Event to educate on social justice issues

PREVIEW, Page 1 number of issues including educational equality, the effectiveness of choice plans, diversity issues, the role of charter and parochial schools and the relationship of higher education institutions to their community partners.

Kozol has written several award-winning books but is most acknowledged for “Savage Inequalities: Children in American Schools,” his noted work defending the rights of poor children and their lack of equal educational opportunity in the United States caused by the way public education is funded in this country. Kozol’s efforts have raised awareness in American society to promote equal access to education and resources.

The other speaker, Paul Vallas, served as chief executive officer for the School District of Philadelphia from 2002-2007 and as chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools from 1995 to 2001.

His execution of sweeping district-wide reforms in Philadelphia and Chicago turned both major cities into nationally recognized models for education reform. His commitment to education and the common good continues today in New Orleans.

Other highlighted speeches will come from a national authority on emotional intelligence, Anabel Jensel, professor of edu- cation at Notre Dame de Namur University and past president of the University of Dayton, Brother Raymond Fitz, who will talk about utilizing neighborhood schools not only for student success but for neighborhood revitalization.

“I do believe that this symposium held on our college campus will raise awareness of social issues at institutions of higher learning elsewhere, but more importantly, I believe that the event will raise a nationwide awareness that Cabrini is the institution in the forefront of social justice issues,” Halpern said.

Registration for the symposium ends on Thursday, March 27. Online registration is free for all Cabrini faculty, staff and students.

“It is important to remember that we are all educators in some way and we all have the responsibility to educate ourselves about the challenges and opportunities in the education field. Our future leaders are being educated in today’s schools,” Bryde said.

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WOLFINGTON, Page 1 common good course sequence.

The partnership between the institutions and their surrounding areas are not only beneficial to the community they partner with, but also gives valuable experience to students, faculty and staff, Fitz believes.

Fitz talked about how students gain real life experience in participating in a community partnership by dealing with a diverse group of people that one might not encounter otherwise.

“Students can read something in a book and can think about social justice issues but when they go out and sit down at a coffee table with a singleparent-mother who works a couple jobs to keep her kids in school, and get to know this person as a friend they will never think about poor people as they did before,” Fitz said.

”Students get introduced to the complexity of how difficult poverty is to overcome. Once they see all the problems and issues that one must deal with living in poverty, they can overcome the stereotypes of being poor.”

Fitz’s arrival began the Cabrini College Wolfington Center’s first annual ScholarActivist-in-Residence program that will end March 29. The purpose of this program is to educate faculty and staff to fully integrate the meaning of Mother Cabrini’s motto, “education of the heart,” into the classroom.

Dr. Nicholas Rademacher, assistant professor of religion at Cabrini College, gave a response to the opening presentation and stresses the importance of having guest speakers like Fitz.

“The Scholar-Activist-inResidence program is very beneficial in terms of making it possible for faculty and students to learn more about what we are doing in terms of our partnership in the community,” Rademacher said.

“The program also provides information and knowledge about how to put together a curriculum that actually does get Cabrini students more involved in the community based research.”

Fitz expresses community partnerships as engaging in “good conversation” with the community in order to understand their agenda and assets and then combining them with the institution accordingly.

During Fitz’s visit he will get to explore Cabrini’s partnership of Norristown, have dinner with students involved in the Norristown partnership, visit classrooms of Catholic social teaching, and engage in Cabrini’s Common Good Symposium.