over 100 applications for the 2013 trips:

Boston, MA – This year’s Boston trip will focus on childhood education. Helping with homework, arts and crafts, and reading books, this trip is developing a full week of service focused on children and education in greater Boston.

Biloxi, MS – The challenges associated with rural hunger and homelessness can differs significantly from those experienced in urban areas, including access, transportation, and resources, specifically human resources in the form of volunteers. Students will serve through Community Collaborations International, which connects volunteers with soup kitchens and homeless shelters in rural Mississippi. The trip aims to help participants better understand issues of urban and rural homelessness, and improve their ability to engage in discussion of how to address the problem and its impact on various types of communities.

Nantahala National Park, NC – Nantahala is Cherokee for “Land of the Noonday Sun” and the name of the largest of the four national forests in North Carolina. This trip will offer students an opportunity to explore the importance and process of preserving America’s National Parks. Participants will travel to Ashville, NC and drive to one of the Southern most sections of the Appalachian Trail. Once in Nantahala, students will clear trails, cut back growth, remove fallen trees, maintenance leveling, and clearing out erosion – all guided by the help and expertise of members from the Nantahala Appalachian Trail Club.

El Paso, TX – Located in southwest Teas, El Paso is the nation’s largest border city. This trip will provide students the opportunity to spend a week immersed in immigration issues. Give the city’s proximity to Mexico, there is a large population of undocumented immigrants and many organizations that need volunteers to assist in providing support to those immigrants and their families. Serving in Texas will allow students to witness the issues that arise in an area where a large number of immigrants are undocumented and especially in need of support and services.

The trips are currently fundraising through a partnership with Roffi Salon and Spa on Newbury Street. From November 2012 to March 2013, stylists J, Catherine, and Brenda at Roffi Salon and Day Spa will donate 20% of the proceeds from all hair services for Emerson Alternative Spring Break (ASB) supporters to the 2013 ASB program. Call 617-536-9600 to schedule an appointment and be sure to mention Emerson ASB.

Students prepare a meal at St. Franics House. Photo credit: Claude Bartholomew

Students enroll in service learning classes with a range of previous service experience. Dan Begin ’16, an acting major, had very little experience working with people experiencing homelessness, but described his service at St. Francis house as “amazing – I spent three hours serving a barbecue chicken meal and everyone was grateful for the food.”

No two students will have the same service experience, but overall the students are very positive about the outcomes. After engaging class discussions and reading thoughtful reflections, Munif reports, “this is a very powerful experience. Some of the students are realizing that volunteering for one semester isn’t enough.” And, despite final exams ushering in the end of the semester, the need for dedicated students to serve this deserving population continues.

Christine Maroon ’13 and Gina Varamo ’13 construct a camera rig.

This semester, 37 local nonprofits applied to partner with the course, reflecting great local need for assistance making videos that stand on their own as complete films, but can also be used for promotion and education. The students chose Haley House, a soup kitchen and live-in community in Dudley Square, as their client. The focus of their video is Haley House’s Transitional Employment Program (TEP), which assists people who have been recently released from incarceration to re-enter the workforce. Working as a small team, students develop a project description, letter of agreement, production plan with timeline and budget, and then produce a rich documentary video. The entire process involves collaboration – with each other and with the client. From location scouting to shooting to editing and delivery, the students are responsible for producing a video that meets their defined objectives: create a documentary capable of building awareness for the organization and an important social cause.

Members of the Transitional Employment Program. Photo by Meg Lindberg.

TEP evolved from the Bakery Training Program, started at Haley House in 1996, where men experiencing homelessness would bake pastries, cookies, and breads to generate income. Their work experience, gained in a safe and stable environment, develops the necessary skills for future employment opportunities. TEP exemplifies Haley House’s belief in the ability of people to turn their lives around through the power of community support and strong relationships. The organization stresses the importance of pursuing educational opportunities and offers tutoring and transitional support though community live-in members and volunteers. Haley House is committed to social action and education, making it a perfect client for the Documentary for Social Action course.

Photo credit: Ryan Catalani

You can order a printed version of this anthology for $10.
Click here for more information. Orders will close on Sunday, May 6, 2012.

Students in Tamera Marko‘s WR 121-34 Bilingual Research Writing course (2011-12) at Emerson College have produced an anthology from eight of their course assignments: a proposition essay, a letter, an academic essay, a dream assignment proposal, a food research project, a musical research project, a 500-word proposal, and a plan to effect that proposal. Students had a range of genres to choose from in completing their assignments including academic essays, autoethnography, slam poetry, Storify stories, and blog or diary entries. No matter the genre they chose, students in the course consistently incorporated a theme of heritage, or orígenes.

The text was compiled and edited by Ryan Catalani, Valeria Pachón, Allison “Truj” Trujillo, and Ana Karina Vivas. The cover’s theme was developed by Ana Karina Vivas and Ryan Catalani. You can read more about their work at www.heritage-origenes.com

Members of the bilingual writing classes at the First Year Writing Program showcase. Photo credit: Suzanne Hinton.

View the email.

I usually agree when people suggest that I have the best job on campus.

Emersonians are highly engaged in service across the disciplines and in many capacities. We contribute to community-based projects so unremittingly that it’s easy to overlook how mindfully we are integrating ourselves and our institution into the local urban fabric. You will read our stories and discover what we’re doing and learning in the pages ahead. You will understand that, quantitatively and qualitatively, we are exceeding expectations.

I know we are succeeding not only because we use tools of assessment, but also because thank you phone calls, letters of praise, and notifications of awards seem to pour into the office. I liaise with hundreds of our nonprofit community partners who constantly sing the praises of service learning classes, programs, and clubs. Evaluations from administrators and clients of community centers, shelters, food pantries, civic groups, schools, and immigration and environmental organizations report the same thing: Emersonians work hard and work together; we have energy by the truckload; we are respectful and resourceful; and we come with skills—mad ones. When Emerson College is in the house, people know.

We are in the business—rather, the art of—transformation, both of ourselves and of our communities.

The end of this academic year marks the close of my fourth year at Emerson. I’ve been feeling a lot like a graduating senior these days, reflecting heavily on what I’ve learned about the world and about my place in it from students, colleagues and community partners in my roles here. When I began teaching sociology courses here in 2007, it was hard to believe how much I enjoyed learning alongside my bright, interesting, and talented students. I was excited by my colleagues’ creative work and how passionately they put ideas into action. The next year, when I became a part of the Office of Service Learning and Community Action, I couldn’t fathom my continued good fortune.

But, while building capacities and creating community inspires me every day, directing this office is not easy. In our ten years of service, we’ve operated much like our nonprofit partners, in not-so-inadvertent solidarity: demand for support exceeds capacity, the hours are long, responsibilities numerous, and our success hinges on careful yet efficient communication and the practice of patience in spades.

The work is not glamorous and service is not thought of as sexy. (By most.)

But, we love it. It’s in us. Once we’re exposed to the myriad ways in which we can contribute, we learn not only about the best parts of ourselves, we satisfy the need to be part of something bigger than ourselves—all while we are making a difference.

As I help edit Common Ties, and read about the civic and community engagement of our students, staff, professors, and alumna/i, I’m heartened and awed. I’m also saddened because I know members of our team will move on to new pursuits. Some will graduate, many carrying service into their next adventures. Some have found coveted tenure track positions at other institutions. Yet, as some leave, a new wave of Emersonians arrives to fill the (large) shoes of their predecessors, building on their work, and making their own significant contributions.

I hope this newsletter offers insights into how our office works to help create consciousness and to mobilize others to action and engagement. And I hope these articles will inspire you to ask what this office can do for you.