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April 22, 2024 - Announcing the new CBL Interns for '24-'25
After a rigorous selection process, the Donelan Office is delighted to announce our new CBL Interns for '24-'25: Angel Collazo ‘26, Laura Hofmann ‘26, Lily Jaramillo ‘26, Miyuki Oblitas ‘27, Beatriz Ortega ‘27, Rina Ren ‘27, and Alana Santhouse ‘28. We are excited for these students to join next year's cohort. The CBL Interns support the Donelan Office in multiple ways, including leading reflection sessions in CBL courses, assisting with out-of-class events, liaising with community partners, and holding office hours in the Donelan Office once per week. Thank you to all of the CBL students who applied and to our CBL faculty and community partners for sharing about the opportunity.
April 3, 2024 - SIA Scholars and Partners featured in Holy Cross Magazine
Holy Cross Magazine recently published the feature, "Faculty, Worcester Partnerships Solve Real-World Problems." This piece highlights two SIA grant-funded projects: Flo Anggoro (Psychology) and the Worcester Ecotarium and Lauren Capotosto (Education) and the Worcester Public Schools. Flo and Lauren were two members of the 2023 faculty symposium on strengthening community-engaged scholarship, which included several Holy Cross community-engaged faculty, Worcester leaders, and the President and Provost. Read more about the projects and SIA.
April 1, 2024 and April 4, 2024 - SIA Grant Project featured in The Worcester Guardian and The Telegram and Gazette
The Worcester Guardian recently featured a piece highlighting the summer creative residency program the Prior Performing Arts Center and Worcester Cultural Coalition are partnering on, to be launched this summer (HC x WCC). The Worcester Telegram and Gazette also featured the residency here.This residency is funded by a 3-year SIA grant. Congratulations to the Worcester Cultural Coalition, Kyle Frisina, and Marta Beyer! Read more about the program here.
March, 2024 - CBL in Deaf Studies Featured in HC Magazine Story, "Staff, Students Team to Highlight Health Care Gaps Facing the Deaf Community"
Recently, the Holy Cross magazine featured CBL students and faculty from the Deaf Studies department and their work to create a film that teaches health care providers how to effectively communicate with Deaf, DeafBlind, and hard of hearing patients. The Donelan Office congratulates Prof. Stephanie Clark and the Holy Cross CBL students who worked on this film. Read more.
March, 2024 - CBL Student Featured in HC Magazine Story, "Angel Collazo '26 is on Multiple Missions"
Holy Cross Magazine featured CBL student, Angel Collazo '26 in the recent digital story, "Angel Collazo '26 is on Multiple Missions." The story highlighted Angel's dedication to service and justice work at the College, CBL included. Angel was recently awarded a Marshall Grant to support his efforts at Hector Reyes House and has been critical in our collaborations with SPUD to ensure that our partners in need of Spanish-speaking volunteers get students. The Donelan Office is grateful for Angel's leadership and congratulates Angel on the Newman Civic Fellow Nomination! Read more about Angel.
3/15/24 - Donelan Office Assistant Director and CBL Interns Present at Sutton High School's Annual Connections Conference
On Friday, March 15th, Assistant Director, Kathryn Hauver, and CBL Interns, Fernanda Perez-Alvarez and Rachel Derocco presented at Sutton High School's annual Connections Conference, a social justice event for high school and middle school students, teachers, and administrators that explores issues of bias, privilege and discrimination. Kathryn and the interns presented the session, "The Danger of a Single Story" where they discussed the ways storytelling helps to both create and dismantle stereotypes about individuals and groups. Over 50 students took part in their sessions and came away with lots of takeaways, including feeling inspired, more motivated to dismantle stereotypes, and more understanding of how stereotypes can be created. Congratulations and thank you to Kathryn, Fernanda, and Rachel!
3/1/24 - SIA-Funded Project, The Worcester Writing Center, Featured in New Book Chapter, "Zooming Past Institutional Boundaries to Tutor in a Community"
2/27/24 - The Donelan Office Hosts the Baltimore Field School
On Tuesday, February 27th, The Donelan Office hosted Drs. Sarah Fouts and Nicole King of the Baltimore Field School for a series of events to celebrate 5 years of Scholarship in Action and to learn more about how to move forward with the next iteration of the SIA program. The Baltimore Field School is a Mellon-funded initiative at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County that works to create a framework for UMBC graduate students, staff, and faculty to collaborate with community partners in building ethical and sustainable research and teaching projects focused on public humanities. Projects include, "Stories of Mera Kitchen Collective," Sabor de Highlandtown," and "A Place Called Poppleton." The day started with breakfast at a local favorite, Miss Worcester Diner, continued with a lunch workshop for new SIA grantees and community partners, and ended with a public lecture entitled, "The Field is Us: Building Ethical Community and University Partnerships with the Baltimore Field School." Participants exhchanged knowledge and ideas about building and sustaining community-engaged research programs that center community partners and are mutual and reciprocal. The Donelan Office looks forward to integrating their learnings into the SIA grant program. The Donelan Office also thanks the Provost's Office and the McFarland Center for their support of the event, as well as thanks Drs. Fouts and King for their time and effort to visit Holy Cross!
2/21/24 - Check out the latest updates from the J.D. Power Center!
Read our newsletter here.
1/12/24 - Fall '23 CBL Course, "Filmmaking in Spanish" Featured on Holy Cross Magazine's Website
Prof. Bridget Franco's (Spanish) "Filmmaking in Spanish" CBL project-based course, "Filmmaking in Spanish" was featured on Holy Cross Magazine's website. The magazine created a video about the course, highlighting the impact it has on students and the Worcester community. About the impact of the course, Prof. Franco shares, "The most impactful thing is not so much the filmmaking, but the relationships the students are building with the partners." Congratulations on this feature, "Filmmaking in Spanish"!
12/7/23 - Isabelle Jenkins, Alison Ludden, and Michelle Sterk Barrett's article, "Combining High-Impact Practices to Facilitate Hope for Young Adults Transitioning into College" published in Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal
Donelan Office Director, Isabelle Jenkins, CBL Professor and Director of Montserrat, Alison Ludden (Psychology), and J.D. Power Center Director, Michelle Sterk Barrett collaborated on research examining the high-impact practices of community-based learning and first-year programs in their research article, "Combining High-Impact Practices to Facilitate Hope for Young Adults Transitioning into College." The article, just published in Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal, features research on Holy Cross' CBL and Montserrat programs, as well as important findings about the programs: that they help young people to experience and feel hopeful! Experiencing and feeling hopeful is increasingly important as young people must navigate the many challenges of today's world.
The article is a part of a special issue of Jesuit Higher Education, which features a collection on hope and imagination in Jesuit Higher Education. The issue spans 19 articles on topics such as the Spiritual Exercises and critical hope (Haarman), Ignatian design thinking (Neier Beran and Green), high-impact practices for young adults transitioning to college (Jenkins, Ludden, and Sterk Berrett), a pilot program for equity and local access to Jesuit higher education (Fawcett and Zeisner), faculty formation (Harrison, Ko, and Turner), a community-building library (Hezel and Combe), and more. Plus Jesuit Higher Education is offering a new feature: Spanish translations of previously published JHE articles for its growing global audience. This issue includes “Liderazgo Ignaciano y el Panorama de Liderazgo Contemporáneo: Un Ejercicio de Compromiso Contracultural” by Kelly and Moss Breen, and “Lo que realmente significa Magis y por qué importa” by Geger, S.J.
12/4/23 - End-of-Semester Updates from the J.D. Power Center
Read our second newsletter of the year!
12/2/23 - ITAL 301 Hosts the Circolo Italiano for a Festa di Natale!
On Saturday, December 2nd, Prof. Susan Amatangelo and her ITAL 301 students hosted the Italian Circle at Holy Cross for a special holiday gathering. Italian students and faculty have been partnering with the Italian Circle for many years, attending the biweekly meetings and helping to facilitate conversation. The Circle meets at the West Boylston Public Library, and this is the second time the Circle has come to campus. The event brought together ITAL 301 and ITAL 201 students, Holy Cross faculty and staff, and community members. It was an event that had people of all ages, ethnicities, and abilities who shared in the joy of speaking Italian, shared their stories, and learned about Italian culture. Thank you, Prof. Amatangelo and ITAL 301 students for putting on this event!
11/1/23 - The Donelan Office, Scholarship in Action, the President's Office, and the Provost's Office Cohost Fall Faculty Symposium on Community-Engaged Research
On November 1st, the Donelan Office and Scholarship in Action helped to host the annual Faculty Symposium, in collaboration with the President's Office and the Provost's Office. This year's symposium focused on community-engaged research and featured a conversation with President Rougeau, Provost Visconsi, City Leaders (Superintendent, Dr. Rachel Monárrez; City Manager, Eric Batista; and, Health and Human Services Project Manager, Ilaria Fiorenzia), and community-engaged faculty (Flo Anggoro, Psychology; Lauren Capotosto, Education; Bridget Franco, Spanish; Justin Poché, History; PJ Torres, Biology; and Stephanie Yuhl, History). The conversation centered around three questions: What does a healthy research relationship between a city and an institution of higher education look like? What are the urgent priorities for the Worcester community today? How can research partnerships between Worcester and Holy Cross advance those priorities? What models do we need? The panelists engaged in meaningful conversation about successes, challenges, and the work ahead.
The Symposium was also an opportunity for the Donelan Office to officially announce our expansion to the Donelan Office of Community-Based Learning, Teaching, and Engaged Scholarship. We look forward to administering future Scholarship in Action grants, helping to build a community of engaged scholars and teachers, and continuing our work to support community-based learning courses.
The Donelan Office thanks everyone who was involved in the planning, as well as all of the faculty, staff, students, and community members who took part!
10/27/23 - CBL Highlighted in The Spire News Article
This week's edition of the Holy Cross newspaper, The Spire, featured a news story about LATN 101 students' CBL project with local schools. CBL student, Molly Coghan '27 shared about her experience so far with CBL: "It’s been one CBL day so far and I feel like I’ve already become so close with the student I work with and get to spend time with.” Thank you to the Spire for featuring CBL. Read the article by News Editor, Owen Garvey '27.
10/2/23 - Fall Semester Updates from the J.D. Power Center
Read our first newsletter of the year!
9/27/23 - Deaf Studies CBL Contribution to film on Health Care Access for Deaf patients
The Donelan Office congratulates CBL Prof. Stephanie Clark and Deaf Studies CBL students for their contributions to Deaf Yes!'s film, "Vital Signs: Health Care Access for Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing Patients." The film was just accepted into the American Public Health Association's Film Festival, which will take place from November 12th-15th 2023 in Atlanta, GA. After the film is released at the festival, there will be an online release event for the Deaf community in December and the film will be released to medical providers nationwide as part of their training. Deaf Studies plans to show this film to the ASL club at some point in the Fall. Congratulations to Prof. Clark who directed the film, and congratulations to all involved for creating a resource that will now have national impact!
9/18/23 - Welcome to our new Associate Director, Kya Roumimper Ascani!
Please join the Donelan Office in welcoming our new Associate Director, Kya Roumimper Ascani! Kya will be working on CBL projects, the Non-Profit Careers Conference, and community partnerships more broadly. Kya is a Worcester resident with both higher education and community partner experience. For several years, Kya worked at Keene State College in their Office of Multicultural Student Support and Success, serving as Coordinator of Multicultural Student Support and Success and Equity Education and then as Equity Education and Community Advocate Director. Kya’s work at Keene State included overseeing the establishment of a new restorative justice initiative and collaborating with faculty to develop curriculum and marketing for Keene State’s anti-racism major and restorative justice micro-credential. Most recently, Kya has been serving as the co-director of the Manchester Community Action Coalition where she leads a coalition of local non-profit organizations and community members in the development of community centered, grass roots education campaigns and community programs. Kya received her Master of Education in Community Engagement from Merrimack College and her Bachelor of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from Keene State College.
8/7/23 - Welcome to our new Assistant Director, Kathryn Hauver '22!
Kathryn Hauver ‘22 has begun her role as Assistant Director of the Donelan Office of Community-Based Learning. Kathryn has just finished a year of service in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Cincinnati, OH where she served as an Independent Living Specialist at Linking Employment, Abilities, and Potential. Kathryn graduated from Holy Cross magna cum laude where she majored in sociology and completed the business, ethics, and society minor. Kathryn was an active member of the Holy Cross and Worcester communities during her time as a student, including serving as Head Orientation Leader, the Co-Director of Community Relations for Working for Worcester, a Relationship Peer Educator, and a member of the Feminist Forum’s e-board. Notably, Kathryn served as a CBL Intern for three years, contributing greatly to the work of the Donelan Office through her role as a Reflection Coordinator and in her community building work amongst the CBL Interns. Kathryn also served as a hospice volunteer throughout her four years at Holy Cross. Welcome, Kathryn!
Kathryn's arrival is bittersweet as we also are saying goodbye to our outgoing Assistant Director, Mattie Carroll. The Donelan Office thanks Mattie for all of her contributions to CBL at Holy Cross. Mattie will be dearly missed and we wish her well as she begins her graduate studies at Clark University!
6/21/23 - CBL Intern, Diana Chavez Cruz '24 Featured in AJCU's Connections: Town and Gown, Part II
CBL Intern, Diana Chavez Cruz '24 was featured in the AJCU's most recent Connections publication. Diana wrote the article, "Holy Cross Partnerships Prepare Students for Life-Changing Internships," where she reflected on her time as an Intern at the Nativity School of Worcester. Diana shared, "As a first-generation Latina student from a low-income background, interning at Nativity opened doors for me and provided me with professional development and leadership skills that will help me in the future when I graduate from Holy Cross. I am grateful to have been able to work with the amazing staff at Nativity and enjoyed learning about the school’s development so much that in my sophomore year of college, I combined my economics major with an education minor." Read Diana's article.
6/13/23 - GREK 102 CBL Project Featured in HC Newsroom Story
In the spring semester, GREK 102 CBL students created and delivered lessons on ancient civilization to Worcester East 7th graders. Holy Cross newsroom featured a story about the students' experience. The Donelan Office is grateful to Worcester East for opening its doors to us, as well as to Colleen Kelly '94, Worcester Public Schools' Academic Liaison for History and Social Sciences. Read the story.
6/1/23 - CBL and JDPC Staff/Faculty Attend AJCU Community Engaged Learning Professionals Biennial Meeting at Marquette
From May 30th to June 1st, Mattie Carroll, Mary Conley, Isabelle Jenkins, and Fátima Oseida attended the biennial meeting of the AJCU Community Engagement Learning Professionals group. Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin hosted the gathering. This was the first time the group gathered in-person since 2019 (when the Donelan Office hosted the group at Holy Cross). Isabelle was a member of the meeting planning team, and Isabelle and Mary presented at the meeting. Isabelle presented on her dissertation research, "Context and Consciousness for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy" and Mary presented on the WISER program. It was a great time for learning and connecting/reconnecting with our AJCU colleagues!
6/1/23 - CBL Course, "Science in Community" featured in HC Newsroom Story
This semester, Prof. Avila-Bront (Chemistry) created a new CBL course, "Science in Community" as a part of an NSF grant to support her efforts to make the sciences more accessible. The "Science in Community" course had Holy Cross students act as mentors to young girls at Girls Inc., putting on weekly science projects to get the girls interested in science at a young age. Prof. Avila-Bront's course and reflections on the semester were recently featured in an HC Newsroom Story, "How a New Holy Cross Course Is Tackling the ‘Leaky Pipeline’ of Women in STEM." Read the story.