501 Crescent Street • New Haven, Connecticut

www.SouthernCT.edu

INSIDE THE BORDERS, OUTSIDE THE BORDERS:Southern’s Commitment to Community and Global Outreach

INSIDE THE BORDERS, OUTSIDE THE BORDERS:Southern’s Commitment to Community and Global Outreach

Photography and text by Isabel ChenowethSouthern Academy photos by Alisha MartindaleDesign by Barbara Kagan Sponsored by the Public Affairs Departmentat Southern Connecticut State University, Patrick Dilger, DirectorCopyright © 2011 Southern Connecticut State University

Special thanks to Interim President Stanley F. Battle, Patrick Dilger,Mary Pat Caputo, William Faraclas, Deborah Flynn, Patrick Heidkamp,Thuan Q. Vu, Camille Serchuk, Yan Q. Liu, Leon Weinmann, Lisa Kortfelt, Alexandria Lolos, Alisha Martindale, Service Point USA,and Joseph Cifferelli.

DAY OF SERVICE

Ronald D. Herron, former Vice President ofStudent and University Affairs, began thisannual Day of Service five years ago as away of serving surrounding neighborhoodsand instilling in students the importance of giving back to the community. Now sponsored by the Office of StudentLife, the Student Government Association,the Service Team and the New Haven Police Department, the event draws over 600 students, faculty, staff, andcommunity volunteers for clean-upprojects in a number of different locations in the New Haven community.

1

INSIDE THE BORDERS:Southern Reaches Out to its Neighbors

Southern Connecticut State University’s campus borders

several New Haven neighborhoods: Newhallville, Dixwell,

Westville, and the town of Hamden. Some of these

neighborhoods experience disproportionately high crime rates

and school dropout rates, and struggle with an ever-widening

achievement gap. Southern has responded by increasing its

efforts to address concerns that affect everyone in the

community. Hundreds of students, staff, and faculty have joined

in a variety of service projects, or participated in collaborative

educational programs, such as Southern Academy.

Southern Academy aims to improve literacy in New Haven

while exposing children to exciting educational opportunities.

The year-round program includes six weeks of summer classes

and then monthly meetings, seminars, and field trips throughout

the year. It began in July 2011 with 25 fourth graders and plans to

expand to 200 students within the next four years.

The sheer number of volunteers in the Southern university com-

munity willing to donate their time, energy, and talent for these

programs demonstrates pride in the neighborhood as well as a

strong commitment to implementing positive change. This spirit

of volunteerism recently earned Southern a place on the U.S.

President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.

ADOPT-A-FAMILY FOOD DRIVE

Students, staff, and facultycollect over 300 boxes offood for the CoordinatingCounsel for Children inCrisis in New Haven. TheOffice of Student Life andthe Student GovernmentAssociation co-sponsor this annual event.

2 3

THE BIG EVENT

This annual event,sponsored by the Office ofStudent Life, the StudentGovernment Associationand the Service Team,brings together 400students, faculty, staff andneighborhood volunteers to clean up and spruce up neighborhoodsthroughout the city and in West Haven.

GIRL

SAN

DW

OMEN

INSP

ORT

DAY

Sponsored by the AthleticDepartment and the Office ofInstitutional Advancement, thispopular annual (and National)event draws 200 girls ages 6-14from all over Connecticut. They come with school groups,sports teams, brownie and girlscout troops to learn aboutsports available to girls as aresult of Title IX. Girls rotatethrough stations to learn thebasics of softball, volleyball,track and field, soccer, fieldhockey, lacrosse, cheerleading,and basketball.

4 5

FIEL

DDA

Y

The Residence Hall Associationsponsors a field day for morethan 200 New Haven elementaryschool students from schoolslacking the resources and spaceto hold the all-school game day.Over 100 Southern students leadthe kids in arts and craftsactivities and sports games.

ORGANIC GARDEN

The Sustainable Southern-Plant itForward Initiative brings gardeningand urban farming to campus. Theplan involves developing unusedportions of campus for a communityorganic garden, fruit orchard,vineyard, greenhouses, outdoorclassroom, and apiary. Facultyinstrumental in implementing theproject include Patrick Heidkamp,Susan Cusato, Suzanne Huminski,and Victor Triolo.

6 7

9

OUTSIDE THE BORDERS:Southern Travels the Globe

Southern students have a wealth of opportunities to

learn about the world around them. The summer

international programs introduce students to other

cultures, often exposing them to global health,

educational, and environmental issues on a

personal level. The students venture out of their

comfort zones to conduct invaluable field research

into areas such as malnutrition, poverty, pollution,

and energy production.

Recent trips include studying art in Paris, energy

and environmental initiatives in Iceland, classical

mythology in Rome, advances in information science

in China, and public health in Guatemala.

The following pages highlight some of the

Southern students’ recent experiences traveling and

studying in Guatemala.

8

IMM

ERSI

ONSOUTHERN STUDENTS ARRIVE IN ANTIGUA GUATEMALA to study publichealth in this developing country. For twoweeks, Professors William Faraclas and Deborah Flynn will lead the group through acarefully planned itinerary of field research.

As we drive from the airport to AntiguaGuatemala, an hour’s trip, we soak up thelandscape, colorful and lush, widespreadpoverty evident. Bright political billboardsloom along the roadside and stray dogs wander everywhere. People walk perilouslyclose to traffic carrying bundles of sticks ontheir backs, baskets on their heads. OldAmerican school buses painted rainbow colors spew black exhaust. We spot BurgerKing, Walmart, and the golden arches mixedin with colonial architecture.

We meet Dr. Carmen Cereza, a pediatricianand public health medical professional inSanta Cruz la Laguna, one of the poorest

villages in Guatemala. She addresses healthcare concerns with compassion and commitment.

• Guatemala has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the Americas.

• Maternal mortality in Guatemala is almost ten times higher than the U.S.

• Guatemala has 25 different multi-ethnicgroups each with its own language, and additional dialects.

• Government expenditures in health onlyequal 3% of the country’s GDP.

• 75% of the population lives in povertyearning less than $2 per day (closer to 90% for indigenous groups).

• 24% of children under the age of five suffer from malnutrition (closer to 70% for indigenous groups).

• Use of insecticide-treated mosquito sleeping nets has reduced malaria morbidity rates by 80%.

Above: Students with Dr. Carmen Cereza,front right.

10 11

THE STUDENTS QUEST for information about a number of health care issues. Working with local interpreters, Jorge and Elizabeth, they visit the local market, pharmacy, water department, dump, clinics, and walk the city — sometimes in pouring rain — in search of answers. They glimpse problemsbeneath the surface of the city fabric — elderly women walkingbarefoot on cobblestone streets, men stumbling drunk, starving dogs, the homeless foraging for food in the dump. The scenes inspire conversation and more questions. This kind of investigative research provides invaluable insight into another culture.

HEALTHCARE ANDQUESTING

Right: Studentswith Dr. DanielSalazar, center, Director of theCarroll BehrhorstClinic in Chimaltenango.

FLOWERS AND MEMORIALS

12

ART AND ARCHITECTURE13

MARKETS

14

THE STUDENTS VOLUNTEER at this 230-bedresidential facility for physicallyand mentally disabled childrenand adults, and the poor.Whether sitting quietly with severely disabled psychiatricpatients or holding babiesawaiting cleft palate surgery,the students are visibly moved by the atmosphere of compassion and care at Obras.

OBRASSOCIALESDELHERMANOPEDRO

15

STUDENTS TRY A HAND ATWEAVING and make tortillas during a visit to a women’s cooperative in this small village.After a mouth-watering lunch,our hosts walk us up to mountainside fields and terraced gardens to enjoy theview and a snack of fresh-cutcorn grilled over an open fire.

SANTIAGOZAMORA

16

THE QUEST CONTINUES WITH A VISIT TO THE SHRINE OF SAN SIMON, near Chimaltenango, achurch dedicated to Maximón, a Mayan folk saint, represented in black and obsessed with vices —smoking and drinking. The Mayans mollify Maximón with gifts and sacrifices. Offerings include candles, alcohol, cigars, cigarettes, sugar, and firecrackers burned for good health, good crops, andeven fertility. Shamans perform ritual blessings by sweeping various herbs and flowers sprinkledwith alcohol up and down one’s body to free it of bad spirits.

Next stop: Chichicastenango in the highlands. Chugging up steep inclines and switchbacks, the busreaches this colorful town, home to the famous 1200-year-old market. On market days, dawn brings a steady stream of vendors, buses, and exploding firecrackers. The streets become awash with colors,smells, sounds, and people from all over the world buying and selling everything from handcrafts, pigs, chickens, hand-carved masks, machetes, and textiles. Young boys, smudged with polish, shineshoes, beautiful little girls sell jewelry, old men swing incense. The 18 steps (representing each Mayan calendar month) of the church of Santo Tomas is a sea of flowers and vendors.

MAY

ANCU

LTUR

E

17

18

MEDICINEANDMIDWIFERYTHE STUDENTS VISIT INDIGENOUSHEALTH CLINICS and health careworkers in villages on Lake Atitlán,learning firsthand how this Mayan region addresses health issues. Localcare providers explain the critical importance of listening, and understanding Mayan cultural values.The most effective care balances modern medicine with respect for traditional healing methods. In SanJuan La Leguna, Anna, a midwife, sharesher vast knowledge and experience of50 years delivering babies. We listenrapt, fascinated by Anna’s stories, herwarmth, grace, and kindness. Annawalks us to the town dock and watches as our boat pulls out onto the lake. In her colorful traditional dressand long braids wrapped in red cloth, she waves good-bye, a vision perhapsnone of us will forget.

SANTIAGOATITLÁNEDUCATION IN GUATEMALAsuffers from a severe lack of resources, supplies and training.The indigenous population is affected the most by poorlyfunded schools, and schools thatfail to teach Mayan languagesand culture. Dropout rates arehigh. Families may also rely onchildren to sell goods on thestreet, shine shoes, care for otherchildren. Time spent in schoolmay result in direct economicloss for some families. To address this concern, someschools now stagger hours sothat children in one family mayattend school at different times.

We meet with Mandy, a formerPeace Corps volunteer who hasmarried and settled in SantiagoAtitlán. She has started the very first lending library in town and a preschool fashioned on Montessori principles. The school is bright, engaging,cheerful. Children clearly thrive here.

A few miles outside of town, wevisit another school. Nino, a localresident who has worked hard torealize his own dream of startinga school, happily introduces usto the teachers and children. The children sing for us and playwith us. They want to holdhands, hug, look at our cameras,braid our hair. Many of thesechildren lost family members in2005 when a mudslide buried1,500 people alive. We feel honored to be here. Some of ourgroup donates money to build a new roof for the school.

19

ANIM

ALS

20 21

ONCE A POWERFUL KINGDOM of the ancientMaya, Tikal, situated in the low-lying rain forest of the El Petén Region, constitutes one of the largest archaeological sites of the pre-Columbian Mayan civilization.

At dawn, we sit at the top of Temple IV for almost twohours, silent, still, waiting for the forest to come alive.Slowly, as the sun begins to rise, we hear the swell of sounds, a radiating cacophony — or maybe symphony — of howler monkeys roaring like lions,spider monkeys, birds and cicadas chirping, toucans,parrots and parakeets calling,coatimundi racing throughthe underbrush. The heat is humid and relentless. Mosquitoes bite through insect repellent.

As mist clears, we absorb the sheer enormity of thetemples. Temples I, II, and IIIin the distance appear vastand otherworldly, a rare confluence of the ancient,the spiritual, and the temporal that takes yourbreath away.

Later, while preparing to return home, studentssummed up the trip as unforgettable, moving, profound, bittersweet, and life-changing.

TIKALNATIONALPARK

501 Crescent Street • New Haven, Connecticut

www.SouthernCT.edu

INSIDE THE BORDERS, OUTSIDE THE BORDERS:Southern’s Commitment to Community and Global Outreach

INSIDE THE BORDERS, OUTSIDE THE BORDERS:Southern’s Commitment to Community and Global Outreach

Photography and text by Isabel ChenowethSouthern Academy photos by Alisha MartindaleDesign by Barbara Kagan Sponsored by the Public Affairs Departmentat Southern Connecticut State University, Patrick Dilger, DirectorCopyright © 2011 Southern Connecticut State University

Special thanks to Interim President Stanley F. Battle, Patrick Dilger,Mary Pat Caputo, William Faraclas, Deborah Flynn, Patrick Heidkamp,Thuan Q. Vu, Camille Serchuk, Yan Q. Liu, Leon Weinmann, Lisa Kortfelt, Alexandria Lolos, Alisha Martindale, Service Point USA,and Joseph Cifferelli.