IU South Bend Community Engagement

Education for All: Stephanie Soward Honored for Outstanding Community Engagement

Posted on October 30, 2025 by lles

This year, the Office of Community Engagement created an award to recognize a graduate student whose dedication to service exemplifies the values of civic responsibility, leadership, and compassion. We are proud to recognize Stephanie Soward, a recent graduate of the Masters of Public Affairs program at IU South Bend.

Stephanie has made her passion for serving her community known through her work as a member of the AmeriCorps VISTA program. “I joined AmeriCorps to serve in a role that directly connects education and community impact. Being a Campus Compact AmeriCorps VISTA at IU South Bend gave me the opportunity to turn an idea into a program that is now making a measurable difference in our region.”

She helped create the IU South Bend Family College Engagement Project from the ground up, a program meant to help increase the number of low-income Indiana students who are pursuing a higher education. “I wanted to address the barriers that many first-generation and low-income families face in supporting their children’s path to higher education. The project grew out of a vision to empower families with tools, knowledge, and confidence to walk alongside their students.”

Stephanie presenting Family College Engagement Jeopardy

In just two and a half years, Stephanie made remarkable strides in supporting low-income families navigating the path from K–12 to college. She began by mapping existing regional efforts aimed at educating and assisting families during this critical transition. To ensure these initiatives met real needs, she actively sought input from families about the challenges they face and the resources they require. Drawing inspiration from successful programs across the country, she identified potential models to guide future efforts. Stephanie also organized two full-day summits designed to empower families of middle and high school students with the knowledge and tools needed for college readiness. Recognizing the importance of accessible information, she authored several resource guides, including Activities for Kids on College Campuses, Supporting Your Child’s Educational Journey from Birth to Grade 12, and K–12 Educational Enrichment Activities. To make learning about college fun and interactive, she launched a Family College Game Night series, featuring engaging formats like Family Feud, Jeopardy, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire—all tailored to teach families about higher education and financial aid.

“The most meaningful moments have been hearing families share that, for the first time, they feel part of their child’s college journey. One parent told me the workshops s gave her the confidence to talk about college at home, which she had never felt comfortable doing before.”

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? at Brown Community Center.

Are you Smarter Than a 5th Grader? winners holding their prize.

Now that Stephanie has graduated, she stated that “my goal is to continue building programs at the intersection of higher education, health policy, and community engagement locally and globally. I want to design initiatives that expand equity and opportunity in higher education and community engagement.” According to Elizabeth Paice, Chief of Staff at IU South Bend, “Stephanie is passionate about her work because she understands that obtaining a college education is an important step toward achieving economic and social mobility”

We are proud to honor Stephanie for her role in expanding access to higher education to low-income families in the community. This is an award that Stephanie wants to share with the families who participated in the program. Upon learning about the award, Stephanie stated, “This award is a recognition not only of my work but of the families who trusted me with their stories and efforts. It affirms that engagement is most powerful when it is built together with the community.”

Leading with Heart: Samantha Czyz Honored for Outstanding Community Engagement

Posted on September 9, 2025 by lles

Each year, the IU South Bend Office of Community Engagement honors one undergraduate student whose dedication to service exemplifies the values of civic responsibility, leadership, and compassion. For the 2024–2025 academic year, we are proud to recognize Samantha Czyz, a senior majoring in accounting, as the recipient of the IU South Bend Student Community Engagement Award.

Samantha has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to serving others—balancing full-time coursework, part-time employment at a CPA firm, and a wide array of volunteer activities that benefit the South Bend community. Samantha sees this work as a calling:

“A large part of why I volunteer has to do with my faith and believing I am serving a Higher Power.”

One of Samantha’s most impactful roles has been as a volunteer with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, where she has helped low-income families prepare their tax returns for two consecutive years. Her work ensures that vulnerable community members receive accurate, free tax assistance—often resulting in critical refunds that support household stability. She finds it rewarding to help people in real time, noting that “. . . we could see tax returns being filed right away so it felt like we could help in the moment.”

In addition to her work with VITA, Samantha serves as a board member and lead coordinator for the IU South Bend Accounting Association’s annual community service event. Under her leadership, the club recently organized a volunteer day at the Potawatomi Zoo, supporting both the zoo and local families. Last year, she also helped prepare meals for families staying at the Ronald McDonald House, demonstrating her ongoing commitment to service through student-led initiatives. She appreciates the opportunity to work with others as a team:

“I helped coordinate our zoo event, but Professor Busenbark and others played a large role as well. I like to see what people can accomplish when they work really hard together for a cause.”

Samantha’s compassion also shines through in her personal volunteer efforts. Twice a month, she plays piano in the main entrance of Memorial Hospital, offering comfort and peace to patients, visitors, and staff.

She also donates handmade baby blankets to the hospital’s Pediatric Unit—small but meaningful gestures that reflect her thoughtfulness and care.

“These are activities I really enjoy. Piano may be my favorite thing to do out of anything I do in life.”

Samantha seeks to give others the experience of making and sharing music in her role as co-Treasurer on the South Bend Youth Symphony Orchestra board, helping to sustain an organization that provides music education to young people in the region. As an accounting major, this activity helps her develop her professional skills while promoting the love of music.

In recognition of her outstanding contributions, Samantha has received a $500 scholarship to support her tuition and continue her journey toward becoming a compassionate, community-minded professional whose leadership and service enrich the lives of others.

We are proud to honor Samantha Czyz for her exemplary leadership and heartfelt commitment to community engagement. Her story reminds us that one person—through consistent, compassionate action—can make a lasting difference.

IUSB Students Volunteer at Nature Based Events!

Posted on May 7, 2025 by lles

This year on March 8-9, Bendix Woods Park held their annual event known as Sugar Camp Days! The event observes the season where sap is collected from maple trees when the temperatures are below freezing at night, and above freezing during the day. This year’s maple sugaring season was relatively short due to the weather, but that did not stop families from coming out to enjoy the event!

Students who volunteered at the event made multiple maple sugar based baked goods, spun maple cotton candy, cooked maple popcorn, dipped candles, and helped the park educate the public on the process of turning the sap from the maple trees into maple sugar just as the early European pioneers did. Students had a fun and rewarding experience engaging with the public despite some of the sticky situations they found themselves in, like working with the cotton candy machine!

Most of the students who volunteered did so as a part of the Honors Program in a class titled “Humans and the Environment” taught by Dr. Monica Tetzlaff. When asked why she included service learning in her course, she responded, “I created service-learning assignments in my class on Humans and the Environment because there is much to grieve and be angry about once you learn how many plants, animals, forests, and wetlands we have lost and how polluted our environment is in 2025.”

Bendix Woods’ “Sugar Camp Days” is not the only nature-based activity students volunteered at this semester. The annual Ag Days this year took place April 4-6^th at St. Joseph County Fairgrounds, not long after Sugar Camp Days. This event educates the public on agriculture and includes things like simulated maple tapping, games and activities, farm animals, and food.

Students helped at the stations, primarily the maple tapping station where they stood behind a fake maple tree and helped simulate sap flow for children. Student Mamoona Shakil said “I feel like I made a real impact, particularly on the younger kids, who had so much fun with the activity that many of them asked to try the real thing. A number of parents also requested more information about next year’s maple tapping event at Bendix Woods.”

Students who volunteered at these events felt a sense of personal satisfaction and stated that engaging with the community enhanced their learning. If given the chance, several of them would do it again! “Because I bring over 30 students a semester to Bendix Woods, I definitely feel like I make an impact. My hope is that the students will remember that they can come back to county and city parks for a low cost and that volunteering is not that difficult.” Dr. Tetzlaff said. “It is my hope that students gain confidence as they work their way through any difficulties they encounter. They deserve to feel proud that they worked hard at Bendix Woods, and they made it possible for many children to have a positive learning experience in nature.”

For More Information on the Honors Program: Honors Program: Academic Affairs: Indiana University South Bend

For More Information on Bendix Woods: Bendix Woods | St. Joseph County, IN

For More Information on Ag Days: St. Joe County Ag Days | stjosephswcd

POP-UP UNIVERSITY PRESENTS: Susan Moore – Disjointed Travel Log: Making Art & Memories in Vallauris, France

Posted on November 6, 2024 by jisuclar

The Office of Community Engagement invites the public to join us in a casual evening of learning and fellowship as Photographer Susan Moore discusses her pictorial travel log: Disjointed Travel Log: Making Art & Memories in Vallauris, France, on Thursday, November 21, 2024, at 7:00 PM in IU South Bends’ LangLab (1302 High Street.)

Speaker Susan Moore — Susan Moore – Pop-Up University: “Disjointed Travel Log: Making Art & Memories in Vallauris, France”

Moore developed her pictorial travel log during her visit to Vallauris, France. Developing the travel log through, the process of creating unique ceramic art that reflects her own feelings, memories, and experiences away from home in a new and strange land.

Moore is a photographer and educator with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art from Columbia College in Chicago, a Master of Arts degree in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, and a Master of Fine Arts in photography from Washington University in St. Louis. She found her way into photography with the gift of her first camera from her father. This gift was a tool for her to organize her thoughts and ideas, as well as a ticket to events and places she would not have been able to experience without. These early experiences fostered a love of art and education.

As an educator, Susan believes that students who study art at the undergraduate level find successful creative careers, that studio art is an integral component of a liberal arts degree program, and that art assists in creating a strong foundation for success. Moore’s background has solidified her dedication to academic success through high-impact and high-quality practices in teaching and learning.

Her pictorial travel log photographs image is both a form of fiction and a reference to reality. While photographing her experience in Vallauris, France, Moore was inspired by the picturesque landscapes, the warm Mediterranean Sea, and the experience of travel in terms of the emotional displacement in finding herself as a foreigner far from home. Moore states, “as I moved through the world, breathing, walking, seeing, I found both familiar and strange feelings each day. I created order and found comfort through my camera and the act of photography, depicting the complexity of these moments.” During her workings she created images, to be portrayed during this Pop-Up University, onto ceramic forms that resemble waves. The forms are made by gently folding clay into abstract shapes. Moore focused on recapturing the moments, mediating, and creating art, like new memories forming in one’s mind. Moore’s creations are recognizable, strange, and at times “misleading” to viewers, as she says, her “camera mediates her every experience.”  

About Pop-Up University: Pop-Up University is a series of brief off-campus talks by IU South Bend faculty on topics of interest to the public. All events are FREE and open to the public. Pop-Up University encourages attendees to arrive early to purchase dinner, snacks, coffee, tea, cocktails, and mocktails from the LangLab cafe & bar. Depart after the event or stay late for informal discussion and networking.

About LangLab: LangLab is a multi-use co-workspace facility that can be used to engage multiple demographic groups in artistic, musical, and intellectual experiences that represent the culture of our community.

ENGAGE IU South Bend Intern Discovers the Power of Active Listening

Posted on October 30, 2024 by jisuclar

ENGAGE IU South Bend Intern Lauro Zuniga

Lauro Zuniga, a graduate student in the Master of Social Work program at IU South Bend participated in the Office of Community Engagement’s ENGAGE IU South Bend internship program. The ENGAGE program supports students completing high-value, unpaid, off-campus internships that provide an important service to our community while developing students’ employment skills and ability to continue to serve the community in meaningful ways in the future.

Lauro worked with Nora Bautista-O’Neil, a licensed social worker and clinic lead at Health Plus Indiana, during the spring 2024 semester. As a Social Work Intern, Lauro shadowed and facilitated a weekly substance use recovery group for persons living with HIV and shadowing client meetings with case managers. He also helped with client intakes and assisted with other tasks as assigned. According to Lauro, the internship developed and reinforced several important skills including his active listening skills. He also learned a lot about care related to persons living with HIV. For Lauro the most meaningful and impactful part of the experience was getting to build relationships with clients and being an active and supportive presence when clients needed someone to listen. According to Lauro, “Learning about HIV has helped me understand the importance of destigmatizing the diagnosis and providing resources to those who live with HIV.”

Dr. Carlos Lisoni at Pop-Up University

Posted on February 27, 2024 by amalpark

Nearly two dozen people joined us for the February 15, 2024, Pop-Up University public lecture at Langlab.

Dr. Carlos Lisoni discussed the rise of elected autocrats and responded to audience questions and comments.

Many attendees stayed long after the formal event to network and continue the conversation over cocktails and mocktails at Langlab.

We hope to see you at the next Pop-Up University event featuring film studies professor Dr. Elaine Roth.

POP-UP UNIVERSITY PRESENTS “Indiana Transformation: Human Impacts on the Hoosier Landscape.”

Posted on February 14, 2024 by amalpark

Indiana University South Bend’s Office of Community Engagement and the South Bend Museum of Art will welcome Dr. Zachary Schrank to the Pop-Up University presenter’s stage on Thursday, April 18 at 5:00pm. This informal, free, public event will be held at The South Bend Museum of Art (120 Dr Martin Luther King Jr Dr. S., South Bend, Indiana).

The public is invited to join us as Dr. Schrank presents: “Indiana Transformation: Human Impacts on the Hoosier Landscape.”

5:00 P.M. – RECEPTION and EXHIBIT VIEWING
6:00 P.M. – ARTIST/FILMAKER TALK with Q&A
7:00 P.M. – EXHIBIT VIEWING and NETWORKING

We are living amid a profound era of transformation on Earth driven by diverse human activities reshaping our planet. Our modern civilization depends upon unprecedented levels of energy, relentless resource extraction, land alteration, and the constant flow of goods for a global economy. These changes reflect the emerging Anthropocene epoch, marking humanity’s dominance over Earth. Yet, because these changes are global in scale it often feels like they are far away.

Coinciding with the unveiling of the photographic and videographic exhibition, “Liminal: Indiana in the Anthropocene” at the South Bend Museum of Art, this Pop-Up University Lecture aims to illuminate what it looks like to live in the Anthropocene within our immediate surroundings. Through an art-centric lens, merging surreal aerial imagery with an original musical score, the exhibit invites audiences to reimagine Indiana from a novel perspective. It prompts us to hover above, observing the state’s integration into planetary dynamics and experiencing transformations that elude easy understanding yet evoke a sense of familiarity.

Join us between 5:00 and 6:00 P.M. to view the exhibit and enjoy light refreshments. Stay for the artist/filmmaker talk at 6:00 P.M. Linger for Q&A, informal conversation, exhibit viewing, and networking from 7:00 – 8:00 P.M.

Pop-Up University events are free and open to public. Attendees are invited to arrive early to purchase dinner, snacks, coffee, tea, cocktails, and mocktails. Depart at 7:15 or stay late for informal discussion and networking.

About the Speaker: Zach Schrank is a 9th generation Hoosier, sociology professor, and director of the Center for a Sustainable Future at Indiana University South Bend. He regularly teaches social theory, consumer society, and environmental sociology courses. In 2020, he co-directed the documentary Big Enough, Small Enough: South Bend in Transition. In 2023 he directed the film Liminal: Indiana in the Anthropocene, which won the Indiana Spotlight Award at the Heartland International Film Festival. Both films are available through Hoodox; a streaming platform that exclusively features nonfiction, Indiana-based films.

About Pop-Up University: Pop-Up University is a series of brief off-campus talks by IU South Bend faculty on topics of interest to the public. All events are FREE and open to the public.

POP-UP UNIVERSITY PRESENTS “Now You See Them: Women Screenwriters & Directors in Early Hollywood”

Posted on February 14, 2024 by amalpark

SOUTH BEND – Indiana University South Bend’s Office of Community Engagement and Langlab will welcome Dr. Elaine Roth to the Pop-Up University presenter’s stage on Thursday, March 21 at 6:00pm. This informal, free, public event will be held at Langlab (1302 High St. South Bend, Indiana).

The public is invited to join us as Dr. Roth presents: “Now You See Them:

Women Screenwriters & Directors in Early Hollywood.”

In response to controversy surrounding the 2014 Academy Awards, in 2016 the Academy of Motion Pictures invited more women and people of color into its largest incoming class. However, the coverage of Hollywood continues to project its unbalanced racial and gender dynamics backwards into history, with claims such as, “Hollywood historically has been a boys’ club.” In fact, the numbers are much worse than they used to be! White women and African Americans made major contributions to early cinema, in far greater percentages than the late twentieth-century or the twenty-first century. While women directors were largely eliminated by the early 1920’s, white women screenwriters continued to participate in the industry into the 1940’s. By the middle of the century, however, women screenwriters and directors were largely gone. Meanwhile, in the twenty-first century, early women screenwriters and directors have been largely forgotten by everyone except film historians. This presentation will help dispel the fantasy that white men have always dominated the U.S. film industry by asserting the significance of women’s participation in the early days of Hollywood.

Pop-Up University events are free and open to public. Attendees are invited to arrive early to purchase dinner, snacks, coffee, tea, cocktails, and mocktails from the LangLab cafe & bar. Depart at 7:15 or stay late for informal discussion and networking.

About the Speaker: Elaine Roth is Professor of Film Studies and Interim Chair of the English Department at Indiana University South Bend. She recently held a Fulbright-García Robles Chair of U.S. Studies at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, Mexico. Co-editor of the collection Motherhood Misconceived: Representing the Maternal in U.S. Films, she recently had a chapter on “The Power of Sentimental Cinema and Sentimental Politics: Ava DuVernay’s Selma (2014),” included in the forthcoming collection Global Sentimentality. She is currently working on a project on Patricia Highsmith’s novels and diaries.

About Pop-Up University: Pop-Up University is a series of brief off-campus talks by IU South Bend faculty on topics of interest to the public. All events are FREE and open to the public.

About Langlab: Langlab is a multi-use co-workspace facility that can be used to engage multiple demographic groups in artistic, musical, and intellectual experiences that represent the culture of our community.

POP- UP UNIVERSITY: “The Rise of Elected Autocrats and the Abdication of Responsible Politicians.”

Posted on February 14, 2024 by amalpark

The public is invited to join us as Dr. Lisoni presents: “The Rise of Elected Autocrats and the Abdication of Responsible Politicians.” Thursday, February 15th at 6:00 PM at Langlab (1302 High Street).

After an impressive quarter century in which democracies multiplied around the world, the last 20 years have brought about a decline in the number of democracies and support for democratic institutions. This phenomenon is known as “democratic backsliding” or “democratic erosion or regress” and is characterized by the election of autocratic leaders. Dr. Lisoni’s talk will explore the following questions: Why do democracies elect politicians who will eventually subvert or eliminate democracy itself? Can we immunize our democracies from extremism in politics? His talk will be followed by Q&A and an opportunity for discussion surrounding recent events, and public opinion, in Latin America and the United States.

About the Speaker: Dr. Carlos Lisoni is a native of Argentina, where he studied political science at the University of Buenos Aires. He came to the United States in 2000 and has lived in South Bend since 2003; he has an MA from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a PhD from the University of Notre Dame. He has been a member of the IUSB political science department since 2012 where he teaches, among other things, Latin American Politics, Comparative Politics, and International Relations. He has published works on elections and political parties. With his wife and daughters, he regularly goes back to Argentina to visit his family, giving him a unique opportunity to gain first-hand experience of life in Latin America and in the United States.

About Pop-Up University: Pop-Up University is a series of brief off-campus talks by IU South Bend faculty on topics of interest to the public. All events are FREE and open to the public.

Dean Phillips Knits a Pattern of Service

Posted on July 19, 2021 by Karrie M. Jean

When she was 16 years old, Dr. Brenda Phillips, Dean of the IU South Bend College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was watching the resignation of President Richard Nixon on television when someone started pounding on her door. It was a 15-year-old neighbor who had run to her house to get help as her father was trying to kill her mother.

“I let her in the front door as my parents, thank God, came in the back door,” Phillips said. The sheriff came and helped the mother; and Phillips’ family never saw them again. “The intervention made a difference with this family and at 16 I realized pretty quickly how serious a problem domestic violence was as it was right next door.”

This stark realization and a family history of community service has led Phillips to be actively engaged in our community. Today, she serves on the boards of the YWCA and the History Museum, is coordinating a fundraiser for Reins of Life, and is knitting projects through Busy Hands of Michiana.

Phillips started volunteering at the YWCA when she arrived in South Bend in 2018 to help with a silent auction and to meet members of the community. Working with the Y allowed her to continue the work she had done in other communities to support victims of domestic violence. Those efforts are meaningful to her because of what she learned when she was 16—it is right next door.

Phillips had set up programs at other universities to support women experiencing domestic violence noting “not a week went by that didn’t have someone coming into the (women’s studies program) office that had been assaulted in some way and looking for a place to land and get help.” She also said, “So, I’ve been doing this kind of work since I was 16, but certainly since I was in my 20s and I was more able to do so.”

Her interest in domestic violence also has roots in her studies in sociology—she has a Ph.D. and master’s degree in Sociology from the Ohio State University and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and History from Bluffton University in Ohio.

Her passion for history (“If I’m going to pick up a book, it’s going to be history.”) led her to serve on the History Museum’s marketing and membership committee, which helped the museum offer more virtual programming during the pandemic. When the History Museum reached out to Phillips about getting a historical marker for the South Bend Blue Sox, she jumped at the opportunity to honor this women’s baseball team. Phillips said, “It’s really exciting to be a part of trying to memorialize what people have done here in this community.”

Phillips has been an advocate for community-engaged teaching in the College of Liberal Art and Sciences as well. In 2019, she provided grants to support 10 community-engaged projects including technology education in high schools, urban gardening, a girl’s camp at St. Margaret’s House and a study of Elkhart Vibrant Communities initiative. The projects helped students understand the value of engagement and contributed to the community in a variety of ways.

Even when Phillips isn’t looking for a service opportunity, such opportunities seem to find her! When she and the other deans accompanied Chancellor Susan Elrod on a visit to Reins of Life, an organization that provides therapeutic horseback riding for people with different abilities, a Reins staff member mentioned that they were planning a 5K road race fundraiser, but they hadn’t organized one before. “Next thing I know I’m committing to help organize the race,” Phillips said. She pulled in Hope Smith Davis, Dean of the School of Education, who is a runner. The pair hope to raise enough money to make road races a viable fundraising program for the organization moving forward. “I really think you can do a lot with these events if you just keep going,” Phillips said. “You can bring in enough money to do some programming or maybe to buy another horse or improve the stalls.”

The pandemic led Phillips to volunteer with Busy Hands, an organization that knits blankets and creates other items for children with autism, people in nursing homes, and veterans. Busy Hands provides products to more than 120 agencies in nine counties.

Phillips’ actual knitting, however, started in pursuit of a girl-scout badge in second grade. She liked earning badges, and with her mother and grandmother already working yarn craft, she was sure she could earn that badge. After earning the sashwear, she largely dropped those knitting projects until she was working toward tenure and picked it back up to relax. As the years went by, projects started (and possibly not finished) yielded a lot of un-knit yarn.

Then the pandemic hit.

“So, like everyone else during quarantine, I cleaned out my closets and I found all this yarn and then I remember this local organization called Busy Hands of Michiana,” Phillips said. “So, I had all this yarn and I thought, well, I might as well do something; I’m just sitting here.”

In January, Phillips asked Busy Hands what they needed, and they said hats, scarves, gloves, and afghans. She made a commitment to make one afghan a month between January and October and in June finished afghan #5 as well as fifteen hats, seven pairs of gloves and seven pairs of slippers.

Knitting during quarantine helped with the isolation and lack of community involvement.

“I just felt so distant from people,” she said. “This year I’m on like probably five to six Zoom meetings every single day, but it’s not the same as being there, having conversations with people, or walking into the shelter knowing you’re doing something there, and I was just feeling really frustrated and like I wasn’t really contributing to the service ethic that I believe in so strongly. I thought this was something I could do that’s been relaxing and reflective. I think a lot about the people that I’m making these things for.”

Many of the people who will get her afghans are veterans, like her 91-year-old father. “I’m very much aware of what these afghans would mean to the veterans,” she said. “My father is always wrapped up in blankets because he just can’t seem to get warm. I think a lot, like this is probably going to someone’s father, someone’s grandfather, and maybe their family is all the way across the country now.”

“To me, that’s something tangible that you can give: that someone else is thinking about you during the pandemic; I was thinking about you, period.”