Internship Opportunity in DC

The Office of International Justice and Peace of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has an opening for a full-time intern beginning immediately. This opportunity will allow the intern to explore the intersection of Catholic social teaching and international issues of justice and peace.

The intern will have opportunities to enrich his or her academic program or career preparation through engaging in research and working with policy advisors on a range of international issues. Interns are paid a modest stipend.

Find a position description on USCCB’s website or by clicking here. To apply, applicants can visit this webpage.

Applicants can do an internship with in this position as part of their academic program, shortly after graduation to prepare for a career, or in preparation for graduate study.

Please share this information with your students and colleagues, and please encourage qualified applicants to apply.

Courageous Voices: Heeding the Call to Community

At the University of Detroit Mercy (UDM), faculty-mentored community clinics set an example for students to respond to the needs of the community by active participation. UDM runs 17 community clinics (including law, dentistry, and counseling), making these services accessible to those who are unable to afford them. The Law School is one of the few programs in the country that require students to work in the clinic, directly carrying out the school’s mission of experiential learning and service to others.  In 2013-2014, the dental clinic provided 67,395 patient visits, including partnering with the Society of St. Vincent DePaul to run a free dental clinic, and providing services to underserved populations such as children in the foster care system and veteran.  The counseling clinic provides no-cost services to the community, including personal counseling, family and child counseling, addictions counseling, court ordered counseling, career counseling and group counseling.  In all of these clinics, students work directly with those marginalized by poverty, gaining a lifelong appreciation of the importance of ministering to those in your own community.

Over the next few weeks, we will continue to release short stories about the courageous voices of our member colleges and universities.  Stay tuned to hear about how students, faculty, and staff are responding to Pope Francis’s call to social justice and a culture of encounter.  If you are still curious about how Catholic colleges and universities are promoting social justice on campus, read the original blog post on the Courageous Voices series, or check out ACCU’s inventory of promising practices, which includes many examples of our members engaging with Catholic Social Teaching.

Peace & Justice in ACCU’s Spring Newsletter

Last week, ACCU released the Spring 2015 issue of Update, its quarterly newsletter. You can read it in its entirety here, but be sure to pay special attention to the sections devoted to peace and justice. These highlights include:

• Scranton Students Learn Homelessness Firsthand by spending a day and night on the streets confronting similar challenges as those which persons experiencing homelessness may face.
• Carlow Fights Hunger with Pottery by asking their art students to create clay bowls which patrons at a fundraising dinner use and then take home to remind them of the importance of fighting hunger.
• Caldwell Students Serve in Belize and gain perspectives on poverty, priorities, and happiness.
• Undocumented Students Appeal to Congress members who are alumni of Catholic colleges and universities by asking them to support Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
• Mount Saint Vincent Students Engage the World by participating in international service learning.
• ‘Compassionate Competitor’ leads Spalding University to log 1.6 million service hours and engage with their charism.
• Manhattan Professor Teaches the Holocaust and Islam by portraying them both as stories of faith and catastrophe.

 To subscribe to Update, please email Paula Moore.

2015 Social Venture Boot Camp with CCUSA

The Social Venture Boot Camp, offered through Catholic Charities USA’s (CCUSA) partnership with the University of Notre Dame, is an opportunity for CCUSA members to strengthen their social enterprise efforts and face the pressing challenges associated with financial sustainability head-on. Economic justice is a critical issue, and social venture is an innovative method to help address the root causes of poverty.

Boot camp participants will be paired up with business mentors, as well as upper-level undergraduate and/or graduate students, as available, in a workshop environment to research and analyze the existing or proposed product or service and work through a business plan that the social venture program can then use to help guide future growth.

Applications for the 2015 Social Venture Boot Camp are due no later than Monday, April 6, and acceptance will be confirmed by the first week of May. Preparation work will be necessary and will be due by Monday, June 15. If you have any questions about the Boot Camp or how your group can put forth a competitive application, please contact Maria Gonzales.

Courageous Voices: Considering a New Perspective

The Catholic University Institute of Buea, Cameroon, graduated its first class in December 2014. CUIB, which calls itself “The Entrepreneurial University,” prepares graduates to be job creators, not just job seekers. Its aim is to train young Cameroonians to be Christian business leaders who will begin their own business in the region, thereby directly addressing – and helping solve – the problems of unemployment and poverty in Cameroon.

Over the next few weeks, we will continue to release short stories about the courageous voices of our member colleges and universities.  Stay tuned to hear about how students, faculty, and staff are responding to Pope Francis’s call to social justice and a culture of encounter.  If you are still curious about how Catholic colleges and universities are promoting social justice on campus, read the original blog post on the Courageous Voices series, or check out ACCU’s inventory of promising practices, which includes many examples of our members engaging with Catholic Social Teaching.

Happening Now: Las Hermanas at University of the Incarnate Word

Las Hermanas: The Struggle is One 

This interdisciplinary symposium on March 19-21 will honor the history, development, and legacy of Las Hermanas, a grassroots Latina movement formed 40 years ago to challenge and change the church and its role in society. The conference, hosted at the University of the Incarnate Word, promises a rich program, including outstanding keynote speakers, academic papers, sharing of stories, celebration in the spirit of Las Hermanas, and an opportunity to visit the new Heritage Center of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. Deeply committed to its Catholic mission, the University of the Incarnate Word proudly proclaims the contributions of women religious, Las Hermanas, and Hispanics across the country to the Catholic intellectual tradition and U.S. Catholic history.

Presenters will include:
Lara Medina, Ph.D., author of Las Hermanas: Chicana/Latina Religious-Political Activism in the U.S. Catholic Church
Timothy Matovina, Ph.D., author of Latino Catholicism: Transformation in America’s Largest Church 
Sister Yolanda Tarango, co-author of Hispanic Women: Prophetic Voice in the Church 
Theresa L. Torres, Ph.D., author of The Paradox of Latina Religious Leadership in the Catholic Church

For the complete conference program and more information please visit http://www.uiw.edu/lashermanas/

Global Problems, Global Solutions Conference at La Roche

On April 9 and 10, La Roche College will partner with sponsor organizations Brother’s Brother Foundation, the University of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Council for Higher Education, to host the 10th annual Global Problems, Global Solutions conference.

Organized to focus on critical global concerns, the conference will relate this year’s theme, Saving Our Children: A Global Issue – A Local Response, to the Millennium Development Goals established by the United Nations to battle issues such as hunger and poverty, peace and justice, gender inequality and child mortality.

Maureen A. Dunn, division chief of the office of policy and strategy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, will deliver the keynote address on Thursday, April 9 in the Zappala College Center Square at La Roche’s main campus in the North Hills. Registration begins at 6:30 p.m., with the general session following at 7 p.m. and a reception of dessert and coffee afterward.

Global Problems, Global Solutions is a free, annual conference. La Roche leads and co-sponsors the conference with local colleges, universities and nonprofits known for their global activism. The conference discusses progress, plans and initiatives related to the U.N. Millennium Development Goals.

The conference is free and open to the public, but preregistration for the keynote address is required. Visit laroche.edu/global to register online for the conference.

Courageous Voices: Giving Voice to the Voiceless

More than 900 people were murdered in Chicago in 2011 and 2012. Seeking to raise the victims of violence beyond mere statistics,  English professor Miles Harvey and his students from DePaul University set out to collect their stories. With the help of faculty, the students’ efforts resulted in a documentary play, “How Long Will I Cry? Voices of Youth Violence.” It premiered at the Steppenwolf Theatre and toured through several Chicago neighborhoods, reaching thousands of Chicagoans.

A book of victims’ oral history narratives was later published, with over 13,000 copies printed by Big Shoulders Books press.  Big Shoulders engages graduate students in DePaul’s Master of Arts in Writing and Publishing program to publish books that engage the Chicago community and contribute to discussions around injustice and inequality.  To order the free book, let the editors know how you are helping fight youth violence in Chicago or your local community.  To learn more about Big Shoulders Books, visit their website and follow their blog.

Over the next few weeks, we will continue to release short stories about the courageous voices of our member colleges and universities.  Stay tuned to hear about how students, faculty, and staff are responding to Pope Francis’s call to social justice and a culture of encounter.  If you are still curious about how Catholic colleges and universities are promoting social justice on campus, read the original blog post on the Courageous Voices series, or check out ACCU’s inventory of promising practices, which includes many examples of our members engaging with Catholic Social Teaching.

Spalding University: The World’s First Compassionate University

Worth a read: Spalding University, a Catholic university in Louisville, KY, founded by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, was designated the first certified Compassionate University in the world in 2011.  The charter applauds Spalding University’s commitment to under-performing elementary schools and participation in health screening and disaster relief efforts around the world.  In a recent feature on President Tori Murden McClure, Religion News Service highlighted the culture of service at Spalding, noting that the students participate in 1.6 million hours of service in one year.   To learn more about President McClure and Spalding University, read the article here.

Pope Francis and Global Education

Recently, a non-Catholic education advocate wrote about meeting Pope Francis and learning about Catholic Social Teaching for the first time. She was impressed by CST and its emphasis on the world as one human family – she drew parallels between CST and Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She met with Pope Francis in order to learn about Scholas Ocurrentes, a non-profit Pope Francis founded before his papacy. The author learned about the organization’s commitment to inter-cultural dialogue, and noted that its work supports the themes of an option for the poor and vulnerable, the life and dignity of the human person, the call to family, community, and participation, and the rights and responsibilities of the community, particularly its responsibility to participate in education.

The author had five suggestions for Pope Francis and the Catholic Church as we go forward supporting education. See those suggestions below, or read the full article by clicking here.

1. Become a global education advocate

2. Focus on the most marginalized

3. Promote global citizenship within education systems

4. Mobilize multiple voices in society

5. Lean-in on the Catholic education tradition