As part of the El Paso del Norte project, Baruch students have been painting murals to display imagery and histories of migrants. Here, Assistant Professor Lizbeth de la Cruz Santana, PhD, stands in front of the murals as students from her classes continue their work.
In keeping with strategic planning goals, Baruch continues to purposefully forge impactful links between classroom learning and the world outside the College campus. Among recent noteworthy accomplishments: development of an experience-centric BA degree in Black and Latino studies (BLS) in the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences and the creation of a director-level position dedicated to College-wide coordination and implementation of experiential learning initiatives.
The new degree program, launched in Fall 2022, was designed by Shelly Eversley, PhD, professor of English and interim chair of the Department of Black and Latino Studies. It draws upon the discipline’s perennial commitment to community engagement as a key component of transformational higher education, she explains: “Connections between classrooms and communities empower students to apply in-class learning to the world beyond school and give them the confidence and the skills to contribute to more just futures.”
The BLS major’s experiential learning and local community engagement components explicitly link classroom learning and real-world applications, including research, communications and advocacy, and policymaking. Students in the Climate Justice class learn about how the climate emergency intersects with social justice issues while working with City advocacy organizations to create short documentaries that integrate their own personal experiences into those of affected communities. In Fieldwork in Racial and Social Justice, students interact with Bed Stuy’s Restoration Plaza to help build an archive of stories about Brooklyn community development. In a class on US–Mexico border policy, they engage with the El Paso del Norte Mural Project, whose goal is to present imagery and oral histories of migrants whose journeys reflect the life experiences of many Baruch students. Dr. Eversley hopes to provide more participatory learning opportunities via work-study trips during school breaks.
Eversley, who chaired Baruch’s search committee for the newly created position of Director of Experiential and Community-Engaged Learning, is looking forward to an expanded focus on participatory learning throughout the College. “I’m excited about increasing opportunities for research as a high-impact experiential learning practice,” she says.
The search culminated in the hiring of Anthony Maniscalco, PhD, whose experience encompasses more than 20 years in high-level director roles at CUNY involving oversight of a variety of career development, internship, and experiential learning programs. “What appealed to me about the new position at Baruch was the opportunity to serve in a campus setting while linking student experiential learning opportunities to curricular goals and faculty development,” he says.
Since joining Baruch in March, Dr. Maniscalco has been working with faculty, chairpersons, and administrators to build and showcase an inventory of experiential learning activities, specifically, faculty-mentored student research and community-engaged service connected to students’ classroom learning activities. “The College is already very active in experiential learning—with many champions working in all three schools,” he says. “The goal is to transition from pockets of experiential learning at Baruch to a culture of experiential learning at the College.”
— SALLY FAY