Undergraduate
Saint Michael's anthropology class teams with Champlain Elementary School to support Somali-Bantu children and families
2009 Vermont Campus Compact Engaged Community Partner Award
Contact Information:
Buff Lindau, Public Relations
802.654.2536
blindau@smcvt.edu
Building on a longstanding relationship between Saint Michael's College and Champlain Elementary School involving student teachers, the two institutions have partnered again. This time students in an undergraduate anthropology course taught by Dr. Patricia Delaney teamed up for several semesters with Somali-Bantu refugee children and families to the enormous benefit of both teams. In addition to Professor Delaney, two individuals at Champlain were key in bringing about this successful partnership, Ms. Chaska Richardson, English Language Learning Coordinator, and Ms. Nimo Girreh, Family Liason.
The interactioin of these groups yielded valuable learning opportunities for the college students, friendships and school success for the children, confidence and outreach for the families, and a job well done for the school administrators. All of them were honored as winners of the Engaged Community Partner Award given at the 2009 Vermont Campus Compact Conference held at the University of Vermont Davis Center on April 1.
As the award was presented, the partnership was cited for this achievement: "Through their joint efforts many children in Champlain's ELL program as well as area refugee families, particularly the Somali-Bantu community, have benefited in countless ways from the relationships that have been forged through the careful orchestration of a variety of meaningful service-learning projects."
The project was lauded for this work: Saint Michael's College "Students mentor children, tutor adults in improving their English, provide homework help and translation assistance, and help with navigating the social services systems the refugees need to access. In turn, these experiences provide a degree of learning for Saint Michael's students which would be virtually impossible inside an isolated classroom."
Saint Michael's College, founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's Best 368 Colleges. A liberal arts, residential, Catholic college, Saint Michael's is located just outside of Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns and less than two hours from Montreal. As one of only 270 institutions nationwide with a prestigious Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus, Saint Michael's has 2,000 full-time undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 200 international students. In recent years Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Science Foundation and other grants, and Saint Michael's professors have been named Vermont Professor of the Year in four of the last eight years. The college is currently listed as one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report rankings.
Photo caption: Saint Michael's Professor Patricia Delaney (left), Champlain Elementary School staff, Chaska Richardson and Nimo Girreh with their Campus/Community Partnership Award.
Buff Lindau, Public Relations
802.654.2536
blindau@smcvt.edu
Building on a longstanding relationship between Saint Michael's College and Champlain Elementary School involving student teachers, the two institutions have partnered again. This time students in an undergraduate anthropology course taught by Dr. Patricia Delaney teamed up for several semesters with Somali-Bantu refugee children and families to the enormous benefit of both teams. In addition to Professor Delaney, two individuals at Champlain were key in bringing about this successful partnership, Ms. Chaska Richardson, English Language Learning Coordinator, and Ms. Nimo Girreh, Family Liason.The interactioin of these groups yielded valuable learning opportunities for the college students, friendships and school success for the children, confidence and outreach for the families, and a job well done for the school administrators. All of them were honored as winners of the Engaged Community Partner Award given at the 2009 Vermont Campus Compact Conference held at the University of Vermont Davis Center on April 1.
As the award was presented, the partnership was cited for this achievement: "Through their joint efforts many children in Champlain's ELL program as well as area refugee families, particularly the Somali-Bantu community, have benefited in countless ways from the relationships that have been forged through the careful orchestration of a variety of meaningful service-learning projects."
The project was lauded for this work: Saint Michael's College "Students mentor children, tutor adults in improving their English, provide homework help and translation assistance, and help with navigating the social services systems the refugees need to access. In turn, these experiences provide a degree of learning for Saint Michael's students which would be virtually impossible inside an isolated classroom."
Saint Michael's College, founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's Best 368 Colleges. A liberal arts, residential, Catholic college, Saint Michael's is located just outside of Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns and less than two hours from Montreal. As one of only 270 institutions nationwide with a prestigious Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus, Saint Michael's has 2,000 full-time undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 200 international students. In recent years Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Science Foundation and other grants, and Saint Michael's professors have been named Vermont Professor of the Year in four of the last eight years. The college is currently listed as one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report rankings.
Photo caption: Saint Michael's Professor Patricia Delaney (left), Champlain Elementary School staff, Chaska Richardson and Nimo Girreh with their Campus/Community Partnership Award.
