Holleran Center for Community Engagement

Holleran Center News

Alvernia Named to President's Higher Education Honor Roll

February 25, 2010

Alvernia has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, with Distinction, by the Corporation for National and Community Service. Announced today, the Honor Roll recognition comes from the highest levels of the federal government, for the university’s commitment to service and civic engagement on campus and in our nation.

“The Holleran Center is pleased that once again, the President’s Higher Education Honor Roll has recognized Alvernia University’s commitment to community service and civic engagement,” said Director Ginny Hand. “As one of only 17 higher education institutions in Pennsylvania to earn this recognition with distinction, we are grateful for the acknowledgment that our curricular and extracurricular student programs continue to make a positive difference in our community.”

The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, launched in 2006, annually recognizes institutions of higher education for their commitment to and achievement in community service. The President’s Honor Roll increases the public’s awareness of the contributions that colleges and their students make to local communities and the nation as a whole. President Obama has pledged to make service a central cause of his administration and wishes to commemorate the significant role that higher institutions, their students, staff, and faculty play in helping to solve pressing social problems in the nation’s communities.

Alvernia’s Holleran Center for Community Engagement (HCCE) is a model for other institutions, connecting college students with community needs.

“Our students see results from a number of broad ranging programs that help community members of all ages,” explained Hand. “These include efforts like the South Reading Youth Initiative after school program for middle school students, to an innovative initiative that connects our nursing students with area seniors living in elderly high rise apartments to help with health issues, to community service days in various non-profit agencies. These activities and their results encourage our students to make a life-long commitment to serve in their communities.”

Alvernia pays tribute to life, work of Martin Luther King, Jr.

More than 180 students, faculty, and staff took part in community service activities on a school holiday

January 19, 2010

Alvernia University celebrated the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with two days of events on Jan. 18 and Jan. 19 that coincided with the national commemoration of the civil rights leader.

To honor the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Alvernia students, faculty and staff took part in a Day of Service on Martin Luther King Day, Monday, Jan. 18. Over 180 student, faculty and staff volunteers returned from the MLK holiday weekend to take part in a range of community service activities intended to honor the legacy of the late Dr. King. Volunteers helped at 17 different sites throughout Reading and Berks County, including Olivet Boys and Girls Club, Mary’s Shelter, and the Central Pennsylvania African American Museum to complete diverse activities from painting hallways to helping young children celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“This is the second of three University-wide Days of Service, which Alvernia has undertaken in the academic year,” Dr. Thomas F. Flynn, President of Alvernia University, remarked, “and I am proud of the strong support of the entire University community. Such service and civic activism reaffirms Alvernia’s commitment to our Franciscan mission.”

Alvernia University received a grant from Pennsylvania Campus Compact, in partnership with the Corporation for National & Community Service and North Carolina Campus Compact to support Martin Luther King Day events and service activities. Alvernia was one of ten state campuses to receive such a grant.

On Tuesday, Jan. 19, at 2 p.m., an event was also held for students and faculty in Alvernia’s Student Center to commemorate the work and accomplishments of Martin Luther King Jr. As part of the planned activities, Robert Jefferson, president of the Reading Branch of the NAACP, narrated “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Dr. John C. Morgan, a Philosophy and Ethics professor at RACC and Penn State Berks, spoke about his memories of MLK during the Selma campaign and how those experiences changed his life.

The event included discussion around the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The two day event commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was sponsored by Campus Ministry, the Holleran Center for Community Engagement, and the Office of Multi-Cultural Initiatives. Aladdin Food Services donated food for all the 175 volunteers providing community service for the MLK Day of Service.

Click here to read a thank you letter from the Central Pennsylvania African American Museum

Click here to read a thank you letter from the Literacy Council of Reading-Berks, Inc.

Click here to read a thank you letter from Olivet Boys & Girls Club and here to see a picture collage of Alvernia's students working with club members.

Alvernia receives $600,000 federal grant to support growing inner-city program

Alvernia University held a news conference on Monday, Dec. 7, 2009, at 10 a.m., as U.S. Congressman Jim Gerlach announced a special $600,000 grant from the United States Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to support expansion of the South Reading Youth Initiative (SRYI).

The SRYI is an innovative youth program for Reading’s inner-city students ages 7 -14, and is funded completely by grants and the support of Alvernia’s Holleran Center for Community Engagement.

The initiative began in 2006 when a group of community leaders expressed mutual concern regarding the attrition rates in the Reading School District and the correspondingly disappointing rates of college attendance (specifically among the Hispanic and Latino populations). Reading Mayor Thomas McMahon, Senator Michael O’Pake, and Jonathan Encarnacion of the Reading’s Hispanic Center joined together with Alvernia President Thomas F. Flynn, and representatives from the Jesuit Center in Wernersville to discuss a solution.

“The group also recognized that no after-school programs existed in the South Reading area that provided a ‘safe haven’ for children in the after-school hours, allowing them to stay committed to their education and make healthy choices during their critical decision-making years,” said Dr. Flynn. “The linkage between these two points led us to make some obvious conclusions, and to form the South Reading Youth Initiative.”

Initial funding for the SRYI program came in the form of a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, secured with the support of Sen. O’Pake. Within a month, the Holleran Center for Community Engagement held its first Creativity Camp with a week’s worth of activities for 27 inner-city students in grades 2 - 8. Now in its fourth year, the SRYI has touched the lives of hundreds of children and their parents, with programming designed to guide area students to personal achievement, social responsibility, and moral integrity through mentoring, the arts, and educational activities.

“The program currently has more than 25 community partners, and has received funds from still many others, including Jerry and Carolyn Holleran, for whom the Holleran Center is now named,” said Ginny Hand, Director of the Holleran Center.

A Blessing to One Another: Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People - Exhibit Concludes

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

The Blessing Exhibit officially closed at Alvernia University on Friday, July 31. Nearly 4,000 people visited the exhibit during its three month tenure at the Franco Library and Learning Center on Alvernia's main campus. The unofficial close of the exhibit was held on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 27 during an interfaith ceremony held on the steps of the Franco Library. Cantor Leah Holland provided liturgical Jewish music before, during and after the ceremony. Local leaders from many different faiths were represented and asked to each read a portion of the Assisi Decalogue for Peace written by Pope John Paul II during the Second World Day of Prayer. Over 150 people attended this beautiful closing ceremony which celebrated Pope John Paul II's commitment to peace as well as Alvernia University's commitment to continuing inter-religious dialogue on campus even after the Blessing Exhibit leaves. The exhibit, A Blessing to One Another: Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People will travel to Houston and debut at the Holocaust Museum of Houston, Texas.

Alvernia University hosts the nationally-touring exhibit A Blessing to One Another: Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Be a part of the blessing. This first-of-its-kind exhibit features photos, video footage, documents, and artifacts chronicling the Pope's contributions to relations between the Catholic and Jewish faiths from 1920 to the present day, and presents and ideal learning opportunity for adults interested in world history, World War II, the Holocaust, and Christian-Jewish dialogue

In the course of his papacy, John Paul II shattered the chain of 2,000 years of painful history between Catholics and Jews, becoming the first pope ever to enter a synagogue, officially visit and recognize the State of Israel, and formally engage in an act of repentance for the Catholic Church's historical treatment of Jews.

The exhibit draws its name from the Pope's 1993 appeal marking the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising: "As Christians and Jews, following the example of the faith of Abraham, we are called to be a blessing to the world. This is the common task awaiting us. It is therefore necessary for us, Christians and Jews, to first be a blessing to one another."

The exhibit is on display at Alvernia University's Franco Library and Learning Center until July 31, 2009. For more information on the exhibit hours and guided tours, please visit www.alvernia.edu/blessingexhibit

Alvernia University earns Carnegie Community Engagement Classification

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Alvernia University has earned the 2008 Community Engagement Classification designation by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The elective classification in Curricular Engagement and Outreach and Partnerships places Alvernia University among an elite group of institutions across the nation recognized this year including Duke, Georgetown, Purdue, and Emory Universities.

The designation brings national recognition to Alvernia and marks an alignment among mission, culture, leadership, resources, and practices that support dynamic and noteworthy community engagement the Carnegie Foundation categorized as "excellent."

"This coveted classification validates that we are living and teaching our mission - preparing our students to be engaged citizens in the local and global communities," said Alvernia University President Thomas F. Flynn. "It is also a testament to Alvernia's lifelong commitment to service, informed by our foundresses, the Bernardine Sisters, whose values and vision instilled in our institutional culture this tradition of community engagement."

The designation also recognizes the establishment of the Holleran Center for Community Engagement in 2006, whose work includes the following: increasing the University's effectiveness in creating community-based learning experiences for students; making the community an essential part of the University curriculum; and effecting and improving the quality of live in local and regional communities.

The Holleran Center works in partnership with numerous organizations to provide services such as programming for inner-city youth at the Wyomissing Institute of the Arts, resources for Angelica Park Program working in concert with the City of Reading, and a Non-Profit Roundtable with the Greater Reading Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Other Holleran Center initiatives include offering a slate of campus events for the Greater Reading Literary Festival and a free community lecture series.

This year 119 colleges or universities were successfully classified as engaged institutions; 68 are public institutions and 51 are private, representing 34 states and Puerto Rico.

Universities and colleges with an institutional focus on community engagement were invited to apply for the classification since institutional mission and distinctiveness are not represented in national data on colleges and universities. The application process included submission of mandatory documentation describing the nature and extent of their engagement with the community, be it local or beyond.