February 26, 2019: Peace of Christ Conference

The Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio through their Office of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation, invite all friends, Sisters, Associates, and Sponsored Ministries of the Congregation around the world to participate in the Peace of Christ Conference that will focus on the theme: “Active Nonviolence: A Paradigm Shift towards a More Peaceful World.”  

This is the 17^th annual Mother St. Pierre Lecture sponsored by the University of the Incarnate Word Religious Studies Department and the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio.   The Conference will take place February 26, 2019 at 7:00pm (central time) with a presentation by Marie Dennis, Co-President of Pax Christi International and international peace leader with the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative. 

Online transmission of the Conference will be available in both English and Spanish.  You can register your participation here.  Viewers may e-mail in questions during the presentation.  All will be sent the e-mail address for sending in questions.  A recording of the presentation will be made available as well for those who are not able to join the live stream.   

The live presentation will take place in the University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, TX, Student Engagement Center.  Local students’ work will be displayed in the same room prior to the presentation, and after the presentation there will be an awards ceremony for writing and art projects about peace in which the names of students from our schools in different countries will be announced. 

All institutions, as you are able, are invited to designate a room with internet connection in their buildings that will be available for anyone who is interested to come and watch the live transmission of the Conference in English or Spanish. 

About Marie Dennis

Marie Dennis has been co-president of Pax Christi International since 2007.  Marie is a laywoman and a mother of six. She holds a masters degree in moral theology from Washington Theological Union and honorary doctorates from Trinity Washington University and Alvernia University. Author or co-author of seven books, Marie serves on the steering committee of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network and as a contributing editor to Sojourners magazine, and recently ended her service on the national board of JustFaith Ministries. A Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace, Marie has served on the board of Pax Christi International since 1999.

Informational Links:

https://www.paxchristi.net/

https://www.paxchristi.net/sites/default/files/documents/appeal-to-catholic-church-to-recommit-to-nonviolence.pdf

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/peace/documents/papa-francesco_20161208_messaggio-l-giornata-mondiale-pace-2017.html

| FULL PROGRAM |

6:00 p.m.        Reception and Exhibition of all “Culture of Peace” Student Projects

7:00 p.m.        Conference with Presentation by Marie Dennis

8:00 p.m.        Awards Presentation of Student Winners from our Educational Institutions

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The Conference will be recorded for those who are not able to watch the live stream. 

A link to the recording will be sent to all for later viewing as well.

Immigrant Children: Detention Without End?

Project Lifeline and NOWCastSA hosted a panel and community discussion and interactive event, "Immigrant Children, Detention Without End?" on Friday, Sept. 28, at 7 p.m. in the Student Engagement Ballroom at the University of the Incarnate Word. Each year, as many as 90,000 immigrant children spend time in U.S. detention centers. Those who monitor the conditions say the children often are kept for months at a time in unsanitary conditions without proper medical care and are denied food and clean water. Recent proposals could make their stay in detention indefinite. The evening began with a panel discussion by faith leaders and world-renowned pediatric and public health physicians with extensive experience working with displaced children in crisis. The conversation focused on the harm to the children and the trauma they suffer, from the dangers they are fleeing to the inhumane conditions they face in detention. Following the panel discussion, the audience formed small groups to discuss the issues and explore ways to take action. You can watch a recording of this powerful conversation below:

Incarnate Word Family Supports Immigrants

"You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot stop the spring from coming.” ~ Pablo Neruda 


In these challenging political times, let us remember the strength of life and community. In light of immigrants and refugees who seek to enter the United States, Incarnate Word Sisters, Staff, Associates, past and present students of UIW, people working as interns with Incarnate Word Foundation in St. Louis, and people associated with the CCVI Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Committee gather with others holding up international law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and principals of Catholic Social Teaching on the dignity of human beings. UIW students concerned about vulnerable children who are suffering have been gathering resources to help them.

Right corner: Maria Antonietta Maria Berriozábal, 

first Latina to serve on the SA City Council and IW friend. 

Next row: Sarwat Husain, UIW Alumni of Distinction 

and leader in the Council on American Islamic Relations CAIR, 

Catherine Ciarrocchi, IW alum, artist, and advocate.

Many of the problems have been created by unjust economic structures. Each of us is called to examine how we are part of unjust structures and how we can have influence in transforming these. While we call attention to current problems of family separation, let us commit ourselves to creating positive solutions to root causes of these problems.

Monica Cruz, former CCVI JPIC Committee Member and
Director of the UIW Ettling Center for Civic Leadership

In St. Louis, Aly Escaobar and Alexa Maradiaga 

spent their free time assisting with a 

“Families Belong Together” demonstration. 

They are summer interns sponsored by 

the Incarnate Word Foundation. 

Alexa is from UDEM in Monterrey, Mexico.  

Aly, a Cardinal Community Leader from the University of the Incarnate Word Ettling Center for Civic Leadership, who recently graduated wrote, “The March for Families was moving. Even the heat advisory couldn’t keep St. Louis from going out to show their disapproval about the separation of children from their families.  Filled with many emotions and awed by the stories shared, a DACA student stood in the middle of the crowd of marchers and expressed that every drop of sweat was worth it as it symbolizes the sacrifices and hard-work of families who are seeking better lives for their children.  

As a Latina who has always had the loving support of family, I cannot fathom a world where children are being ripped away from the security of their parents/guardian’s arms. It’s easy to feel powerless during a time like this, where nothing seems to make sense, however we must push past the evil and remain hopeful. We are stronger when we all stand in unity and defend the dignity of all humans.”

Jennifer Reyes Lay at
St. Louis March and Rally

Jennifer Reyes Lay, the Assistant Director of the CCVI JPIC Office, also attended the "Families Belong Together" rally and march in St. Louis on June 30th.  She shared, "My Catholic faith and incarnational spirituality tells me that Christ is present in every person, especially those who are suffering and marginalized. How we treat those crossing the border is how we treat Christ himself. We are called to welcome the stranger, share what we have generously, and love unconditionally, honoring the dignity of each of God's precious children. 

The current policies and actions of our government toward immigrant and refugee families is immoral and inhumane. I believe that I and all people of faith and good will have a responsibility to speak out and take action to stop injustice when we see it. I was proud to march with thousands of others in St. Louis who are standing up for the values of compassion, human dignity, love, and justice."

Donations collected by UIW students

In San Antonio at the University of the Incarnate Word, Dr. Emily Clark’s summer World Literature class donated 6 boxes of toys, books, and blankets to send comfort and love to refugee children at the border in Texas and beyond. In the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, again and again teachers and learners are finding that service to humanity is way to more deeply understand the humanities and vice versa. Dr. Clark wrote, “While reading about immigration and displacement, the crisis unfolded at the border and UIW students wanted to do something to help those little ones in need.”

U.S. Rep Lloyd Doggett at
San Antonio Rally

Sister Jean Durel attended the rally in San Antonio, TX, as over a million people in over 700 places demonstrated on June 30 with the “Families Belong Together” movement. Several speakers at the San Antonio rally stressed the importance of voting, among them U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett. Doggett said that "it is not enough to just come to a rally, citizens need to get involved, volunteer, and VOTE. It didn’t take 14 days to separate children hundreds of children from their parents and it shouldn’t take that long to reunite them."

Kathy Zeringue Schmidt (lower right corner) 

Incarnate Word Associate at the Vigil for Humanity

Sr. Corrine Walsh, Sr. Mary Margaret Bright,
and Sr. Eilish reminding all “Make America GREET again.”

Photo by Sr. Elizabeth Riebschlaeger

Sister Elizabeth Riebschlaeger who also attended the San Antonio rally wrote that as two persons were packing up to leave after the rally, “I just took a quick picture of their shirts without reading them. I was stunned, but delighted when I later saw the picture and read them left to right. Perfect combination!! Deus providebit!” (image to the right)

Sr. Martha Ann Kirk, Chair of the CCVI Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation of Committee read the CCVI statement at “Family Separation: A Panel” on July 2 at the Barshop Jewish Community Center in San Antonio. The panel included a pediatrician, an attorney, a pastor, and a social worker. 

The CCVI statement says,

“We, the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas, oppose and condemn the unjust implementation of the ‘zero tolerance’ immigration policies.  Our values and the Gospel of Jesus Christ impel us to reject completely any policy that ignores and defiles the dignity of the human person and uses the most vulnerable among us for political purposes. 

Donna Guerra, CCVI Archivist, Sr. Francine Keane,
Sr. Corrine Walsh, Sr. Jane Farek, Sr. Mary Margaret Bright,
Sr. Eilish Ryan, Sr. Marichui Bringas joined several hundred
people in front of San Fernando Cathedral at the
Vigil for Humanity on June 24, 2018, in San Antonio, TX .

We join our voices and our concerns with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Catholic Health Association, and many other organizations, denominations, and faith and civic leaders in condemning this policy.  We urge members of the United States Congress to act immediately to halt the unjust, immoral and unconscionable implementation of this policy.”

Written by Sr. Martha Ann Kirk, CCVI 

UIW Participates in SA300 Tree-Centennial Program

By Teofilo Reyes, Ettling Center for Civic Leadership & Sustainability Community Outreach Coordinator, and Phillip Lopes, Assistant Facilities Director and Energy and the Environment Subcommittee Member.  Article originally appeared on UIW blog. 

The University of the Incarnate Word took part in San Antonio’s Tree-Centennial program on Tuesday, May 2. The Tree-Centennial initiative, led and managed by the City of San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department, honors San Antonio’s Tricentennial (SA300) celebration to enhance the city’s tree canopy and green spaces by planting 300 trees over the course of 2018.

The program was launched with tree plantings at various higher education institutions across the city. The University of the Incarnate Word is a prominent institution for higher learning, not just in San Antonio or across the Texas region, but globally – serving students and communities throughout the world. UIW is participating in the Tree-Centennial program because it embodies the spirit of “citizenship and commitment to community” by bettering the places where we live, learn, labor and enjoy leisure in our city.

We chose to plant this beautiful Sierra Oak tree at the University of Incarnate Word’s new School of Osteopathic Medicine because this young oak tree will symbolize the budding growth and grandeur these medical students will achieve through serving the health needs of patients around the globe. We worked with our friends at Mortellaro’s Nursery in Schertz, Texas to find a fresh tree that is strong and beautiful, but also one that is native to the south, tolerant of heat and requires little watering once established. The Sierra Oak was the perfect fit.

Tree-Centennial is another great opportunity for UIW to expand its sustainability efforts across the San Antonio community. Pope Francis’ encyclical ‘Laudato Si’ demonstrates the responsibility not only as a single organization, but as habitants of this wonderful planet to take care of one another through compassion and action.  Tree-Centennial is another step forward for UIW students, staff, and faculty to engage and educate the community on the various social, economic, and health benefits of being environmentally conscious.

Sustainability balances human development and growth with the welfare of the natural world, both in the present and for the future. The emphasis placed on social justice by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word and the establishment of care for creation as a tenet of Catholic social teaching inspiring sustainability as a part of the university’s legacy. The University is committed to meeting people’s cultural, educational, economic, and ecological needs in ways that protect and restore the natural environment.

SA300 has beautifully celebrated the many facets that make San Antonio unique, and Tree-Centennial is another great example of what sustainability means to the citizens of San Antonio and the city’s legacy.

Dialogue and Friendship Dinner at UIW

The Annual Dialogue and Friendship Dinners are organized to contribute to the progress of intercultural-interfaith dialog and peace. With the participation of esteemed guests and people from different faiths, cultures, and ethnicities these gatherings have come to symbolize our desire to achieve a genuine cross-cultural understanding and cooperation.

Dialogue Institute cordially invites you to the 13th Annual Dialogue and Friendship Dinner

Theme: "Teaching Compassion and Making a Difference"
Keynote Speaker: Sonya Romero, Teacher Hero Teacher Sonya Romero at The Ellen Show

Sonya Romero, more commonly know as The Hero Teacher featured on Ellen in March of 2015. Her Ellen interview has more than 11 million views and climbing. Sonya has won several awards for her humanitarian efforts including a Congressional Award. Before Sonya entered the classroom she began her university studies in journalism and communications but went back to obtain a second bachelors in education. In 2004 she completed her masters and is currently working on her PHD. Sonya is Executive Vice President of Albuquerque Federation of Teachers and helps create content for the professional development courses they provide. You can find Sonya in her kindergarten classroom most weekdays at Lee Wallace Elementary in Albuquerque, New Mexico where her mission is to make every child feel safe.

Date & Time: Tuesday, March 6, 2017, 6:00 pm

Venue: UIW Rosenberg Skyroom

847 E.Hildebrand, San Antonio, TX 78212

Charitable Partner: ( Proceeds of the dinner will be shared with our charitable partner)

Dialogue Institute Friendship Award: Shokare Nakpodia, Founder of DreamWeek San Antonio

Dialogue Institute Education Award: SA Youth

Dialogue Institute Communication Award: Molly Cox , President & CEO SA2020

Dialogue Institute Community Service Award: El Bari Community Health Center

Co-sponsors: UIW Liturgical Outreach and Raindrop Foundation

Sexual Politics of Meat

“The Sexual Politics of Meat” a presentation by eco-feminist Carol Adams with art work by Suzy Gonzalez

Carol Adams, a nationally-renowned eco-feminist and lecturer, presented on her foundational critical work, The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory, at the University of the Incarnate Word sponsored by the growing Women’s and Gender Studies Department and the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, October 11, 2017. 

In addition to Adams’ lecture, local San Antonio artist Suzy Gonzalez, who was inspired by The Sexual Politics of Meat, shared her artwork.  One of the most impactful pieces was Gonzalez’ rendition of the Skinny Cow ice cream advertising mascot.  Gonzalez highlights the sexuality of the cow in the ad, accentuating how women and animals are interlinked in advertising, and she substitutes the cow’s head with a bloody butcher knife. (See picture above.)  In doing so, she reminds viewers that cows are not willing participants in their own destructions: advertisers only like to pretend they are to assuage its consumers’ consciences.

With over 150 attendees, the lecture attracted Incarnate Word students, faculty, and staff as well as members of the San Antonio community.  During her lecture, Adams detailed the idea of “the absent sexual referent” that happens when consuming meat and participating in meat-eating culture.  She argued that the meat industry romanticizes and even masculinizes meat-eating, so much so that the death of animals is obscured and rarely considered—even as the animals are being consumed. Strikingly, Adams also pointed out that depictions of animals are often intertwined with depictions of women in Western popular culture.

  

Adams used modern advertising ads from a myriad of venues to show this often twinned existence between masculinity and meat-eating.  By extension, Adams suggested that sexual violence is a byproduct of a culture that celebrates meat consumption.  Through the absence of a sexual referent, meat-eaters can be seen as complicit in a culture that values selfishness and immediate gratification over not only the death of animals but also the women it uses as illustrative of meat consumption.  

Dr. Lu’Ella D’Amico, organizer of the program,
Suzy Gonzalez, artist, Dr.  Carol Adams, speaker, and
Dr. Emile Clarke, Chair of UIW English Department.

For an example of the way that “butchering and sexual violence” appear in a particular ad, readers of this blog might refer to Adams’ own analysis of an Australian Premier Wine Estates ad from 2015:  http://caroljadams.com/carol-adams-blog/the-sexual-politics-of-meat-in-a-wine-ad

Following the lecture, UIW Women’s and Gender Studies hosted a vegan reception along with a book signing with Carol Adams.

One of the people attending Sister Martha Ann Kirk began being a vegetarian in 1976 when she learned that eating lower on the food chain might contribute to having more food for the peoples of the world. Then she began to think that while we do not have control over much of the violence in the world, we can decide that animals do not have to be killed for us. Kirk invites others to think of how eatingless meat can help the environment.  For Kirk, Carol Adam’s ideas helped illumine and integrate many ideas of choices for life, respect, and compassion. 

For further information about Adams’ writing and ideas, please visit www.caroljadams.com.

Suzy Gonzalez’ website devoted to her art can be found at www.suzygonzales.com.

By Dr. LuElla D’Amico, Assistant Professor of English and Co-Coordinator of the Women’s and Gender Studies program at the University of the Incarnate Word.

More information on meat and the environment:

Eating Less Meat Essential to Curb Climate Change, Says Report (Our World)
https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/eating-less-meat-essential-to-curb-climate-change-says-report

11 Facts About Your Food That Will Shock You (Forbes)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelpellmanrowland/2017/01/03/shocking-food-facts/#74a732761574

The Road to a Paris Climate Deal (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/climate/2015-paris-climate-talks/will-reducing-meat-in-my-diet-help-the-climate

Here’s how much giving up beef helps — or doesn’t help — the planet (Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/heres-how-much-giving-up-beef-helps--or-doesnt-help--the-planet/2017/07/20/03bb5ba2-6d60-11e7-b9e2-2056e768a7e5_story.html?utm_term=.115bde940c28

If Everyone Ate Beans Instead of Beef (The Atlantic)
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/if-everyone-ate-beans-instead-of-beef/535536/

Sisters Share Murdered Nun's Service

By Yael Garcia-Torrescano LOGOS STAFF WRITER   (From the Logos, September 2017. Used with permission)

The Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word remembered a sister's life of service on the 30th anniversary of her murder Sept. 27.

Students in the Social Justice Leadership course – primarily Cardinal Community Leaders – along with others, gathered in the Chapel of the Incarnate Word for the observance titled “Reflection on the Murder of Sister Patricia Ann Kelley: Standing Against the Death Penalty.”

Kelley was raped and strangled to death, according to news accounts of her murder in St. Louis.  She was a graduate of Incarnate Word Academy in Bel Nor, MO, and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in religion from then- Incarnate Word College (now the University).

Kelley’s legacy included being regarded as an exemplary teacher, service as the Sisters’ vocation counselor, time spent as a probation officer, and a volunteer organizer.

In 1981, Kelley secured a grant to start the Dollar-Help and Energycare project in St. Louis which aimed to help low- and fixed-income elderly who couldn’t afford to pay their utility bills. When funding was ended after two years, she worked to make Energycare an independent, nonprofit organization, serving as its executive director.

Between 1983 and 1987, Laclede Gas helped Kelley raise $1.5 million for the Dollar- Help project. In 1984, Kelley was the first woman to be awarded with the St. Louis Globe-Democrat’s Humanitarian Award, and later even called the “Mother Theresa of St. Louis.”

Kelley was found murdered in her Energycare office on Sept. 28, 1987. Nearly a year went by before St. Louis charged Jerry Lee Little, who was later convicted in Kelley’s death as well as three other women.

Sister Martha Ann Kirk, a longtime religious studies professor at UIW, shared memories of Kelley when both were students here, living on campus.

“I loved to be around her because she was fun,” Kirk said. “She would make you laugh! She would just dive-in into doing things, and you would have a good time with her.”

On a typical Sunday afternoon, Kirk recalled Kelley would ask, “ ‘Who wants to come with me?’ We need to be taking some joy to the soldiers that are in the hospital (referring to Brooke Army Medical Center).”

Kelley’s brother wanted Little executed but the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word wanted imprisonment as the maximum penalty because he was dangerous. Not only did the order believe Little’s family had suffered enough but they believed the death penalty wasn’t going to make things better.

The late Sister Dorothy “Dot” Ettling, then-congregational leader of the order, said: “Such violence will never be conquered by a retaliation of violence in our own hearts.”

Kirk, a member of the Incarnate Word Sisters Justice and Peace Committee, said she remembers lobbying against the death penalty, because the sisters believed in the dignity of the human life.  “Our faith teaches us that every human life has dignity and the death penalty disrespects the dignity of creatures that God has made,” Kirk said. 

College and University Recycling Collation Workshop at UIW

CURC, the College and University Recycling Collation, held their national workshop at the University of the Incarnate Word, October 15, 2017. Brian Roe, Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Ohio State University, spoke on “Food waste reduction / Collaborative planning for dining food waste.” A third of the food in the US is wasted. If students become aware, they waste less. Signs, apps, and teaching are among the successful reminders that can be used. 

UIW students helping with the workshop included Ashely Otley, Cheyenne Schultz, Kathleen Aeschlimann, Hector Vargas, Carolina Calvillo, Violet Balleza, Brajae Robinson, Dhanya Prasad, Jordan Collins. 

UIW students Violet Balleza, Brajae Robinson,
Daniel Potter (Sustainability Operations Manager),
Dhanya Prasad, Jordan Collins, and
Ruben Garcia (the UIW Grounds Manager)
assist in hosting the CURC National Workshop.

People shared many ideas from their schools. One said that when they have large events, they have “Trash Talkers” who stand near the bins and help people put things in the correct place for recycling. At the University of Oregon, during a past move out from the dorms, they have taken pictures of what has been thrown away. Now the school has a game where students are invited to identify what could be recycled. If they identify three things, they win a box to use for moving their things.

Sara Nichols, of the State of Texas Alliance for Recycling (STAR) gave information on Recycling in Texas and the Economic Impacts. STAR educates from “school children to senators” and she said with a laugh “Much of the content is the same!” She shared trends in recycling and packaging, why this is important, what is being done and what needs to be done. Lighter packaging is better. All need to work towards better ways of measuring progress in these areas. Corporations want to fund groups that are going in to make a change. Austin is the home of the universal recycling ordinances. Municipalities have much power to change things.

Nichols went on to explain that the US recycling rate has been stagnant at 34% for the last few years. Texas is recycling about 22%. Texas is huge. It is important. We have four of the ten fastest growing cities in the US. For every 10k going into landfill one job is created, while for every 10k recycled ten jobs are created. An average family of four spends $15,000 a year on food that is wasted.

Brian Halverson, of the City of San Antonio spoke on the City of San Antonio Commercial / Institutional Recycling Initiatives. City of San Antonio collects waste from all private homes and this means about 350,000 customers.  ReWorksSA is a separate program, an initiative of the Solid Waste Management Department working on recycling and resource recovery. It is working to motivate the non-private customers.

Some of the San Antonio city goals are to recycle of 60% of single-family residential waste by 2015 and to improve recycling opportunities for businesses. The focus is on small and medium size businesses because many large businesses have already started. For example, H.E.B. does much recycling, especially with cardboard. ReWorksSA provides incentives, information, and other resources.

Jennifer Hobson, University of Texas, Austin, shared on Engaging student volunteers and cultivating institutional support for zero waste efforts. Generally students expect recycling all over campus. Any campus group can apply for funding for a recycling project. At UT Austin, they have had paper recycling since the 1990’s. She works with internal stack holders and supports and encourages them. It is expensive to put trash in the landfill, so that encourages interest in recycling. It is important to keep educating people on how much is saved and how much benefit there is. People do not realize this. Students need to have experiences, not just classroom learning. They work with leadership classes, and a project management class that designs things in the fall and implements them in the spring. They had 26 students working on 9 projects. Many are doing waste audits. They are working with the food service.

UIW participates in “RecycleMania” a competition of colleges and universities throughout the US to grow in skills of sustainability. A ceremony to recognize campuses involved in “RecycleMania” was held. Campuses that have a total number of 4.1 billion students are participating in the “RecycleMania” competition. The competition is really to raise student awareness and get them involved. This is not just about tonnage, but about understanding and implementing many aspects of recycling. A new category this year is the “Race to Zero Waste,” which involves taking an individual building on campus and intensively measuring how things are recycled. Agnes Scott College was the winner. Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles got the grand champion awards for winning in a number of areas, including Diversion, Paper, and Corrugated Cardboard. All campuses were encouraged to start preparing for “Get the Game for 2018!” 

  

Alex Fried founder and director of PLAN, the Post-Landfill Action Network showed a picture of the relationships of issues. Recycling is important, but US society also needs to focus on patterns of consumption and consumerism. PLAN is a student-led zero waste movement. Students learn more and are equipped with the necessary skills and resources to implement solutions in their campus communities. This empowers students to be change makers.

Amy Preble, UNC Chapel Hill explained their Residence Hall Composting. In 2014 students in residence halls started this taking compost to the community gardens. Their dining rooms have compostable containers. As of 2017 fourteen residence halls have joined in participating. Have “Compost Kick-off” at the beginning of the year and students can check out a bin. Twice a week there is pick up. Many videos on campus composting are posted on YouTube. One of their many ways of communicating is “Green Games,” long standing student-led activities for other students to learn and participate.

The student on the left developed the “Composting Cow”
to remind people to participate. 

Alyssa Halle-Schramm, Austin Community College, described their Paper Towel Composting. They do not have large dinning halls, but many grab and go cafes so that complicated trying to do recycling in these. ACC does have a Culinary Arts program and also a child development program and both of these are active in recycling and composting. For the last four years ACC has focused on recycling paper towels in bathrooms. This program is easy to pilot and easy to sell. An industrial compost companies picks up.

Students are considering what might be the best recycling mascot, what will help people learn and think

Bill Rudy, Brigham Young University spoke on Container Sensors. This campus has 32,000 students. Gardeners spend much time servicing garbage cans. A student developed a sensor that can be put into any bin and they can read how full the bin is. The gardeners only have to go there when the bin is full.

Deb Kutska, Oakton Community College in the Chicago area gave information on Improving Diversion. She started in 2014 as the first Sustainability professor. When she started the college had 19% recycling and now they have 36%. They have a goal to recycle 50%. They have about six Zero Waste events a year.

They created the “Talkin’ Trash Taskforce” to identify problem areas. They made a “sculpture” to make people think. At the Child Development Center, they recycle everything and the children easily learn to sort and do this.

The “Students for Social Justice” led a “bottle ban” initiative, and the campus now has this. Students can get water at the water stations, and not plastic bottles of water are sold on campus. 

Lydia Vandenbergh, Penn State University, gave examples of their extensive studies on Bin Signage. They have an on-going effort to make things clear for all so that waste is not mixed or contaminated. 

Scott Pasternak of Burns & McDonnell spoke on “Impacts on Recycling Commodity Values, Focusing on Contamination. He considered economic and market drivers. Dallas has a new recycling system. They have what seems to be one of the best glass recycling systems, which leads to “Super-Clean” glass. He offered some “Keys to successful campus, multi-family and commercial recycling programs:” Public education, convenient access, performance measures (how do you check), management buy-in, conduct waste audits and workshops for businesses to focus recycling programs.

Alex Antram, the Director of the Headwaters at Incarnate Word led a tour. Participants had an opportunity to tour recycling and sustainability sites on the campus, or visit the 53-acre Headwaters nature sanctuary located adjacent to the UIW campus. About half of the people attending direct university recycling services. Most of the visitors were from out of state and they praised the beauty of the Incarnate Word campus. UIW faculty attending felt renewed and inspired and want to further develop recycling .

Article by Sr. Martha Ann Kirk, CCVI, Chair of the International JPIC Committee 

Teofilio Reyes (Community Outreach Coordinator, Ettling Center),
Dr. Kevin Salfen (Associate Professor of Music),
Sr. Martha Ann Kirk (Professor of Religious Studies and the Ettling Center),
Dr. Barbara Aranda-Naranjo (Associate Provost for
Civic Engagement and Sustainability),
Dr. Alison Whittemore (Professor of Engineering),
Dr. Helen E. Smith (Associate Professor of Pharmacy), and
Professor Heather Barton-Weston (Dimensions of Wellness Coordinator)
assisted in hosting the national CURC workshop.

Incarnate Word Sustainability Efforts part of SA300

The San Antonio Tricentennial Commission recently wrote the Ettling Center for Civic Engagement, approving the project proposal for: “Serving in Sustainability Projects, Cultivating Compassionate Care for All of Creation”

 

These are the main ideas of the proposal:

One reason that the beautiful property with abundant trees near the headwaters of the San Antonio River was purchased for a school in 1897 was because the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word  recognized that nature restores people and that people need to learn of nature and learn to care for nature.  This is carried forward in the Sustainability goals, education, and initiatives of the University of the Incarnate Word as a whole and particularly implemented by the Ettling Center for Civic Leadership. The center promotes community service and service learning in community gardening, “Sustainability Scholar” projects, recycling efforts, and the center guides students to work with  Headwaters - a 53 acre nature sanctuary with multiple educational and sustainability projects for people of all ages.  The UIW Engineering Department has developed projects with solar and wind energy and the Ettling Center is encouraging even more student participation.

 

We wish to have 300 hours of service to sustainability initiatives done by various students throughout 2018 under the title “Serving in Sustainability Projects, Cultivating Compassionate Care for All of Creation.”  We are “growing a legacy of service” with many branches of community gardening, a pollination garden, rooting out invasive species and nurturing native plants, documenting trees, on-going research, and other things.  

By the end of the year: 

1) Students will know that Incarnate Word was founded in civic engagement (the mayor wanted people to care for the sick and start a hospital in 1869) and we carry civic engagement and service into the future---they are a part of this

2) Students will have more skills and knowledge in creation care 

3) Students will have more community building skills because they have worked with others for the common good.   

The Ettling Center will provide information where and how service can be done and will track what students have done and their reflections on what they have learned. 

With this approval, all the Incarnate Word sustainability service initiatives are official Tricentennial Project/Events. We may use their logo and the SA300 office will promote our service initiatives through e-blast, website, and calendar, and a volunteer sign up page.

 

In addition to these sustainability efforts, UIW educational events have also been accepted as part of the “Education and History” area of the Tricentennial and the events of  Incarnate Word Sisters, CHRISTUS Health, and UIW have been accepted as Tricentennial Partners. 

Training Develops Social Justice Advocates at Our Universities

By Monica Cruz, Director of the Ettling Center for Civic Leadership, University of the Incarnate Word

I have had the wonderful opportunity to serve as a member of the Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Committee (JPIC) for the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word for nearly 2 years.  Our committee has hosted several educational and inspiring presentations to understand the importance of creating a sustainable environment, Laudato Si and understanding the plight of victims of human trafficking and refugees around the world.  

Another important area of JPIC is to develop the advocacy skills of members who wish to increase their civic participation on important social justice issues.  Last summer, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Changemakers gathering sponsored by the Marianist Social Justice Collaborative.  During this event, we were asked to commit to develop a project or initiative that we felt was important to further develop leaders who understood and embraced social justice causes in our community.  As someone who has taught State and Local Politics courses and serves on the CCVI JPIC committee, I was inspired to commit to developing a Social Justice Advocacy Training for university students.  I had been playing with this idea for quite some time but my involvement as a member of JPIC propelled me into action to develop this training for students that focused on Texas public education and finance—an issue that the students selected to focus on.  

The 3 day training took place during spring break with the first two days in San Antonio and the third day with a trip to the Austin capitol.  Students from 6 colleges in San Antonio gathered to become knowledgeable about school finance and curriculum development; more knowledgeable about the public policy process for education; and more comfortable speaking and advocating about these issues in the community and in government through the lens of social justice. Students critically analyzed Senate bill 3, the school voucher bill and learned how the idea of equally distributing public school vouchers to children in Texas did not necessarily translate into achieving equity in our schools.  

Robert Cavazos, a student from the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) who participated in the training stated, “All of us recognized how important, and unfortunately how rare it is, for college students to engage in local and state politics and advocate for social justice. We considered what we can do to further our training and advocacy experience beyond this spring break conference. We felt the burden of responsibility that UIW instilled in us through an emphasis on Catholic Social Teaching; and with the tools of social justice advocacy now at our disposal, we are ready to make our public schools and our communities better through our willingness to care.” 

It was truly inspiring watching these students walk through the halls of the state capitol advocating for equity in our public schools.  We hope the experience gave them the tools to continue as social justice advocates on issues affecting the most vulnerable in our community for years to come.