Incorporate community into classes
Father Don McNeill
For a More Just and Humane World
I am convinced that community engagement by Notre Dame and Saint Mary's students and faculty needs to be enhanced by imaginative decisions about curriculum in future strategic planning. Recent experiences of community engagement with partners in South Bend and beyond have taught me how much all of us need to learn about community engagement and curriculum enhancement.
Two years ago around this time, I stood one evening with an architecture student, Rona Reodica, in my team-taught Christian Leadership course in a dimly lit, dusty and open space of 8,000 square feet which used to be the Goodwill Store in the Northeast Neighborhood. Rona had listened to the Northeast Neighborhood Council (NENC) and other community groups express their hopes and dreams for a community center which would respond to their gifts and needs. Soon after, Rona, with four other architecture students and Professor Bob Amico, developed plans for the space. We had an animated discussion with the neighbors. Rona and the team later provided drawings which assisted the final architectural plans for what is now the Robinson Community Learning Center (RCLC).
This Friday the RCLC celebrates one year of community engagement with service and learning in the Northeast and Notre Dame communities. Father Malloy and many neighbors, partners and Notre Dame constituents will be present. You are welcome. I will be there and will remember Rona and three other students in my theology course whose academic study and insights joined many partners in the final proposal for the RCLC, which was accepted in Aug. 2000.
This Monday I co-facilitated with junior Maura Kelly a meeting of 15 neighborhood and community partners and Notre Dame students and staff. We decided to plan and expedite an early gathering of NEN neighbors, off-campus students and partners before classes in August. The group also confirmed the importance of two new initiatives in the NEN by senior Dave Vosberg and Maura: "Turning Over a New Leaf" and "Green Impact," which will take place this March 23. Goals and strategies were developed and will be followed up by teams of neighbors and students. I am pleased that five of the students who will assist in the analysis and strategies are in my Christian Leadership seminar this semester. This curricular space will provide them time to study neighborhood revitalization and link it with interdisciplinary and theological exploration of these community and faith-based initiatives.
Thanks to our new Associate Director for Academic Affairs and Research at the CSC, Mary Beckman, concurrent associate professor in Economics, I have learned new ideas for many faculty about community-based learning through community engagement. In her course this semester, "Restoring Economic Vitality to the Inner City: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why," Mary is co-teaching with David Hay, PhD, SBHF-CSC partnership, and connecting research of students with questions of interest to both the RCLC and SBHF. In addition, she is exploring an initiative with Professor Dennis Jacobs in Chemistry: the possibility of linking the skills of chemistry students with partners in the South Bend area concerned about the impact of lead paint on low income families. Mary is discovering the many forms of excellent service and community-based learning, especially in recent years, by ND, MSC, IUSB and other partners.
Yesterday at breakfast with Gil Cardenas (Institute for Latino Studies), Jim Davis (Gigot Center), Joyce Johnstone (Institute for Educational Initiatives) and Colleen Knight Santoni (Center for Social Concerns), we explored creative current and future initiatives for cross-cultural partnerships for education, social entrepreneurship, social concerns, etc. Although we were visioning possibilities in Chicago (including a future semester abroad linked with Community and Public Service Learning) and other national/international sites, we realized major commitments must continue to grow with South Bend. More creative curricular forms of community engagement in researching, teaching and learning are possible thanks to the trust developed by multiple ND partners and South Bend residents as co-partners for social change. Our CSC wants to continue to be a partner envisioning our ND curriculum for the future. Local and global community/academic engagement is integral to our ND and CSC mission to respond to the call to "bring about a more just and humane world." I am grateful that students, faculty, alumni/ae, staff and community partners are up to these challenges of curriculum enhancement in the days ahead.
"For a More Just and Humane World" is a bi-weekly column in The Observer. The author, Don McNeill, CSC, ND `58, is Executive Director of the Center for Social Concerns, a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, and a resident in McGlinn Hall. The author's views do not necessarily represent the views of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Wednesday, February 20, 2002
