MICUA

Community outreach takes many different forms and is the central and cohesive element of every institution’s diversity plan. Most outreach plans include college preparation and intervention services for at-risk students, including college and career advising, mentoring, tutoring, and financial assistance. These services are provided on campus, at local schools, and in communities. Many institutions provide travel assistance for low-income students to visit campus, and some campuses sponsor overnight visits. The following are examples of outreach activities at the MICUA member institutions:

Sojourner-Douglass College works with community organizations, such as the Baltimore Racial Justice Action and Fusion Partnerships, to co-produce and present on campus seminars, workshops, and mini courses on racism and diversity. These events are open to the public and usually free. The College provides scholarships for students who cannot afford the modest registration fees for some of the courses. Evaluation questionnaires are compiled and analyzed to assess the extent to which objectives were realized and to plan for future programming.

Washington College hosted the second annual Reconciliation Ceremony with the city of Chestertown. The ceremony brings together black and white citizens of the town to talk about past injustices and discuss ways to transcend them in living together in today’s world.

Johns Hopkins University (JHU) faculty and students engage in a wide range of community service activities. For example, JHU students teach squash and swimming lessons to inner-city youth and provide tutoring after the athletic training activities.

The JHU Whiting School of Engineering supports robotics competitions for Baltimore City middle and high school students. Baltimore Polytechnic High School uses the JHU diving well to test its underwater robotics program. The School of Engineering also offers Engineering Innovation, a national summer engineering education program for middle and high school students with a particular focus on underrepresented populations.

The JHU Center for Social Concerns offers more than 50 free programs to support underrepresented ethnic groups in Baltimore City. The Art Brigade provides artistic outlets to inner city children through a variety of visual mediums. Peace by Peace offers conflict resolution and management skills to elementary school children. Women from various multicultural organizations at JHU adopted an all-girl organization from City College High School in Baltimore. JHU students interact with Strong Women of Today and Tomorrow and mentor them on preparation for college.

In Fall 2010, the JHU School of Medicine partnered with The Door, an after-school science program, to pilot a science curriculum for children ages five to nine. JHU faculty led discussions at the school about anatomy and physiology, conducted animal dissections, and talked about life skills. Students then visited JHU labs to observe and perform hands-on experiments. In addition, the School of Medicine hosted the annual Moving AHEAD (Health Equity, Access, and Diversity) film and lecture series. The 2011 event featured Dr. Ben Carson and his film, Gifted Hands, and included discussions of strategies for career preparation, healthy relationships, violence and bullying prevention. Approximately 500 elementary, middle, and high school students from Baltimore City Public Schools participated.

Representatives from JHU’s School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and the Bloomberg School of Public Health participate in Bienestar Baltimore. This initiative provides health outreach to the Latino community in East Baltimore and includes screening for tuberculosis, prenatal classes, and teaching English as a second language classes.

The JHU Carey Business School is participating in the Baltimore City Youthworks Program, which provides high school students age 15 and over the opportunity to gain work experience and exposure to the Johns Hopkins Institutions through a summer jobs and mentoring program.

The JHU School of Education, in partnership with the Urban Leadership Institute, houses the Paul Robeson Academic International School of Excellence (PRAISE) Academy. The PRAISE Academy offers academic enrichment, personal empowerment skills, and parenting support for 40 African-American boys in middle and high school and their families. The School of Education also hosts the EPA’s Student Environmental Development Program’s Summer Camp. This interactive program brings 30 Baltimore City middle school youth to campus for environmental science activities. The six-week college-prep program includes classroom and field trip experiences and teaches teamwork, leadership development, communication skills, and life skills.

The Peabody Institute’s Tuned-In program provides free lessons to 30 inner city children, and these students now have a full-sized wind band. All of the boys from St. Ignatius Academy attend performances at Peabody each semester. Peabody’s Boys Dance provides scholarship support for boys from Baltimore City to participate in ballet.

Capitol College’s community outreach brings underrepresented groups to campus for various activities throughout the year. Such groups include the College Bound Foundation, First Generation College Bound, Hispanic Youth Foundation, Jump Start Junior Program, and the D.C. Achievers. In addition, the College secured a National Science Foundation grant to assist in the recruitment of high ability/high need Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students. Another grant provides funds for outreach to students in Prince George’s County.

Notre Dame of Maryland University students tutor and mentor middle school girls at the Sisters Academy after-school program. Over 90 percent of the girls attending the Academy are students of color who live below the federal poverty level. The mentors assist Academy students with homework, provide enrichment activities, and participate in community service projects. In addition to tutoring and mentoring, the Notre Dame students facilitate a leadership program for eighth graders twice each year. The leadership program ends with an overnight visit to campus that is hosted by the Notre Dame mentors. The Maryland Campus Compact awarded a volunteer position to the University. The volunteer aided in enhancing and expanding efforts at the Academy.

Notre Dame students also participate in Food for Thought, an after-school tutoring program for elementary school children in inner city Baltimore. The children at Food for Thought are from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Peru. All are bilingual, which gives students from Notre Dame Spanish classes the perfect opportunity for service-learning projects.

Hood College offers a six-week summer program, designed to help new students increase skills in English and mathematics. In addition, the program assists with acclimation to college life. Throughout the academic year, strategies to enhance student success are coordinated by a team of faculty and staff.

McDaniel College formed a partnership with the District of Columbia College Success Foundation to provide rigorous summer enrichment and college experiences for high school juniors. The program has a specific focus on improving proficiency levels and confidence in language arts and mathematics. Finally, the program enhances the multicultural experiences of participating students.

One of Goucher College’s successful endeavors is the Futuro Latino Learning Center that offers adult computer-literacy courses, English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, and a cultural enrichment program for Spanish-speaking children in the community. Another project places Goucher students in the Baltimore County Detention Center and Jessup Correctional Institute to provide tutoring and GED preparation as part of the Maryland Prison Project.

Maryland Institute College of Art has a long history of arts-based community engagement to improve lives and strengthen neighborhoods. MICA PLACE (Programs Linking Art, Culture, and Education) is located in East Baltimore and supports the development of the College’s master’s programs in community arts and social design. In addition, the facility is an incubator space for community-based collaborations that engage research, art, and design toward creative solutions for social change. MICA PLACE displays the works of local artists (from children to seniors) and hosts after-school programs and tours for children.

Another MICA program is the Community Art Collaborative (CAC), an AmeriCorps national service program that engages students in a year of service in low-income Baltimore communities. MICA provides 60 percent of the funding for CAC. Seven MICA graduate students participated as full-time AmeriCorps members in 2010-11, along with 17 additional participants. CAC member recruitment pays particular attention to attracting a diverse pool of members, with one quarter of this year’s corps coming from students of color. CAC service connects the College to the community, with CAC members placed at 17 community-based organizations in low-income neighborhoods and under-resourced schools. During the year, corps members served nearly 1,000 youth in after-school art programs at 19 different public schools. They have facilitated 170 community-strengthening projects, including murals, gallery openings, adult workshops, and poetry readings. The majority of the communities served by CAC members are African American, with growing representation by Latino, African, Asian, and Middle Eastern immigrant populations.

St. John’s College students tutor at the Stanton Community Center and Bloomsbury Square and bring the children to campus for meals and art gallery visits. In addition, students, faculty, and staff participate in the Annapolis Human Relations Commission discussion series with Bloomsbury Square residents.

Stevenson University annually holds a Build Community Day. This year over 500 students participated with Habitat for Humanity to rehabilitate houses and First Fruit Farms, a provider of fresh produce for shelters, soup kitchens, and food banks. These service learning projects provide opportunities for giving back to the community while experiencing cultural immersion, team building, and fun.