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IU South Bend Community Engagement Indiana University

The Heart of Engagement Within the School of the Arts

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Have you ever heard over 1,000 elementary students screaming in excitement? If not, then you haven’t had the opportunity to witness Michele’s Little Hearts Theatre, one of Cory Iwaszewski’s favorite productions in the School of the Arts. Cory is the Media and Community Outreach Manager for the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts. He started this position in 2019 after receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from IU South Bend. According to Jorge Muñiz, the interim Dean for the Raclin School of the Arts, “Cory has been an amazing addition to our Raclin School team. His responsibilities include being the hub for relations with community organizations, including schools for purposes of community presence and recruitment. He works directly with our Production and Marketing Manager to devise strategies for our presence in our community.” Cory wants to ensure that the community is aware that the School of the Arts can serve as a resource, but he also wants to promote students. “I want to make sure that students are seen for all of their hard work,” says Cory.

Outreach is Cory’s favorite part of his position: “I love connecting with people—especially the elementary students that come for Michele’s Little Hearts Theatre.” Michele’s Little Hearts Theatre program is an annual event that invites local elementary students to campus to witness what is usually their first live theatre experience! Last year, the campus welcomed 6,000 K-5 students over the course of three days. Cory explains, “It’s a lot of work and planning to make it happen, but once the students arrive and you hear them screaming with excitement—all the work is worth it.”

Cory, along with a few others, is also in the process of developing a peer mentoring program that matches children in South Bend schools with students in our School of the Arts. He is working on an information fair for K-12 students at the end of every semester to showcase the different majors and concentrations available on our campus.

When Cory is not developing new outreach efforts, he is editing Aspire, the annual magazine of the School of the Arts. Cory is also spearheading a database project to identify needs of local schools and determine how the School can help meet those needs.

“Cory is at the heart of our community engagement in the Raclin School of the Arts. As a community of artists and scholars, it is our goal to be a driving force for change in our community at large,” says Muñiz. As an art student himself, Cory knows that having the community involved makes a world of difference. “Our students work really hard, and we want the community to know that. Having the support from our community means everything to every program we offer and to every student,” said Cory. And the work that Cory does to retain and increase support and involvement from the community makes that all possible.

Senate Committee on Community Engagement Launched in Fall 2020

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The impetus for a senate committee came out of the process of completing the application for the Carnegie Foundation’s Classification for Community Engagement. Committee Chair, Jay VanderVeen, along with fellow members Krista Bailey and Kim McInerny, were all involved in the Carnegie Engaged Campus Task Force—the faculty committee that worked for three years to complete the Carnegie application. After this application was completed, denied, and feedback was given, it was apparent that there needed to be more significant support for community engagement on our campus. McInerny explained, “After the task force ended, we wanted to move that passion forward. We recognized there was still work to do.”

One charge of the committee is to create an infrastructure that supports IU South Bend’s engagement with its communities. VanderVeen explained, “We want to build a culture of community engagement on our campus. Once we have the mission statement in place, we want to build a Center of Community Engagement. That is the goal.” The committee is also responsible for making recommendations to the Campus Directions Committee on the community engagement aspects of the campus’ strategic plan. According to Bailey, “The Campus Directions Committee is in the process of revamping the strategic plan for the campus. We want to make sure that community engagement is an important goal and part of the Campus Strategic Plan and the mission.”

Unlike the Carnegie Engaged Campus Task Force, the Community Engagement Senate Committee will not disband after a set period of time.  “Many faculty committees on campus are ad hoc, meaning they only meet for a specific purpose. Once that purpose is met, the committee usually disbands and doesn’t meet again,” VanderVeen explained. “Having an established senate committee leads to continuity and accountability.” The Committee is currently meeting to create goals for the next few years and to identify strategies for achieving those goals.  According to VanderVeen, “We want to write a mission statement as a first step. We want to create a very simple, working definition of community engagement for our campus and community.” Krista Bailey also stated that “we want to see community engagement implemented and supported around all of campus. There are strong pockets now, but we would love to see community engagement widespread among all schools and disciplines.”

The creation of a Senate Committee on Community Engagement is an important step for institutionalizing community engagement and is a sign that the faculty are eager to deepen and expand the campus’ community engagement.

Members of the Committee:

Jay VanderVeen, Committee Chair, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Olubunmi Okanlami, College of Health Sciences
Jerin Burch, College of Health Sciences
Kim McInerney, School of the Arts
Kacey Clear, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Molly Monroe, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Krista Bailey, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Jason Resler, School of the Arts
Gail McGuire, Ex-Officio, Director of Community Engagement

Anna Ortega: Researching Dolores Huerta

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MLS Graduate student Anna Ortega, who is pictured above, has been working on a community-based research project with Dr. Monica Tetzlaff and La Casa de Amistad. In honor of the celebration of the opening of the Dolores Huerta Pavilion within Pulaski Park in South Bend, Anna has been researching Dolores Huerta, a national Civil Rights activist who has played a major role in the Farmworkers Movement. Huerta is the co-founder of the United Farm Workers, originally the National Farmworkers Association.

Ortega’s sources include newspaper articles and oral histories, which she found through the IU South Bend library and the Civil Rights Heritage Center. In addition to researching how the local Farmworkers Movement connects to the National one, Anna has been gathering information to put together a history of South Bend’s Latinx community. To do this, she has been working with La Casa de Amistad, a hub for the Latinx community, as they have a large archive of documents relating to South Bend’s Latinx community and history.

To Anna, “community engagement is a great way to connect to what you are learning. It also helps to establish yourself as an active member of your community.”

Stay tuned for information on the official opening of the Dolores Huerta Pavilion in Pulaski Park this September.

Sustainability in Action

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Students in the Master of Liberal Studies Program put sustainability into action through SUST-S610, Measuring Sustainability, taught by Krista Bailey. The course is designed to give the students the skills to “track sustainability in whatever way, shape, or form that it is being implemented.”

The course begins by looking at the different tools for measuring sustainability; they examine who made the tool and why, how it could be used and who it could be used by. Students then use that knowledge to identify an area of opportunity that addresses sustainability and to develop their own community-based project. From there, students meet with community partners to ask them about their goals, the nature of their service/product, and how the students can partner with them to achieve their goals.

Students have worked with the City of South Bend’s Office of Sustainability, the Elkhart Environmental Center, and the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown South Bend. This past year, students developed projects around gardening for wildlife, banning plastic bags, food waste reduction on campus, and a campus pride index.

At the end of the semester, students present their projects to the class and their community partner.  The final presentations vary based on students’ goals. If a student has more of an academic focus, wants to publish, or become a teacher, the student may write a paper. Other students may create videos or art pieces. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s students were unable to present their findings in-person, so they recorded their presentations on the Center for Sustainability’s YouTube channel.

This course not only deepens students understanding of sustainability, it prepares them for professional life in this field. According to Bailey, “it gives them real life, real world experience on real issues and real opportunities so that they can build their own practical portfolio of projects.” It also provides a service to community organizations by bringing fresh eyes to sustainability challenges and new tools to address them.

If you’d like to watch students’ final presentations, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcEIlvG6Xjs

Dr. Larry Bennett: Making Assessment Meaningful for Social Work Students

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Dr. Larry Bennett, Professor in the School of Social Work has a challenge. Most Social Work students enter the field wanting to help people – either through direct service, programming, or advocacy. However, the National Association of Social Workers’ Code of Ethics requires that social workers evaluate their interventions to assess their effectiveness. This means that in addition to learning about mental illness, case management, and therapeutic interventions, social work students need to master the tools of assessment.

Within the School of Social Work, there is an internship requirement for undergraduates and graduate students; Dr. Bennett estimates that the School of Social Work routinely works with over 100 different agencies in Indiana and Michigan. Dr. Bennett takes advantage of the fact that each student is already partaking in an internship when they enroll in Practice Evaluation (SWK-S472 and SWK-S623). In his courses, students learn what Bennett calls “evidence-based practice”, which are practices that have been assessed and determined to be effective. Students first collaborate with their field instructor to come up with an implementation plan to utilize throughout their internship –something also of utility to the social agency. In Dr. Bennett’s classroom, students then fine-tune that plan, create a way to assess and evaluate it, and then present their plan and findings at the end of the semester to their classmates.

Graph depicts a SSD, Single System Design, with baseline and intervention data points.

At the undergraduate level, students have the choice to work with single clients, evaluate an entire program within the agency, or some combination of both. Undergraduates can choose projects that directly benefit the agency, like a program evaluation. Program evaluations could involve agency focus groups or client satisfaction surveys. To evaluate an individual client, students use what it called a Single System Design, or SSD. A typical SSD project in the undergraduate course uses some form of motivational enhancement or prompting intervention to increase group attendance or medication compliance.


The graduate course differs as those students are required to focus on individual clients and to produce a publish-ready
document for their program. Graduate students also conduct a SSD project, and use statistics to assess its effectiveness.

 

According to Dr. Bennett, “social work students are often anxious to begin their internship so that they can put their new skills in practice; but, it’s the part of their program they look forward to and enjoy the most.” Dr.Bennett has made it his mission to teach these students how to evaluate the work they are doing in their internships and field placements so that it has a meaningful and long-lasting impact on clients and agencies.

 

Communication Studies Day

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On Friday March 6th, students from Riley High School attended IU South Bend’s first Communication Studies Day. Juniors and seniors who take part in Riley’s audio/video production class taught by Tim Richardson were invited for the day to learn about the program, meet current faculty, staff and Communication Studies students, and participate in workshops.

The students in the RHS class currently create and produce their own newscast titled, “Buzz in the Bend.” The students learn how to write scripts, film newscasts, edit footage, produce shows and more. The class is also open to students across the South Bend Community School Corporation including Adams, Washington and Clay High Schools. Students from all schools that are enrolled in Richardson’s class attended Communication Studies Day.

Communication Studies faculty that participated in Communication Studies Day.

The goal of this new event was to connect the Communication Studies department with the students of the surrounding community. The Raclin School of the Arts takes great pride in being able to be a resource for any student that needs them in the area. Communication Studies Day was created to help the kids connect with faculty and staff who they can develop relationships and networks with, if they choose to follow this path in higher education. By studying Communication at IU South Bend, the students are taught how to further develop their communication skills that are in high demand in the job market today. Another goal of the day was to let students know there is a department here at IU South Bend that can help them reach that next level, and help them prepare for a career in this field.

Students that attended were interested in journalism, public relations, news editing, newscast, photography and integrated new media studies. The students were put in 25 minute workshops with different faculty, discussing the different concentrations of the communication degree, met with the admissions department, and then shared pizza over lunch in the student lounge while hanging out with the faculty, staff and current Communication students.

For the first time running this event, the Communication Studies department were very pleased with the day, and took it as a learning experience just like the students. The hope is to have this be a yearly event where more local students can attend to learn about the program at IU South Bend and how it can help enhance their skills.

Post by Cory Iwaszewski

Fine Arts Day

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High school students from all over the region came to IU South Bend on February 29 for Fine Arts Day. Fine Arts Day is an annual event that allows students to get a first-hand look at what a college-level art class is like and possibly one of their first experiences of art outside of their high school. It also provides these students a way to network with one another, building friendships outside of their normal classes.

The day started off with a meet and greet in the gallery which allowed the high school students to familiarize themselves with faculty. They also had the chance to see the Student Exhibition, which showcases what the IU South Bend Fine Arts students are working on throughout the year.

 

The students had the choice to participate in a portrait drawing workshop with Professor of Painting and Drawing Ron Monsma, a sculpture workshop with Professor of Sculpture Brian Hutsebout, or a comic strip drawing workshop with Professor of Graphic Design John Thompson.

“Every spring for Fine Arts Day I do a portrait drawing workshop with charcoal on toned paper. We have a model come in, and this year was Kolton [Sizer, BFA Painting and Drawing ‘19], and the students get to draw a portrait from a life form,” Professor Monsma explained.  “The students love this workshop because most of them draw portraits with pencil and from photographs. So this allows them to experience something they might not get the chance to while in high school, and it allows the students to see space and draw with dimension.”

After the workshop, the high school students had lunch and had the opportunity to tour the rest of the IU South Bend Campus. Although this year had a smaller number of attendees, the Fine Arts faculty still deem it as a success as it allowed students to have an inside look at what it means to be a Fine Arts student at IU South Bend.

Post written by Kate Luce

Dr. Marvin Curtis, Dean of the Ernestine Raclin School of the Arts

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For the last twelve years, Dr. Marvin Curtis, Dean of the Ernestine Raclin School of the Arts, has been a leader in community engagement and outreach. Working in collaboration with the South Bend Symphony, the South Bend Museum of Art, the Center for the Homeless, and the South Bend Community School Corporation (to name just a few), Dean Curtis has helped to promote the arts in our community and to provide students with impactful educational experiences.

One of his accomplishments was the creation of Aspire, the official publication of the Raclin School of the Arts. The magazine won the Bronze Award for In-House Publications, Periodicals section by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education in 2011. A work of art itself, the publication plays an important role in the School’s outreach to the community. According to Curtis, “One of the reasons why I started the magazine was because no one knew our story or that we existed. Now people know the arts are alive and well at IU South Bend.”

Curtis is also immensely proud of how the School of the Arts engages local children. This year marks the 58th season of Michele’s Little Heart Theatre, an annual event that invites local K-5th grade students to what is usually their first live theatre performance. More than 6,000 local elementary students saw this year’s production of Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse—4,100 of them for free.

The Teddy Bear Concert, created by Dean Curtis, is an annual event that has received tremendous support from the community. This year the balcony had to be opened to accommodate the audience for Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors. People who bring a teddy bear to the event gain free admission; those bears are then donated to local non-profit organizations in the community. This year, 375 teddy bears were donated to the Center for the Homeless and the YWCA.

The School of the Arts hosted its 12th Lift Every Voice concert on February 29. To celebrate Black History Month, Dean Curtis invites three to four nationally-recognized vocal artists to perform in a concert that also features the South Bend Symphonic Choir. Dean Curtis explains, “It’s something that I’m really proud of because it’s the only thing that really happens around Black History Month in this area.”

Last spring brought new recognition of student talent in the School of the Arts. The studio album, American Dreamers: Voices of Hope, Music of Freedom, by the John Daversa Big Band featured spoken word and instrumental contributions from students Salvador Perez and Juan-Carlos Alarcon. The album received Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, Best Improvised Jazz Solo, and Best Arrangement in the Instrumental or A Cappella Categories at the Grammy’s.

According to Dean Curtis, “Although we weren’t involved in the making of that album, you can see the influence we’ve had on our students for them to be able to say ‘I want to do this project’ and then all of sudden, guess what, they went to the Grammy’s! We made a huge deal out of their nominations and wins because we are really proud of them.”

The Grammy’s is not the only national stage occupied by students in the School of the Arts. In 2009, during Obama’s first Christmas celebration as president, Curtis took four students to the White House to perform a 90-minute concert in the Grand Foyer. He also had the privilege to take and conduct the South Bend Symphonic Choir at Carnegie Hall in New York.

As Curtis prepares to step down as Dean on June 30th, he reflected on the importance of campus-community engagement:  “As an institution supported by tax dollars, we have an obligation to be a resource to the community. We view it as a two-way street: We’re giving people the opportunity to see young artists do what they love and giving our students a chance to work with the community and show them the role that the arts play in their lives.”

Dean Curtis pictured with Chancellor Susan Elrod as IU South Bend was named an All-Steinway School.

Veterans Book Club

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The Veterans Book Club has been providing a safe and welcoming place for veterans from campus and the community since 2015. Three or four times a year, Librarian Rhonda Culbertson and Dean of Library Services Vicki Bloom host the book club on campus. The initial focus of the book club was to provide a safe and welcoming space for student veterans who were transitioning into college life after the military and give them the ability to bond with others over books. The first book they read was about how to improve veteran services on campus. Since then, they have read poetry, short stories, long-form journalism, graphic novels, and everything in between. Whatever the medium, each book has touched on a subject that most veterans, especially student veterans, can relate to. The club has also had several different facilitators over the years, some of whom were the authors of the books themselves. While reading a book on the Veteran Affairs Healthcare system, the club was able to Skype with the author who was a physician.

There is a wide range of veterans who frequent the book club.  Vicki commented, “I think it’s interesting because you get all of these different people’s perspectives. We’ve had someone from the Gulf War and we’ve had someone from the recent War on Terror. We’ve had people who have been in combat and who have not been in combat.” The book club even attracted the attention of former Mayor of South Bend, Pete Buttigieg, pictured below. Despite the nature and location of their service, everyone’s perspective is listened to and respected.  “It’s not just veterans,” Rhonda pointed out. The club includes students, faculty and community members with no personal military background who are interested in history and learning more from our veteran community.

When asked about the most inspiring and interesting moments in the Veterans Book Club, Vicki had this story to share: “One very moving moment was when a man talked about his Vietnam War experiences. He told us that he had never told people some of the things that happened because the way he was treated when he came back negatively affected him. But he shared them with us.” Rhonda has developed a greater appreciation as a result of the book club: “I’m one of those many Americans who have zero connection with the military or veterans in my own life. Just getting to know these folks has impressed me on such a high level.” Although Vicki has a personal connection to the military, participating in the book club has deepened her understanding of the veteran experience: “You get a real sense of the comradery that occurs and why they feel so close to the people that they served with.”

Rhonda and Vicki both defined their community engagement as a way of allowing others to have a different viewpoint of college and of IU South Bend. “I think it breaks down this ‘ivory tower’ concept and shows us as real people,” Rhonda commented. “It also promotes lifelong learning, because you can always learn from reading whether you agree with the material or not,” Vicki continued. Although some of the topics are hard to discuss, and the stories told are sometimes difficult to share, “it’s just really good books and really good conversation.” All are welcome to the next Veterans Book Club meeting on March 26th. This meeting will take place 5:30pm in the Franklin D. Schurz Library and will feature Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. For more information and to get a copy of the book, contact Rhonda Culbertson at rculbert@iusb.edu.

The Health and Wellness Center

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Since 1990, the Health and Wellness Center at IU South Bend has been serving students, faculty, staff and the community. Dr. Teresa Dobrzykowski (left), a Certified Nurse Practitioner, serves as the clinic’s Director of Care Provision, and teaches for the School of Nursing. Kari Frame (right) is the clinic’s Operations Director and is IU South Bend’s spokesperson for Healthy IU, the campaign for employee wellness. Community engagement is at the heart of the clinic. Teresa explained that “the original intent of this Health and Wellness center was to be a nurse-managed clinic providing care to the community, however community is defined.” And the clinic has done just that, with some help from community partners.

In 2010, the Health and Wellness Center created a partnership with AIDS Ministries/AIDS Assist. This partnership originally began with AIDS Ministries staff visiting the clinic once a month and then twice a month to provide HIV screenings to patients. After years of this system, the clinic ventured out and asked, “why can’t we do HIV screenings ourselves?” In 2017, Kari and Teresa were trained by the state to provide HIV screenings to patients at the clinic. Although they now do the testing themselves, there is still a partnership between the clinic and AIDS Ministries. “We get test materials and education materials from them,” Teresa explained. “They give us supplies like free condoms, which we are actually trying to get in all bathrooms on campus just like the women’s products in the bathrooms,” Kari continued. This original collaboration spawned a new one that went beyond AIDS Ministries to the St. Joseph County Department of Health. The clinic has been providing STI screenings and treatment for the community since 2015, when the St. Joseph County Health Department stopped doing them.

Since HIV and STI testing is not all that the clinic does, it helps to reduce the stigma and anxiety of being tested and treated for such diseases and infections that comes with visiting clinics where that is all that they do. In addition to these services, the Health and Wellness Center also offers family planning and birth control, immunizations, physical exams, CPR training, and many other services. Due to their other community partnerships with companies like LabCorp, AmeriCares, and HealthLinc, the clinic is able to offer these services at a reduced price, and sometimes for free. Their partnership with AmeriCares has allowed them to provide students with free medication and other things such as reading glasses, hygiene products, Visine, sunscreen and more. The clinic does keep these products in house, but much of what they receive from AmeriCares is donated to Titans Feeding Titans, the food pantry on campus.

Teresa and Kari define their community engagement as “meeting individuals where they are at, both physically and emotionally. Being engaged in the community is a way of giving back, and to provide care is to really be a part of the community.” Kari continued, “It’s about having the community feel safe to come here and not feel judgement no matter their reason for coming.” They do their best as a team to ensure that every patient feels cared for, listened to, and respected. The Health and Wellness Center can be found at 1960 Northside Blvd., South Bend, IN. You can call 574-520-5557 for appointments, pricing information, or other questions.

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