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GOAL 1: A DISTINCTIVE LEARNING HERITAGE
A DISTINCTIVE LEARNING HERITAGE
In pursuing this first core goal, Manhattan College strives to ensure that its Lasallian Catholic heritage is vital and visible throughout its academic, cocurricular and extracurricular programs.
• Manhattan College hosted a gathering of local Lasallian ministries last November to celebrate a decade of mission as the
District of Eastern North America (DENA), which was formed on September 9, 2009. Gathering virtually and inperson at the College and in different cities throughout DENA’s geographic expanse, Lasallians celebrated their accomplishments while acknowledging that there is more to be done to serve the most vulnerable young people in our society through this 300-year-old mission of education. Led by Brother Robert Schieler, FSC, superior general of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, the association celebration was livestreamed from La Salle University. Brother Robert called on all Lasallians to reflect on their vocation as educators during the Jubilee Year, as designated by Pope Francis and the Catholic Church.
• In June, Manhattan College sponsored the Lasallian Association of Colleges and
Universities’ virtual panel on Responding to Racism: A Lasallian Dialogue. In collaboration with the Office for
Lasallian Education at Christian Brothers
Conference, DENA, the Midwest District,
(Opposite page) In his remarks at the DENA 10th anniversary celebration, Superior General Brother Robert Schieler, FSC, reminded listeners that they are partners in the Lasallian global mission that brings hope to one million students in 80 countries around the world. (This page) Items in the Lea and Herman Ziering Archive exhibit hosted by the Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center were donated by the couple’s daughter and included those of rescuers – Muslim Albanians and Iranians, and a Lasallian, Brother Gabriel Boile, FSC – who assisted Jews in escaping the Holocaust.
and the District of San Francisco New Orleans, the discussion was an initiative of the six Lasallian colleges and universities throughout the Lasallian Region of North America. It is a continuation of the work of the annual Lasallian Higher Education Colloquy on Racial Justice, which started in 2017 and has published the first-ever Mission Mandated Lasallian Vision for Racial Justice. Panelists included Hayden Greene, director of Multicultural Affairs and the coordinator for the Multicultural Center at Manhattan College.
• The Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith
Education (HGI) Center hosted an exhibit of the Lea and Herman Ziering Archive
Collection in the O’Malley Library last fall. The Zierings were Holocaust survivors who sought justice for its perpetrators, with Herman serving as vice president of the Society of Survivors of the Riga Ghetto and as a member of the Anti-Defamation League’s task force on Nazi war criminals. Items featured in the exhibit included a concentration camp uniform from the Riga Ghetto, letters alerting officials to the activities of the Nazis during World War II, and a postwar letter from Winston Churchill. The exhibit’s public opening featured a talk by Abe Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League from 1987 to 2015.
• In the spring, five faculty members from four different schools were recruited for the 2020 Community Engaged
Learning (CEL) Faculty Development
Seminar cohort. This is the fourth cohort of faculty to participate in the seminar, which consisted of a series of virtual workshops in May and June designed to help practitioners of CEL grow in their professional practice. The faculty demonstrated their new grasp of CEL methodology by designing or redesigning a course that reflected service-learning theory and pedagogy; principles of ethical and effective community engagement; and intercultural effectiveness and humility. As a result of the seminar, five new CEL courses were developed, to be run in either the 2020 or 2021 academic years.
• The fifth annual Community Partner
Summit networking event for faculty and local community partner organizations was held in November 2019. The event brought together 28 community partners, representing 17 different community partner organizations, and 32 faculty and administrators from the College.
Adam Arenson, professor of history and
director of the Urban Studies program at Manhattan College, discussed his Community Engaged Learning history course, Slavery in the Bronx.
• During the 2019-20 academic year, 47 CEL courses were held, a 62% increase since 2018-19. A total of 677 students enrolled in these courses, a 57% increase since the 2018-19 academic year, and 30 faculty members taught a CEL course in 2019-20, a 30% increase since 2018-19. Out of the 30, nine faculty members participated in the CEL faculty development seminar in the past four years.
• The Lasallian Outreach Collaborative (LOCo) program and the Community-
Engaged Federal Work-Study (FWS) program continued to expand opportunities for Manhattan College students to engage in the local community.
During the 2019-20 academic year, 99 individual students participated in the LOCo program, committing to engagement with a local nonprofit on a weekly basis. LOCo includes students participating in a volunteer capacity, as well as the students hired to work at local nonprofit organizations as part of the FWS program. In fall 2019, there were 48 total participants: 22 students were involved in the FWS program, and 26 volunteered through LOCo. In spring 2020, 84 students participated: 53 through FWS, and 31 through LOCo. About 20 of the
Twenty-five Manhattan students joined 60,000 young people at a climate strike in New York City in November 2019. The outing was one of two Activism Excursions that took place in the past academic year.
MANHATTAN COLLEGE IS
NO. 8 ON MONEY’S ANNUAL
RANKING OF THE MOST
TRANSFORMATIVE COLLEGES
IN AMERICA
THE COLLEGE HAS BEEN
NAMED A TOP SCHOOL FOR
SERVICE BY THE CATHOLIC
VOLUNTEER NETWORK
FOR THE SECOND
CONSECUTIVE YEAR,
MANHATTAN COLLEGE
IS INCLUDED IN THE MILITARY TIMES’ BEST COLLEGES
FOR VETS LIST
NEARLY 100 STUDENTS
PARTICIPATED IN THE
LASALLIAN OUTREACH
COLLABORATIVE (LOCO)
PROGRAM, COMMITTING TO
WEEKLY ENGAGEMENT WITH
A LOCAL NONPROFIT
MANHATTAN COLLEGE
HOSTED A GATHERING
OF LOCAL LASALLIAN
MINISTRIES LAST NOVEMBER
TO CELEBRATE A DECADE OF
MISSION AS THE DISTRICT OF
EASTERN NORTH AMERICA
FWS positions were transitioned to remote work experiences during the pandemic, enabling students to continue their work with local community-based and nonprofit organizations in a virtual space.
• The diverse array of community engagement options offered in 2019-20 included opportunities with Concourse
House Shelter for Women and Children; the Ethical Culture Society and the Bayit
Synagogue Emergency Shelters; Fordham-
Bedford Community Services; God’s
Love We Deliver; Kingsbridge Heights
Community Center; Methodist Home for Nursing and Rehabilitation; Part of the Solution (POTS); the University
Neighborhood Housing Program; the
Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy
Coalition; Riverdale Neighborhood House; the Bronx River Alliance; the Bronx
Chamber of Commerce; and the Van
Cortlandt Park Alliance, among others.
• In 2019-20, the Service on Saturday program had 10 events, with an average of seven participants at each event. Two events were canceled due to COVID-19, but 56 students engaged in the program, with 74 attendees throughout the 10 events.
• During this past academic year, 33 students participated in the Activism
Excursion program, which is designed to give students a chance to observe and participate in social justice activism taking place in and around New York City. Before
COVID-19 necessitated the cancellation of planned activities, two events were held: a climate strike in September 2019, in which 25 students joined, and the Action Corps
Annual Community Meal in October 2019, with eight students in attendance. Excursions are one-time opportunities that range from lectures and museum exhibits to protests and advocacy actions.
• The Mission Month Day of Service transitioned online in 2020 for a Mission
Month Day of Advocacy in partnership with the Ignatian Solidarity Network.
During the day, 55 students, 20 student clubs and eight campus departments shared information about their participation on Instagram. In addition, 46
Manhattan College community members participated in advocacy action through the Ignatian Solidarity Network.
• The Campus Ministry and Social Action (CMSA) Social Justice Leadership Training
Retreat was held in August 2019 and had 16 student participants. Under the theme Insight, Leadership and Action, the retreat focused on antiracism education.
Students were asked to reflect on their identities, their position in relation to power, privilege and oppression, and to share a commitment to establishing a more inclusive campus by acquiring tools to confront and disrupt social injustice.
• While travel restrictions affected volunteer service opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic, one Jasper accepted a new service post and two others continued theirs. August Kissel ’20 joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in the Hood
River and Odell communities of Oregon.
He serves as a community liaison at a nonprofit immigration law firm. Kaiyun
Chen ’19 and Sam Wilson ’19 are pursuing an additional year of service with the
Lasallian Volunteers.
• Manhattan College was named a top school for service by the Catholic
Volunteer Network (CVN). The distinction highlights the work of Campus
Ministry and Social Action, specifically in connecting college students with postgraduate service opportunities nationally. The CVN fosters and promotes full-time domestic and international faithbased volunteer service opportunities for people of all ages, backgrounds and skills.
• CMSA and the new campus-wide Voter
Engagement Committee brought five students to the Eastern Pennsylvania
Student Voting Summit at the University of Pennsylvania in February. The Voter
Engagement Committee is composed of faculty, staff and students, with the aim of increasing voter engagement among students. • This year, Lasallians in Faith Together (LIFT) continued to offer retreats, welcoming 45 students to the fall 2019
Kairos Retreat and 35 seniors to the
Senior Retreat in February. In fall 2019, a record-breaking 45 participants took part in the New Students Retreat, an overnight experience that focuses on the five points of the Lasallian star while introducing new students to the Lasallian charism.
• Peer Ministry continued to grow in 2019-20, with a small faith-sharing group meeting weekly for 90 minutes to discuss matters of God, vocation, relationships and choices. Peer Ministry is student-led and attended by approximately 15 students, with hopes to grow in the near future.
• Approximately 65 students and staff attended the February Agape Latte, a monthly speaker series program that provides a safe, social environment for students who want to learn more about how faith applies to real-life questions. Chemical engineering professor Patrick Abulencia spoke about balancing his faith, family, career and passion for engineering in a talk entitled Towards Equilibrium. Later in the spring, Agape Latte moved to a digital format in a series of online fireside chats entitled Caffeinated Cyber Conversations. In April and May, past speakers provided reflections on their experiences in quarantine and managing stress, family and career in the middle of a pandemic. These videos premiered every Thursday night on CMSA’s Instagram TV page. The most popular video accumulated more than 300 views and can be viewed on the department’s YouTube page.
• During the 2020 winter break, 18 students, five student leaders and three advisers participated in LOVE Social Justice
Immersion Experiences in New Orleans,
Louisiana; Flint, Michigan; and El Paso,
Texas. In preparation for each experience, student leaders held weekly meetings to discuss issues of identity, power, privilege, oppression and social justice with their team members. The LOVE Social Justice
Immersion Experience in New Orleans, which had been revamped this past
January, taught participants about disaster relief, climate change, racial justice and mass incarceration by meeting with grassroots and nonprofit community partners.
• In the spring, several CMSA student leaders conducted weekly wellness checkins on Instagram Live. Every Wednesday from March through May, the leaders coordinated online reflections and meditations for students, which averaged more than 100 views in the 24-hour live periods.
• The College continued its Catholic Relief
Services Global Campus Project in 2019-20. Campus ambassadors met with
Congressman Eliot Engel at his office in
August for a brief district advocacy visit to follow up on migration issues addressed at a larger meeting with him in the spring.
• During Fair Trade Month in October 2019, Manhattan celebrated its role as a
Fair Trade College. The College welcomed four major speakers and held outreach events. These included a discussion by
David Schilling, director of the Interfaith
Center on Corporate Responsibility, who spoke about his work to counter human trafficking and modern-day slavery. Sal Santuccio ’13, co-founder of Hudson Roasters, and his business partner Bernadette Gerrity, discussed starting their successful coffee roasting business, and how they have incorporated Fair Trade practices and principles into their business model.
• Students were offered the opportunity to engage in a number of spiritual excursions with the Riverdale Interfaith Community during the 2019-20 academic year.
Among the excursions were an interfaith celebration of Tashlich with the Riverdale
Temple, which called for migration justice along the Southern border of the United
States; an interfaith meal and celebration at the Riverdale Temple that focused on interfaith cooperation toward achieving neighborhood climate justice; and an interfaith Thanksgiving gathering at the
Riverdale Presbyterian Church.
• Ten Manhattan College students traveled to Washington, D.C., in November for the 22nd annual Ignatian Family Teach-
In for Justice. The group advocated for environmental and social justice issues such as climate change and immigration reform. It was the College’s fifth appearance at the annual teach-in. The
(Opposite page) David Schilling, director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, was one of several visitors to the College during Fair Trade Month who addressed ways that individual choices can impact the wellbeing of communities around the globe. (This page) Participants in the LOVE Social Justice Immersion Experience to El Paso, Texas, worked with El Otro Lado, a Lasallian Catholic program that helps visitors understand the realities of life near the border through visits to local nonprofits and government agencies.
Manhattan group was joined by 25 other representatives from Lasallian universities and agencies across the country. They collaborated with other students and organizers to demonstrate the Lasallian tradition’s strong commitment to social justice.
• The Lasallian Women and Gender
Resource Center (LWGRC) spearheaded a full slate of well-attended events for Women’s History Month. These included the Women and Gender Studies annual lecture by Gayatri Gopinath, director of Gender and Sexuality Studies at New York University, who spoke on Suspension, Deviation, Unruliness: An Introduction to Unruly Visions: The Aesthetic Practices of Queer Diaspora; a Take Back the Night keynote address by poet Rachel McKibben; and a talk by Clare Bruff, senior manager of leadership development and diversity at the American Society of Mechanical Engineering, entitled How to Lead in the Workplace — Before You Have a Leadership Role.
• Earlier in the academic year, the LWGRC held Wellness Week, a student-led series of events that focused each day on a different facet of wellness. Physical, mental, spiritual and financial well-being were stressed in events that ranged from
(Opposite page) At the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice, Jaspers met with groups from Lasallian universities and agencies and collaborated on ways to demonstrate the Lasallian tradition’s strong allegiance to social justice. (This page) Father James Martin, S.J., and Natalia Imperatori-Lee discussed his audience with Pope Francis, his vocation to the priesthood, and his advice on advocating for marginalized communities within the Church.
a journaling workshop to yoga classes to a talk by Stephanie Powell, adjunct professor of religious studies: Th e Body Talks: Spiritual Distress and Identity Formation. Rachel Cirelli, director of career development, gave a presentation titled Slice of Social Justice: Stepping into Your Power in the Workplace and led a workshop on salary negotiation. Various events throughout the week were cosponsored by the Counseling Center, Fitness Center, offi ce of Career Services, Catholic Studies and CMSA.
• Th e Rev. James Martin, S.J., a Jesuit priest, author and editor-at-large at America, the national Catholic magazine, joined religious studies professor Natalia
Imperatori-Lee for a conversation on how to foster a stronger relationship between the Catholic Church and the LGBTQ+ community. Part of the
Agitating in the Charism lecture series, the event was sponsored by the Catholic
Studies program, the Religious Studies department, Campus Ministry and Social
Action, and LWGRC. A consultor for the
Vatican’s Secretariat for Communication,
Fr. Martin is a frequent commentator in the national media about contemporary issues in the Catholic Church and has published several books.
• Priya Varanasi ’22, a double major in peace and justice studies and political science, has been named one of 290
Newman Civic Fellows, recognized for their commitment to solving public problems. Varanasi is a community aff airs liaison for New York State Senator
Alessandra Biaggi. Th e Newman Civic
Fellowship is a yearlong program for students from Campus Compact member institutions. Th e students selected for the fellowship are leaders on their campuses who demonstrate a commitment to fi nding solutions for challenges facing communities locally, nationally and internationally.
