Student Affairs & Enrollment Management Newsletter Volume 4 Spring 2016 Issue 1
www.govst.edu/studentaffairs
GSU Health Brigade in La Concordia in Jinotega, Nicaragua.
GSU Service Initiatives with Expanded & Global Reach GSU Relay For Life Friday, April 29, 2016 5 p.m. Survivor Dinner RSVP to Dennis Dent at ddent@govst.edu 6 p.m.-12 a.m. in the Gym www.relayforlife.org/GSUIL
Spring 2016 Table of Contents GSU Service Initiatives with Expanded & Global Reach
Cover
Welcome from the Dean of Students Page 2 Black Women Rock Winners Page 2 Student Employment Certificate and Reception
Page 3
Dual Degree Program Spotlight: Chicago City Colleges Spring 2016 Snapshots
Page 4 Page 4
Sophomore Spotlight: Choosing Careers
Page 5
Academic Support at Prairie Place
Page 6
Meet Sydny Jones Page 7 Sexual Assault Awareness Calendar Page 7 Veteran Center Resource Updates Save the Date
Page 8 Page 8
Civic engagement has long since been an institutional commitment, even before the establishment of the Center for Civic Engagement and Community Service in the fall of 2013. However, the establishment of the center has formalized support for faculty and staff include servicelearning in their classes, and connects students who express an interest in serving directly to agencies and partners, or to programs the center sponsors annually such as Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, Relay for Life, and several thematic Service Days. In fact, programming through the Center is cited towards 1,135 service hours, valued at $80,620.50 during the 2014-2015 academic year. While most of the initiatives have been focused in the Chicagoland region, for the first time this year, the Center has been involved with two initiatives that expand the reach of our student’s service. Alongside institutions such as the University of Wisconsin Madison, in partnership with the Office of International Service, GSU hosted its first Global Brigades trip. Two faculty and staff advisors accompanied thirteen students to Nicaragua from January 5-12, 2016 for GSU’s first international service-learning program where they partnered with local trade worked in the El Salto farming community to improve sanitation conditions and reduce infestations of disease-carrying insects.
The work was hard, but the impact was powerful. Amy Schoenberg, Study Abroad Coordinator, was one of two service advisors along with Dr. Phyllis West, said “In the beginning, (the students) were quiet and trying to absorb the culture and the differences, but then they opened up and started building relationships with the families and the other workers.” Schoenberg describes daily rides from their lodgings in Esteli—nearly three hours from El Salto— in which the students, many of whom were having their first international experience, watched verdant landscapes and distant volcanoes rising over paved streets that gave way to dirt roads edged with small, clay-walled homes. However, student participants were impacted by much more than the vistas. Janee Rubio, a senior at GSU in the Community Health degree program, commented “It was such a humbling experience altogether to go to another country and see the spirit of humanity there. It really put things in perspective for me as to how blessed I am, but it also taught me what community means to them. It made a lasting impact on me. I want to bring that spirit wherever I go.” Another participant, Jessica Roberson, a second year graduate student in Social Work, agreed, “The most important lesson I learned in Nicaragua was the power of a good, rich, human spirit and family.
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