Fulbright Winners, Community Reception Showcase Refurbished CCBP Offices

• September 10th, 2014
• in News

By Jessica Hancock
CCBP Graduate Assistant

Recent Fulbright Scholarship winners shared their experiences with a new wave of Fulbright hopefuls, faculty, staff and members of the community at a presentation and reception at the Center for Community-Based Partnerships (CCBP) on August 26. The purpose of the event was to introduce the campus to the Fulbright Program and to showcase for students and community members the refurbished CCBP headquarters at 900 Anna Avenue, adjacent to the Million Dollar Band practice field.

A panel entitled “The Fulbright Scholarship: Breaking down Cultural Barriers through Language Education” was sponsored by Global Café, a CCBP initiative now in its second year.

Guests were welcomed into the comfortable CCBP lobby, with $30,000 worth of new furnishings and other improvements, including large photos on the walls depicting CCBP projects and campus landmarks. Mike Morrow, director of Support Services, said the improvements included new carpet, soft seating, dining furniture, a serving bar, a television and artwork on the walls.

“It was the vision of Dr. Samory Pruitt [vice president for Community Affairs] to give the facility the feel of a coffeehouse, and I think we’ve done a good job.” Yun Fu, a program assistant for the CCBP, feels the new look represents the CCBP, and its programs and projects. “It’s ideal for hosting Global Café events,” she said.

“With the vision of Dr. Pruitt and the hard work of others, especially Antwon Key, who helped select and prepare the photos displayed throughout the center, that we now have a completely new look for the office,” Fu said. “During the Global Café event on Aug. 26th, we had about 60 community partners and others attend and they couldn’t tell us enough about how much they loved the new look. I think it will be perfect place for the Global Café to carry out different events from time to time.”

Emma Fick, a 2013-14 English teaching assistant (ETA), led off the Fulbright panel by sharing her experiences from her time in Novi Pazar, Serbia. Fick taught English to Serbian university and high school students and worked on a side project in which she studied Orthodox art. Fick said she was enthusiastically accepted by the community, grew close to many of the students and residents, and became something of a celebrity in the small town.

“You will get very close to the students you teach,” Fick said. “It is a very meaningful experience.”

During her presentation, Fick emphasized the importance of flexibility. “No experience is what it is ‘supposed’ to be,’” she said. “It is very organic. In your application, I would stress a willingness to adjust to what a community needs.”

Fick was able to do just that during her time abroad. Community service is not common in Serbia, so she organized service opportunities for students to help the community while building their own resumes. She involved different town members, getting university art students to draw pictures to hang on hospital walls and recruiting children to color the drawings.

Fick also drew her own illustrations of people and happenings in Novi Pazar. These became so popular she was given her own showcase to display the art before she left. The community took great pride in her depictions of them, according to Fick.
The U.S. embassy has given Fick a grant to return to Serbia, this time to the capital Belgrade, to do more illustrations of the country.

After Fick’s presentation, two more 2013-14 Fulbright ETAs made presentations about their experience abroad. Rachel Hunkler and Carolyn Bero were friends prior to their trip and were given the opportunity to travel together to Madrid, Spain. They served as English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) in bilingual middle and high schools. They were able to participate in different activities during their free time, such as volunteering for the State Department, running a marathon and taking a cooking class.

Hunkler and Bero spoke on how they addressed American stereotypes with their students, who seemed to have gleaned their ideas of America from pop culture.
“Part of your role there is being a cultural ambassador,” Bero said. “Present yourself the way you are and be proud of that.”

Hunkler helped work in a global classroom, a model UN program for students for whom English is their second language. The students improved their English skills while learning to research, write and debate international issues.

Hunkler has been given the rare honor of a renewal Fulbright for next year. She will return to Spain to be a Fulbright mentor in global classrooms, training other ETAs.
After last year’s winners spoke, three new Fulbright winners gave some tips on applying for the scholarship and the interview process, stressing the importance of beginning the application process early. Gabrielle Taylor, Jilisa Milton and Haglaeeh Contreras also briefly spoke on their excitement about getting to travel to Germany, Indonesia and Malaysia, respectively.

“I am most excited about creating relationships with the students and the people in the community,” Milton said.

A reception in the CCBP’s lobby followed the panel discussion. Dr. Gary Sloan, professor emeritus of microbiology and coordinator of prestigious scholarships and awards, was one of the many UA faculty and staff in attendance. “The study abroad programs are wonderful and the students learn so much when they go abroad,” Sloan said. Studying abroad can change people, he said, by bringing them out of their shells and helping them flourish. “It is wonderful for their personal growth,” he said. “Students do so well in this program. I encourage them to seek out our advice and help.”

Several students who are currently applying for a Fulbright were in attendance to learn about the participants’ experiences and get advice on their own applications.

Astri Snodgrass is completing her master of fine arts in painting degree and is currently going through the Fulbright application process.

“Listening to what other people did for their side projects was helpful, and seeing how that changed from their application,” Snodgrass said.

The Fulbright Program is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. It “provides funding for students, scholars, teachers, and professionals to undertake graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and teaching in elementary and secondary schools,” according to fulbrightonline.org.

Campus coordinator for the Fulbright Program is Dr. Beverly Hawk, who is also program services director at CCBP. Her leadership has helped UA increase its number of recipients over the last several years to eight in 2013. The Capstone International Center is a partner in this effort.

Students interested in applying for next year are encouraged to visit international.ua.edu/fulbright and us.fulbrightonline.org.

The Fulbright Scholarship: UA Winners to Share Overseas Experience and Application Tips; Reception to Follow

• August 6th, 2014
• in News

TUSCALOOSA — Recent UA Fulbright Scholarship winners will share their overseas experiences on a panel entitled “The Fulbright Scholarship: Breaking Down Cultural Barriers Through Language Education” Tuesday, Aug. 26, beginning at 2:30 p.m., at the Center for Community-Based Partnerships (CCBP), 900 Anna Avenue, directly behind Arby’s on University Boulevard.

The Aug. 26 event will double as an open house for the Global Café, established in spring 2014 by the Division of Community Affairs as a place for campus and community to pursue projects of mutual interest with an emphasis on international programs and projects.

The Fulbright presentation will be followed by a reception and refreshments at 4 p.m. to celebrate CCBP’s International Community Engagement programs. “University students from all disciplines are invited as we welcome home Fulbright grantees who have been serving overseas this year,” said Dr. Beverly Hawk, campus coordinator for the Fulbright Program and director of program services at CCBP. “These winners will share experiences and secrets to their success.”

Anyone with an interest in the Fulbright Program and Global Café is welcome to attend as the campus hears from and honors Fulbright recipients. The Fulbright Scholarship Program is sponsored by the U.S. State Department and is the largest U.S. international exchange program.

Global Café partners include CCBP staff and students, Capstone International Center, Graduate Parent Support program, Tuscaloosa’s One Place, Shelton State Community College, Tuscaloosa City Schools, Tuscaloosa County School System, and numerous community leaders. Throughout the year, the planning and implementation of programs offers students many new paths to campus leadership.

Students considering applying for next year’s Fulbright competition can learn more from the Capstone International Center, 135 B.B. Comer Hall or by going to http://international.ua.edu/fulbright/ as well as http://us.fulbrightonline.org/ and Beverly.hawk.ua.edu. The campus deadline for application is September 8.

For more about the 2013 winners see http://uanews.ua.edu/2013/08/ua-graduates-win-fulbright-scholarships/, and for 2014 winners go to http://uanews.ua.edu/2014/06/eight-ua-graduates-receive-fulbright-awards-for-study-teaching-abroad/.

There is no charge for the event, but attendees are asked to telephone 205-348-7392 so we’ll know how many to prepare for.

UANews: Eight UA Graduates Receive Fulbright Awards for Study, Teaching Abroad

• June 10th, 2014
• in News

Research Posters at CCBP Ceremony Draw Enthusiastic Audience

• May 1st, 2014
• in News

By Kirsten J. Barnes
CCBP Graduate Student

The Fifth Annual Poster Presentation April 18 in the Bryant Conference Center, a preliminary to the Eighth Annual Center for Community-Based Partnerships Community Engagement Awards Luncheon, drew an enthusiastic and appreciative crowd.

This year’s chairperson for the Poster Presentation Committee was Dr. Angelia Paschal, associate professor in College of Human Environmental Sciences.

“This year we had 16 posters that represented various community engagement projects,” Paschal said. “We had a good distribution of faculty, staff and graduate students and each of these projects included community partners.”

Several of the students who presented posters are graduate students who also are members of SCOPE or Scholars for Community Outreach, Partnership, and Engagement, several of whom have also presented posters at recent Engagement Scholarship Consortium conferences.

Andriane Sheffield is one of those scholars and her poster, “West Side Scholars Academy: Building Rapport and Relationships with Community Members,” discusses her efforts to engage students in the program. The enrichment program already existed. However, the organizers sought assistance from UA for curriculum development and program evaluation.

“I started working with them in the fall and immediately recognized I was an outsider from their view,” Sheffield said. “The poster explains how I developed a rapport with them so we could have an effective partnership.”

Sheffield, an educational psychology doctoral student, said she had to educate herself about the participating students’ schools and communities. “I had to figure out where each student was academically,” she said so together they could focus the goals of the program, which originally had been very broad.

Although this scholarly endeavor is completely separate from her doctoral research, Sheffield said the experience has helped her develop research questions for her dissertation.

Coddy Carter, also an educational psychology doctoral student, created a poster about research he conducted with Dr. Sara McDaniel from the College of Education, on TEAMS+ (Tuscaloosa Encouraging Adolescents through Mentoring and Support).

The project works with students who are transitioning from detention facilities and returning to school. “My role was to make sure they were setting goals for the day and to see if they needed extra help with their academics,” Carter said. “The goal was to get everybody an individualized education plan to deal with their at-risk factors, which included mental health and academic issues.”

McDaniel received a CCBP Seed Grant for this project, and the poster shows how the funds were utilized.

Carter’s research shows that students coming out of detention struggle to become integrated back into their school. “So either they don’t go back to school at all, or they have a hard time succeeding when they do go back when they don’t have extra supports in place. This is kind of a new model to try to help them,” he said.

McDaniel partnered with Tuscaloosa One Place, which already was providing case management and electronic monitoring for the students involved with TEAMS+. “We added the educational advocacy and mentoring component,” she said. “We are very appreciative of the seed fund grant that funded this project.”

Social work doctoral student Fan Yang, presented her “Heart Touch” program, which also received seed funding from CCBP. “Heart Touch is a cultural enrichment program,” Yang said. “We go to three elementary schools and collaborate with Tuscaloosa’s One place. We do fieldtrips and letter writing exchanges with students in China.”

The 16 posters reveal a great variety, Paschal said, including health, leadership, educational, advocacy and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). “We are really pleased to see the former seed funded projects present posters. We definitely applaud the presenters for their work in community engagement.”

CCBP Recognizes Top Engagement Scholars, Awards Seed Funds

• May 1st, 2014
• in News

By Kirsten J. Barnes
CCBP Graduate Assistant

The University of Alabama’s efforts to engage communities and change lives, the motto of the Center for Community-Based Partnerships, was evident during the Eighth Annual CCBP Community Engagement Awards Luncheon held April 18 at the Bryant Conference Center.

“We all know that to change the world you have to start the change in your part of the world,” said Dr. Samory Pruitt, vice president for the Division of Community Affairs. “I think what we’ve seen in the projects that have been recognized today are efforts to change our part of the world. I want to congratulate all of the people who received awards, all of those who presented posters and all of those who have received seed funds. You are indeed engaging communities and changing lives.”

The annual luncheon is a celebration of engagement scholarship, which involves public universities providing educational support to community organizations and municipalities as a means to create sustainable solutions to real community problems in partnership with the communities, which play significant roles in the collaboration.

Before lunch, researchers who will receive seed funds for their projects for the upcoming fiscal year were announced. Three awards were presented. The first was to Adriane Sheffield, an educational psychology doctoral student. Sheffield partnered with University Place Elementary School to create a program called “Developing S.T.A.R.S.: Strength, Talents, and Resources in Students.”

Another doctoral student, Calia Torres, in clinical health psychology, was awarded funds for “A Cultural Adaptation of Pain Management Treatment for Hispanics with Chronic Pain.” Torres partnered with Whatley Health Services to help their workers gain a greater understanding of the pain needs of Hispanic patients.

The last award was presented to Drs. Michelle Montgomery and Paige Johnson, both assistant professors in the Capstone School of Nursing. The two partnered with Belinda Craig in Pickens County to create “Assessing Community Readiness for and Attitudes to Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in Pickens County,” which focuses on obesity.

This year’s Seed Fund Committee Chair was Dr. Laurie Bonnici, an associate professor in the School of Library & Information Studies, who knows first-hand the power of a seed fund. “Dr. Bonicci is the poster child for this program,” said Dr. Ed Mullins, emcee of the awards program. Mullins is a retired dean of the School of Communication and Information Sciences and currently CCBP’s director of research and communication. “A few years ago we gave her a few bucks – and I mean a very small number of dollars – and she turned them into almost nine hundred thousand dollars.

Bonicci received her award five years ago, after reading about the Seed Funds Program in a university announcement. She applied for the initial grant to fund a program targeting senior citizens for computer literacy training.

“Let’s face it, at 40 it all starts going downhill,” said Bonnici who took her $5,000 and evaluated the disconnection between seniors and technology. “My students went out into the community and taught seniors computing. This allowed them to stay connected with their children and grandchildren.”

Bonicci took her data and turned it into a proposal for a larger project and her efforts were rewarded with the 2014 Association of Library and Information Science Education Research Grant.

“We would not have been able to do that had it not been for the seed funds,” Bonicci said, adding that several of her former students have since graduated and begun similar projects in their individual communities, all of which proves that “My university believes in me and is investing in me.”

In addition to the award presentations, one of the highlights of the event is a keynote speech from an expert on engagement scholarship. This year was no exception, featuring Dr. Katy Campbell, dean of the University of Alberta Faculty of Extension, where the 2014 Engagement Scholarship Consortium Conference will be held.

“Much of what we characterize as engaged scholarship is really supported by units or department or faculty or continuing education,” Campbell said, explaining how her university operates.

However, unlike many American universities, the first president of the University of Alberta, Henry Marshal Tory, redefined the purpose of his public university in 1912. “Tory was a passionate Methodist minister, and for him access to higher education was a matter of social justice,” Campbell said. “Access not just for the sons of the wealthy or the political elite, but for the whole people. He said the modern state university is a people’s institution. The people demand that knowledge shall not be a concern of the scholars alone, but the uplifting of the people shall be its final goal.”

Campbell said that at Alberta the faculty has always been charged with “creating knowledge for the people to help the people” and has operated under the premise that educators should go to the people with information instead of waiting for the people to come to the university for knowledge.

She said proof of the value of the movement started by Tory can be seen throughout the province, because the university’s knowledge has been used to solve problems in exploited fishing and farming communities and in many other ways.

In Alberta, Campbell said engagement scholarship does more than share information and teach people to start and manage crops; it is the engine of a social movement.

“The most difficult task (the first educators) found was to peacefully resolve local conflict and to persuade people about the benefits of working together toward a common goal, breaking with the old patterns of passivity and independence,” Campbell said.

This is why she knows that engagement scholarship can change lives in other areas of academia. For instance, in Alberta, the university is now developing programs in legal aid and other areas. “People need access to what their rights are, and what the next steps are in the process,” Campbell said challenging the audience to take on all types of problems throughout the community.

This year UA recognized students, faculty and staff members who have developed engaged scholarship projects that encompass education, healthcare, economics, science and culture.

“Much of the success of this annual program and CCBP in general can be credited to Community Affairs Vice President Dr. Samory T. Pruitt,” Mullins said after the program. “Dr. Pruitt has been vice president now for 10 years. He also holds the position of vice president of the Board of Directors of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium and will assume the role of president in 2016. That is a special honor because Dr. Pruitt will succeed the legendary Hi Fitzgerald of Michigan State, the only president the organization has ever had. Of the many distinguished community-engagement leaders who could have been selected, the board chose our Dr. Pruitt.”

CCBP Students Recognized at Student Employee Event

• April 25th, 2014
• in News

By Sirui Shao
CCBP Student Assistant

Four of the Center for Community-Based Partnerships’ most outstanding student employees were among 54 students recognized on April 15 at the Student Employee of the Year awards luncheon at the North Zone in Bryant-Denny Stadium.

The awards recognize students who best represent the contributions and achievements of students who performing services with enthusiasm and dedication while balancing work with academics.

CCBP’s student employees recognized were Adam Bonertz, a freshman majoring in nursing from Fort Collins, Colo.; Ashley Loftis, a freshman in psychology from Marion, N.C.; Tera Johnson, a freshman in biology from Waynesboro, Miss.; and Antwon Key, a senior in advertising from Birmingham.

“Once again CCBP was well represented in this important event,” said Dr. Edward Mullins, one of the CCBP directors. “These four students play key roles in CCBP’s many successful projects. Congratulations to them.”

Each year UA employs over 4,000 students, offering students quality employment and professional development experience while providing faculty and staff with needed assistance in numerous areas, including office and administrative support, customer service, sales and marketing, hospitality, program and event planning, library support, research, web design, technical support and more.

The overall winner was Tyler Williams in the Department of Health Promotion & Wellness.

Community Engagement Awards Luncheon Will Be Friday, April 18

• April 14th, 2014
• in News

By Kirsten J. Barnes
CCBP Graduate Assistant

The Division of Community Affairs will hold its Eighth Annual Center for Community-Based Partnerships Excellence in Community Engagement Awards Luncheon Friday, April 18, in Sellers Auditorium of the Bryant Conference Center. The luncheon will begin at 11:30 a.m., with the Fifth Annual Engaged Research Poster Presentation beginning at 10 a.m.

This year’s keynote speaker is Dr. Katy Campbell, dean of the Faculty of Extension at the University of Alberta, Canada. Campbell, an active engaged scholar and member of the board of directors of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium (ESC), is an expert in learning and instructional design and faculty transformation. The University of Alberta will host ESC’s annual conference this year on Oct. 7–8 in Edmonton, Canada. UA hosted the ESC conference in 2012.

“We welcome Dr. Campbell to The University of Alabama,” said Dr. Samory T. Pruitt, Community Affairs vice president. “She will be this year’s host of our international Engagement Scholarship Consortium conference. We look forward to having our engaged scholars meet her and to learn from her university’s exceptional accomplishments in this field.”

Faculty/staff, students, and community partners will receive awards for projects that reflect excellence in community engagement. Individual faculty/staff, students and community partners will be recognized for distinguished work in this field.

“The projects and individuals we will honor on April 18 are at the heart of the mission of the Division of Community Affairs,” Pruitt said. “As we reapply for the five-year Carnegie Foundation’s Engaged Institution Classification, these initiatives will comprise a large part of our application.” UA received the Carnegie Engaged Institution recognition in 2008 and now must reapply.

The Community Affairs Division at UA was formed 10 years ago, and has been under Pruitt’s leadership since its inception. He also holds the position of vice president of the Board of Directors of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium and will assume the role of president in 2016.

One of the highlights of Friday’s luncheon will be the announcement of seed funds for research projects. The accepted applicants will receive amounts ranging from $2,000 to $5,000.

More than $200,000 in seed funding has been awarded since the program began in 2007, and scholars have turned those initial funds into research grants totaling nearly $3 million.

Research posters will reflect outstanding community-engaged scholarship. The emphasis of the poster will be on community-university partnerships and successful civic engagement practices.

Although the program is free and open to the public, attendees must preregister by calling or emailing the Division of Community Affairs at 205-348-8376 or community.affairs@ua.edu, respectively.

Expanded Elementary School Leadership Academy Announces Graduation Ceremony

• April 14th, 2014
• in News

By Kirsten J. Barnes
CCBP Graduate Assistant

The Parent Teacher Leadership Academy will host its graduation ceremony 6-8:30 p.m. Thursday, April 17 at the Hotel Capstone Ballroom, located at 320 Bryant Drive in Tuscaloosa.

Having launched the award-winning Parent Leadership Academy in 2007, The University of Alabama Division of Community Affairs built upon that success by creating a new program similar in nature but which incorporates another component of the school community – teachers. The PTLA expansion also includes the addition of parents from Alabaster, Lamar County, and Bessemer City School districts.

Dr. B. Joyce Stallworth, associate provost and professor of education at UA, is executive director of PTLA. She said the Teacher Leadership Academy (TLA), an offspring of the Parent Leadership Academy, came about after conversations with local school administrators, principals, teachers, past PLA participants. The inaugural class of the TLA included 24 teachers representing nine Tuscaloosa City and County elementary schools. Dr. Polly Moore, a retired school administrator who worked in both the Tuscaloosa City and County Schools, serves as the facilitator for the TLA.

“Our teacher academy was hugely successful,” said Stallworth. “The participating teachers worked diligently to design research-based family engagement practices specifically for their schools, and we are excited to celebrate their successes at the graduation ceremony. We started talking about what we could do to help parents be more engaged.” She added that becoming involved is not just the responsibility of parents, but schools also must create opportunities for involvement.

“It’s been an honor to work with each one of these teachers,” Moore said. “This ceremony is a really important way to acknowledge and celebrate all that teachers and parents continue to do to build strong family-school partnerships in their communities.”

Searching for existing parent-school partnership strategies, the group concluded that the most effective model is the National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS), founded at Johns Hopkins University in 1996.

As a member of the network, the PTLA will use the NNPS framework, a research-based approach for organizing and sustaining excellent programs of family and community involvement with the goal of increasing student success. NNPS has accumulated three decades of research on parental engagement, family engagement and community partnerships, and that will be the model the TLA will follow, Stallworth said.

Implementation of the program locally means more teachers joining more parents to be trained to be school leaders and equipped with the skills necessary to improve public education.

UA’s program will help teachers involved improve skills to increase parent and family involvement; improve communication between teachers and parents; increase support for schools through community networks, partnerships, and grants; and ultimately increase opportunities for students to succeed.

Dr. Heather Pleasants, director of the original program when it was known as the Parent Leadership Academy and current facilitator of the PLA, said, “It’s especially exciting to see how the PTLA model has encouraged dialogue and action not only within each school, but across the five districts we currently serve. The PTLA lays the groundwork for a community of practice that parents and teachers can draw on as they implement activities designed to support students.”

The PTLA is a joint initiative of the Tuscaloosa City and County School Systems, UA’s Center for Community-Based Partnerships and UA faculty in the Colleges of Education and Human Environmental Sciences. The organization utilizes research–based practices to provide professional development to parent and teacher leaders who use their knowledge to support student achievement through strong family-school partnerships.
Parent Leadership Academy graduates are as follows:

• Tuscaloosa City Schools — Alaca Averette, Anthony Bolden, Nancy Boyd, Amy Duncan, Bridgette Eatman, Matthew Eatman, Corletta Hamlett, Angela Hunter, Erika Jones, Holly McCullum, Blair Plott, LaToya Shannon, Jennifer Underwood and Dianna William-Shaw.

• Tuscaloosa County Schools — Evonda Collins, Krista Collins, Cassie Davis, Donna Davis, Tesney Davis, Angela Dickey, Mandy Dockery, Kim Easterwood, Rachel Fairchild, Kristi Garcia, Tamara Gibson, Jamee Houston, Jill Hunt, Shana Milligan, Janice Smith, Larry Williams Jr. and Jeff Wyatt.

• Alabaster County Schools — Stephanie Caldarello and Karen South.

• Bessemer City Schools — Demeria Evans and Tenika Reaser.

• Lamar County Schools — Jason Burks and Kurt Hankins.

Teacher Leadership Academy graduates are as follows: Jennifer Ayers, Laura Bechtel, Mike Bissell, Amber Boozer, Janice Calvert, Joy Collins, Lauren Craddock, Natresa Crawford, Cindy Fisk, Ginger Goodwin, Celeste Hankins, Irene Harrell, Beth Hester, Lisa Hill, Kim Lark, Tracie Latham, Janie Missouri, Madeleine Pearce, Laurie Presley, Beth Ramey, Shalonda Reed, Jean Rykaczewski, Katie Todd and Mary Williams.

PLA graduate speakers will be Flatwoods Elementary School parents Cassie Davis and Jeff Wyatt. TLA graduate speakers will be Laura Bechtel, a Tuscaloosa Magnet Elementary School parent, and Madeleine Pearce, a Myrtlewood Elementary School parent.

For more information contact the Office of Community Affairs at community.affairs@ua.ed or 205-348-8376.

Holt Community Festival Scheduled for Saturday, April 12

• April 3rd, 2014
• in News

Dr. Jonathan Holloway of Yale University Is the 2014 Realizing the Dream Distinguished Lecturer

• March 13th, 2014
• in News, Uncategorized

By Kirsten Barnes
Center for Community-Based Partnerships

TUSCALOOSA — Stillman College will host Yale University professor of history and African American studies Dr. Jonathan Holloway as the 2014 Martin Luther King Jr. Realizing the Dream Distinguished Lecturer, a project jointly sponsored by the Tuscaloosa Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Shelton State Community College, Stillman College, and The University of Alabama.

The lecture is the climax of a series of activities held on each campus throughout the day. The title of his lecture is The Right Kind of Family: Addressing the Silences in a Civil Rights Memory and will be held Tuesday, March 18, 7-8:30 p.m. in the College of Education Building on the Stillman College campus.

Holloway is professor of history, American studies and African-American studies, chair of African American studies, and master, Calhoun College at Yale University.

Holloway is author of Jim Crow Wisdom: Memory and Identity in Black America since 1940. He will address the audience about national racial issues and his own family’s experience. Holloway, who is in his 15th year at Yale, said his discussion will be based on part of his book, that evolved from a personal historical search of his own family and their Southern roots in North Carolina and Virginia.

“It’s part of a personal family story,” said Holloway, who was raised in Maryland, but lived in Montgomery, Ala., while his father studied at Maxwell Air Force Base when he was 5 and 6 years old. “That’s really where my memory begins. I don’t remember much at all before that time.”

In his book, Holloway discusses how African Americans struggle with remembering the past; therefore, many worthwhile stories, which are critical parts of their history, have been lost.

“The book deals with how African-Americans have told stories about their past; and in writing these stories I discovered my own family’s personal stories and I will weave some of those in the talk,” said Holloway, who published his first book, Confronting the Veil: Abram Harris, Jr., E. Franklin Frazier, and Ralph Bunche 1919-1941 in 2002.

Holloway’s lecture will be followed by questions from the audience and is open to the public.
The Realizing the Dream program began in 1990 at a time when many communities were just beginning to celebrate King’s legacy. Today, the program includes a concert, a legacy banquet and the lecture series.

“The Distinguished Lecture Series represents a critical component of our efforts to raise consciousness about injustice and to promote human equality, peace and social justice by creating educational and cultural opportunities for growth, empowerment and social change to enable every person to experience the bounty of life’s abundant possibilities,” said Dr. Linda R. Beito of Stillman College, chair of the Distinguished Lecture series.

In addition to Holloway’s presentation, there will be additional events on both campuses for students and faculty. For more information, contact UA’s Office of Community Affairs at 205-348-8376 or visit www.communityaffairs.ua.edu.