Cabrini College has been named to the 2014 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll in two categories the Interfaith Honor Roll with Distinction and the Education Honor Roll.
This is the seventh year that the college has been named to the Honor Roll.
The Honor Roll focuses on universities and colleges part in community service and helping those with ongoing issues. The institutions are recognized for their meaningful outcomes with the communities they serve.
While being announced a winner, the Honor Roll emphasized Cabrini’s Justice Matters core curriculum, Engagements with the Common Good (ECG), courses.
Senior graphic design student Anna Giangiulio described her experience in the ECG courses as learning lessons that every person should go through and experience for themselves.
“I took the History of Mental Health ECG course which was co-taught by Dr. Terlecki and Dr. Mace. I know many people, both friends and family, who deal with mental illness, and it is amazing to see just how much stigma still surrounds the subject of mental illness,” Giangiulio said.
The course required students to scan mental health records into a computer for the Norristown State Hospital. This work allowed students to see what was once considered mental illness. Students learned how understanding of mental health has progressed.
“Community service comes in many different forms, and sometimes I think that educating yourself on a subject such as mental health can help us understand how to help those people who are afflicted by it,” Giangiulio said.
“I’d say most recently the best experience has been the Department of English’s partnership with Purple Feet Foundation,” Dr. Michelle Filling-Brown, associate professor of English, said.
The Purple Feet Foundation is a non-profit organization that focuses on inspiring urban middle school youth to think about future education and careers.
“Our students planned a retreat for them on our campus,” Filling-Brown said. “[They] interacted with them online via Edmodo, facilitated career chats via Google Hangout, and traveled with them to the Franklin Institute and the Reading Terminal Market.”
Filling-Brown teaches ECG 100 where she educates her students about the foster care system and what it is like for foster children to age out of the system once they turn 18 to 21-years-old.
“As a writing instructor, I find it discouraging to think about how many papers students have written that have an audience of one, the professor,” Filling-Brown said. “In these courses that engage with the community, students are able to write for real meaning that they are writing for a real audience. When your writing matters for an audience, suddenly you become a more thoughtful author.”
“I believe one of the reasons why Cabrini is on the Community Service Honor Role and received recognition from the Carnegie Foundation is the way in which we integrate service into our classes and curriculum,” Dr. Eric Malm, associate professor of business administration, said.
Malm is working with a former student, James Calamia on the Norristown Arts Council. “James Calamia was in my Norristown Arts ECG class several years ago,” Malm said.
Calamia is from Norristown and wanted to continue to stay involved by becoming a classroom coach. He then presented a research project in Harrisburg.
“After he graduated he got a job working for the Roxborough Redevelopment Authority where one of his responsibilities was to help run the Arts Walk. Then a few months ago he was promoted to director,” Malm said.
These service opportunities that Cabrini offers the students through ECG classes have helped students succeed after college by giving them chances to work with different types of organizations.
