Volunteering and community service are key aspects of the Alvernia experience. Above, students help move food for those in need in Reading, Pa.
Theo Anderson (2)
lasting impact | Continued from page 50 Community Engagement Classification designation by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In addition, Alvernia has made the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll of the Corporation for National and Community Service and the U.S. Department of Education every year since the award’s inception in 2006.The award recognizes a commitment to bettering communities through service projects and service learning. While Warchal came early to service learning, Ruiz was a late arrival, growing up in Brazil in a family of church volunteers. In that country, college-community partnerships tended to be viewed with skepticism. “Many people there are suspicious when someone offers something for free,” she says. Ruiz quickly plugged into the power of volunteering after arriving at Alvernia, where community service is a cornerstone of the Franciscan foundation. She began collaborating with Warchal in the early 1990s, shortly after both began teaching at Alvernia. They started by evaluating an adoption program run by a Catholic social
agency in Allentown. By the end of the decade, the team had taught a research class in service learning and presented their first joint conference paper on the practice. Following the first survey of graduates they conducted in 2004, Warchal and Ruiz continued to turn Alvernia into a servicelearning hub, on campus and off. They lobbied successfully for the hiring of a service-learning director. Inspired by Sinead Commane ’13, a psychology major, they aligned with an after-school program run by the Salvation Army called mañana. Mañana (tomorrow) is a community partner with a psychology research course, a senior seminar and the Holleran Center for Community Engagement. Undergraduates tutor youngsters in everything from math to English. Psychology and counseling faculty are analyzing the impact of art classes on academic grades and diverse thinking. Ruiz and Warchal co-authored a book “Service-Learning Code of Ethics for Educational Community Partnerships,” in which Warchal stresses the need to respect the privacy of community partners, to serve as ambassadors of good will as well
as good deeds. Ruiz stresses the importance of community agencies as ethical role models. “The goal should be to try to help people figure out how to be more positive,” she says, “rather than just solve problems.” Both Warchal and Ruiz practice what they teach. Ruiz helps direct an advocacy program for gifted students at a Berks County elementary school. Warchal aids the Red Cross by counseling members of military families and disaster victims. Last summer, Ruiz and Warchal took charge again, launching a website devoted to teaching ethics to psychology students. Together, they have spread the word about their projects at conferences from Greece to Italy and China to South Africa, with interest coming from home and abroad to adapt their alumni survey and adopt their code of ethics. More than 20 years after they first joined forces, Ruiz and Warchal still enjoy working together. “We can be very open and very honest with each other,” says Ruiz. “We can put egos aside,” agrees Warchal. And always, they work toward a better mañana. Alvernia University Magazine
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