Service learning students make bowls at the American Swedish Institute to benefit Open Arms of Minnesota.
This April, President Roloff selected three recipients to honor with the 2018 Minnesota Campus Compact Presidents' Award. The award is an opportunity for member presidents and chancellors to give statewide recognition to effective leaders in the development of campus-community partnerships.
Student Leadership Award
Stefany Calderon ’18, a student in the public health program, has received the Student Leadership Award for her work supporting several community-based programs. Calderon’s internship at the West Side Community Health Services—a series of health clinics based in St. Paul that provide affordable health care to underserved populations—and her advocacy work with a clinic in El Salvador where she helped address issues of homelessness and racial justice, earned her the award.
Calderon is continuing her community engagement work through an internship at the Governor’s office. She has also recently been accepted into a Peace Corps position in Botswana to begin this summer.
Civic Engagement Steward Award
The Íæż½ã½ã’s Empty Bowls Project was awarded the Civic Engagement Steward Award for its partnership with Open Arms of Minnesota, an organization that cooks and delivers nutritious meals to people in the Twin Cities living with life-threatening illnesses.
The project brings together Íæż½ã½ã’s students, staff, faculty, alumnae/i and community members to make clay bowls. This year, Professor Monica Rudquist‘s ceramics students lead a bowl making event at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. The bowls from this event will be sold at soup socials around the Twin Cities, the proceeds of which will be donated to Open Arms of Minnesota.
The Empty Bowl project will be hosting another soup social on Friday, April 27. Learn more
Community Partner Award
The Community Partner Award was granted to Neighborhood House and its standing partnership with Íæż½ã½ã’s. Neighborhood House is a St. Paul nonprofit that helps immigrants and refugees settle into their new lives in Minnesota. Students from Íæż½ã½ã’s Career Ready internships worked with the organization to benefit its food markets and English Language Learner Program.
Neighborhood House has two food markets operating in St. Paul. They provide free access to healthy food for local families who need assistance. The English Language Learner Program helps students become proficient in English as a second language and teaches them about life skills in areas such as health, housing and money. Once students have completed the final English course, they are eligible to participate in Neighborhood House’s GED or College Readiness classes.