Disney heiress to speak at EMU commencement
Her ties to the first family of entertainment are strong but this Disney focuses on brave women in peacebuilding rather than cartoons and children’s films.
Abigail Disney, a philanthropist, scholar and award-winning filmmaker, will give the annual commencement address at Eastern Mennonite University 0n Sunday, April 29. “EMU is a remarkable institution, an island of sanity in a country that often has difficulty crediting the discourse of peace,” said Disney.
“It recognized in Leymah Gbowee, an extraordinary gift for activism and principled nonviolent leadership long before either I or the Nobel Committee did, and for every Leymah that has risen to prominence from EMU I happen to know there are dozens of others quietly laboring in obscurity to build peace.” Continue reading “Disney heiress to speak at EMU commencement” »
Famed choir now offered for boys
The acclaimed Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir, celebrating its 20th year, is offering a unique opportunity for boys ages 8-13 to share their vocal talents.
Led by Julia J. White, Artistic Director and Founder of the SVCC, the Shenandoah Valley Boychoir is a six-week experience where boys will learn basic music reading and vocal skills and engage in a variety of boy-friendly repertoire.
“We have been wanted to do this for many years and would be delighted if this opened up options for SVCC in the future,” said White. “There has been so much positive feedback already that we are hopeful to be able to have two age groupings of the Boychoir.” Continue reading “Famed choir now offered for boys” »
USDA aids Valley-grown blueberries
A grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will help feed an organic blueberry revolution in the Shenandoah Valley.
“Sustaining Organic Blueberry Production: Analysis of Practices and Assessing Outcomes,” a research projected directed by Roman Miller, PhD, professor of biology at Eastern Mennonite University, will look at the merits of organic horticulture as it relates to blueberries.
“[The $26,300 grant] will fund a model system of quantifying sustainable blueberry production as a specialty crop,” said Miller. “In addition, it will provide support for students doing horticulture research, create a model system for area farmers interesting in diversifying their operations and encourage the local community on organic agriculture.”
The EMU team of Miller, chemistry professors Stephen Cessna and Tara Kishbaugh, will be overseeing the project. Participating in the project are EMU student assistants Jonathan Fretz and Travis Riesen, Virginia Cooperative Extension representatives, Eric Bendfeldt and Amber Vallotton and Kevin Damian, president of Virginia Association for Biological Farming.
A recent Food Marketing Institute study found a rising demand for organic products, with over 80 percent of grocery stores featuring an organic section as of 2008.
“There continues to be a huge demand for small fruits and vegetables, particularly for blueberries, strawberries and brambles,” said Bendfeldt. A principal goal of the project is to develop a model system of quantifying sustainable organic blueberry production in the Shenandoah Valley. Research will integrate plant foliar nutrient, growth, and vigor analysis; measurement of photosynthesis; and berry quality and composition to determine quantity and quality of the berries.
“Since there are limited sources of local blueberries in the Valley, the project will fill some of the gap between supply and demand of local and organic produce,” said Kishbaugh. “Additionally, the information at the project website will be an invaluable resource for gardeners and others interested in raising blueberries themselves or about the process of organic farming.”
The information from the project could also motivate farmers to diversify their current agricultural systems, according to Cessna. “Through this project we are hoping to become better informed about best practice for highbush blueberry growers and which soil and plants work best in the Valley,” said Cessna.
While the grant officially began on Nov. 1, and will run until Oct. 31, 2013, preparation for the project began several years ago. Miller started in 2008 by setting up an experimental design for growing blueberries at Knoll Acres, an organic farm four miles outside Harrisonburg.
“My initial experimental design was to select a hillside site which is rocky and not tillable for the organic plot,” said Miller. “Four subplots were formed based on the soil amendment treatments: horse manure compost; sheep manure compost; pine needle compost; and a commercial compost, Planters Choice.”
About 180 bushes were planted in December 2009, 160 of which were in organic plots representing five cultivars: Duke, Jersey, Bluegold, Chandler and BlueCrop. Soil conditions and plant growth were monitored and an irrigation system was installed during the 15 months after planting.
“This is a long-term project to demonstrate that a farmer can initiate a small commercial organic blueberry operation that is sustainable and cost effective,” said Miller. “These blueberry bushes will likely be productive for 20 years or more and the grant will support the extended analysis that most horticulturalists do not bother doing because of time, labor and direct expenses involved.”
The project will be beneficial to local farmers and consumers in Virginia, according to Bendfeldt. “Farmers and consumers are keenly interested in and aware of best agricultural practices, economic and environmental sustainability and the potential health benefits of organic blueberry production,” said Bendfelt.
Bendfelt feels the project will allow students to work in a “living laboratory” and assess the research they gather and the impact it has on development and production differentiation for farmers.
“The proposal builds on the values and ethos of EMU’s efforts to engage their students and the community in sustainable agriculture, environmental stewardship and creation care,” said Bendfelt.
EMU basketball looks to build on recent success
Replacing the most successful class in EMU history is no easy task, but that’s exactly what men’s basketball coach Kirby Dean has on his plate for the 2011-12 season.
Last year Eastern Mennonite finished 22-5 with a starting lineup of five seniors, including ODAC Player of the Year Todd Phillips. Over their four years, the core went 71-38, gathered three of the program’s ten winning campaigns in 45 years, and earned the only trip the men’s team has ever made to the NCAA Championships.
That group is gone, but hopefully has laid a legacy which this year’s men can pick up. As part of that re-tooling process, however, the Runnin Royals must replace 79% of their offense.
“The reality is, those five changed the culture at EMU,” Dean said of his departed players, which also includes George Johnson, D.J. Hinson, Orie Pancione and Eli Crawford. “I give them all the credit in the world for what’s happened here. But the good news is that we had some kids who were role players the last year or two who on other teams could have been focal points on the offense. So while we lost a lot we’ve got some guys who can do a lot more than what they’ve done.”
Leading the returners is athletic junior Andrew Thorne (Front Royal, VA/Skyline). The 6-4 wing shot 51% from the floor last winter, averaging 7.1 points and 4.2 rebounds.
“Andrew is in a zone where he wants to be one of the best players in the league, and I think he has that potential,” said Dean. “He’s just been driven. He’s lifting, he running, he’s just doing all the little things. He’s a prime example of someone who’s put things together off the floor as well. With him, the better student he has become the better player he has become.”
Forward Owen Longacre (Telford, PA/Christopher Dock) is another top returner and the only other returning junior on the roster. Longacre has been nagged by injuries at EMU but averaged 3.2 points and 1.5 rebounds last year. Dean said his 6-6 player just needs to stay on the court.
“His big thing is just staying healthy,” explained EMU’s ninth-year coach. “If he just can practice for a month straight and then string things together, he’s got a chance to be a really solid ODAC player. He’s going to do all those things that get you to the winner’s circle.”
Four sophomores remain from last year’s touted recruiting class and all of them should compete for regular minutes in EMU’s up-tempo system. R.J. Sims averaged 4.9 points and 1.7 rebounds while getting a handful of spot starts last year. Adam Burroughs (Roanoke, VA/Northside) (2.2 PPG), Dajon Daniel (Fredericksburg, VA/Mountain View) (2.4 RPG, 1.6 PPG) and Randell Smith (Woodbridge, VA/Garfield) (2.2 PPG) all expect to show marked improvement as they get more playing time.
Because of the departed seniors, this year’s newcomers will also get more playing time than in years past. Some of the new faces have more experience than others, however, as three of the ten on the varsity roster transferred to EMU from prep schools or other colleges and two more are local players who return to hoops after time away from the game.
Headlining the class are 6-6 David Falk (Madison, VA/Madison/Hargrave Military), 6-6 Ryan Yates (Alexandria, VA/T.C. Williams/Massanutten Military) and 6-2 James Williams (Capitol Heights, MD/Archbishop Carroll). 6-7 J.R. Gray (Staunton, VA/R.E. Lee/Mary Washington) could also add to the inside game as the Mary Washington transfer learns the EMU system.
Even with the added height, Dean won’t slow down the style of play which has turned the Royals in the Runnin Royals.
“When you have depth like that,” he said, “if you can get guys to play as hard as they can play then they are going to need to get a rest. But that’s when the other team has the same guy on the floor and getting more worn out.”
EMU’s coach said the team’s height will add a new dimension this year.
“A key for us is extra possessions,” he explained. “The previous years we’ve done that through turnovers. We’ll still turn some people over, but this year we can also get some of those possessions from offensive rebounds.”
Dean knows that with many of his players finally getting consistent playing time on the collegiate floor there will be growing pains.
“We’re a puzzle that still hasn’t been put together, but has some really nice looking pieces to it,” he said. “I don’t know how good we’ll be in November, but we’ll be so much better in February. So the better we can be in November, the scarier we’ll be in February. We’d be naïve to think we’ll be as good as Virginia Wesleyan and Hampden-Sydney at the beginning of the year, but I’m hoping that by tourney time people are looking at the standings and hoping they don’t have to play us in the postseason.”
The Runnin Royals begin that journey at home, taking on Shenandoah on Tuesday, Nov. 15. The men also host an exhibition on Thursday, Nov. 10, against area alumni, including last year’s seniors.
EMU alum featured in The Atlantic
Isabel Castillo, who holds a ’07 degree in social work from Eastern Mennonite University, is recognized in the November issue of The Atlantic as one of the “21 brave thinkers of 2011.”
Castillo’s life was summarized in magazine by Jose Antonio Vargas, a former Washington Post reporter who identified himself as an undocumented immigrant to the United States, like Castillo.
“Isabel Castillo was 6 years old when she was smuggled across the Mexican border,” Vargas wrote. “While her parents picked apples and the family sold tacos out of their home in the Shenandoah Valley, Isabel dreamed big — but only so big. After all, she did not have a Social Security number.
“Unable to apply for financial aid, she worked for a year, off the books, to save money for college. After graduating magna cum laude from Eastern Mennonite University in 2007, she was unable to legally find a job.”
Vargas praised Castillo for refusing to fearfully hide in the shadows and for pressing Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell in a public meeting to endorse the DREAM Act. This act would give undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children a path to legal residency.
Since the summer of 2010, Castillo has become a national leader as a highly public advocate for undocumented immigrants. She was the 2011 commencement speaker at the University of San Francisco, which conferred an honorary doctorate on her. She was featured in a Feb. 20, 2011, New York Times article, “Dream Act Advocate Turns Failure into Hope” and on Telemundo, the second-largest Spanish-language content producer in the world.
Recently Harvard Divinity School chose Castillo to be one of 40 invitees to its 2011 Diversity and Explorations Program to be held Nov. 8-10, 2011. Castillo’s invitational letter cited her “combination of academics and interests in social justice and diversity, as well as [her] desire to explore connections with graduate studies in theology, religion, or ministry.”
Open enrollment at EMU’s Early Learning Center
The Early Learning Center at Eastern Mennonite University has openings in enrollment for 2-, 3- and 4-year-old children for the 2011-12 academic year.
The Center is a child-centered, developmentally appropriate preschool program for children ages 2 to 5. The pre-K program runs September through mid-May each school year. The program operates in facilities at Park View Mennonite church north of the campus.
More information on the early learning center is available by calling the education department at 540-432-4142.
EMU alum starts Massanutten Field Hockey League
Eastern Mennonite field hockey alumnus Janelle Hurst-Mazariegos (’92) is starting up a league to help introduce local people to the sport. The Massanutten Field Hockey League will start with practices the week of Aug. 29 and males and females in grades 6-9 are invited to join the league. Games will start that weekend.
All games will be played Saturday mornings on EMU’s turf field, with the first games on Saturday, Sept. 3.
The league gives local kids a chance to have fun building character, stamina and friendships while learning the great game of field hockey.
Eastern Mennonite has had a highly successful field hockey program since 1970, although many of the players actually come from eastern Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Building bridges to EMU
The feeding patterns of indigenous clams, human respiration, measurements and robotics were just some of the topics covered during the 2011 Summer Bridge Program at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU).
“We try to expose students to the core majors we provide and let them experience what each has to offer,” said Roman Miller, PhD, EMU professor of biology.
The Summer Bridge Program (SBP), June 25 – July 16, allows students from Blue Ridge Community College, Bridgewater College, EMU and James Madison University to experience all fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). EMU became a part of the program thanks to a grant from the National Science Foundation.
“The students attend a morning math session at Blue Ridge Community College before traveling to a specific college for that week,” added Miller. “They interact with their peers and instructors while getting acquainted with each campus on a week-to-week basis.”
The three-week program features field trips, educational seminars and recreational activities in addition to working in the classroom. Students are able to earn college credit hours upon completion.
Studying and Problem Solving
The 50 students that attended this year’s program were grouped into “organic cells,” or subgroups, and spent a day with an instructor in their field of expertise.
Jim Yoder, PhD, EMU professor of biology, gave a discourse on the difference in size and feeding rates of indigenous clams to Asian clams – an invasive species found locally in Virginia. Students analyzed the digestive rates and graphed their results to formulate a conclusion.
“Working with live clams, graphing the data and seeing their internal structure makes for an interesting lab,” said Yoder.
EMU professor of physics Leah Boyer, PhD, and professor of biology, Greta Ann Herin, PhD, had their respective classes work with alternate forms of measurement. Boyer instructed her class on calculating the rate of projectiles, using geometry to figure the angle and pitch of an object.
Herin’s class measured respiratory capacity – breathing rate while resting, holding their breath or following an exercise.
“Students automatically come with judgments as to what is good or bad and what is viewed as healthy or not,” said Herin. “These exercises demonstrate to the students what a huge capacity the human body has and how we are designed to move.”
Down the hall, robotics took center stage as EMU professors of computer sciences Dee Weikle, PhD, and Charles Cooley taught an experimental lab in writing programmable code. The code relayed from a computer to a robotic car, giving the car a command to turn or accelerate.
“Problem solving skills and building connections between the students was one of the focuses of this lab,” said Cooley. “We wanted them to gain exposure to all aspects of STEM related fields and have fun in the process.”
Growth in the Program
“The program has experienced continued growth in the three years that we’ve been apart of it,” said Miller. “We have seen an increase in students who want to attend EMU and become STEM majors.”
Of the students that attended this year’s program, 10 were registered to attend EMU in the fall.
“Our numbers and the quality of student that we bring in continue to climb throughout the time we’ve been involved,” said Miller.
Herin agreed, adding, “the students that are coming to EMU continue to stand out from their peers due to their skills and knowledge in each field.”
Future Summer Bridge Programs
The National Science Foundation, in partnership with the four area colleges, announced a two-year extension on the grant that allowed EMU to be included in the Summer Bridge Program.
“This cross-institutional collaboration has not happened in 20 or more years,” said Miller. “Bob Kolvoord and JMU were big factors in inviting EMU to participate in this program and making this work.”
The extension and the prospect of future EMU students being involved in the program will continue to pay dividends to the university, says Miller.
“The program has been a huge recruiting tool and it benefits the incoming class of students who built relationships with professors and have a grasp on what it takes to be a STEM major at EMU.”
EMU grieves peacebuilder’s death in Kenya
Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, a former student and instructor in the Eastern Mennonite University’s (EMU) Summer Peacebuilding Institute, died Thursday, July 14, in Nairobi, Kenya, from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. She was 46.
Abdi was a student at the peacebuilding institute in 1998 and 2009 and an instructor during the 2011 Summer Peacebuilding Institute. Abdi also participated in the Women in Peacebuilding Symposium, which was held June 9-11 at EMU.
“Dekha’s death is a great loss to her family, to EMU and to peacebuilding efforts in Kenya and the Horn of Africa,” said Fred Kniss, provost and acting president of EMU. . “She leaves four children – Kaltuma, 22; Ibrahim, 19; Noora, 14; and Balquesa, 11.”
Abdi’s husband died in the same accident that took her life.
Abdi’s work on behalf of peace in East Africa and the well-being of traditional pastoral peoples around the world brought her into association with local and international agencies in Cambodia, Somalia, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Germany, Ethiopia, South Africa, the Netherlands, Zimbabwe, the United Kingdom, Uganda, Ghana and Kenya.
Abdi received the 2007 Right Livelihood Award – often described as the alternative Nobel Peace Prize – which is bestowed on those “working on practical and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the world today.”
The Right Livelihood Foundation website describes Abdi as “a global peacemaker…her comprehensive methodology combines grassroots activism, a soft but uncompromising leadership and a spiritual motivation drawing on the teachings of Islam.”
Abdi also was one of 1,000 women nominated as a group for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 and was named the Kenyan Peace Builder of the Year in 2005.
Her most recent work included development of Wajir Peace University in northeastern Kenya, often in collaboration with several colleagues at EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, including long-time friend Janice Jenner.
In the book Working with Conflict, Skills and Strategies for Peace (Zed Books, 2000), Abdi wrote about her experiences as a mediator and offered insights into the roots of and solutions to conflicts.
Abdi served on several boards including the Nomadic and Pastoralists Development Initiative in Nigeria and the Berghof Center in Germany. Abdi is also a founding member of the Coalition of Peace in Africa (COPA) and the Global Peace Practitioners Network “ACTION” (Action for Conflict Transformation).
Abdi, a Muslim woman of Somali ethnic origins, died in a Nairobi hospital; she worked from her home in Mombasa, Kenya.
19th EMU Festival pairs Bach and Mozart
Christine Fairfield (l.), soprano; and Carrie Stevens, alto, sing a duet with organ chorale during the Bach Cantata 172 at the Leipzig service. Cellist, Paige Riggs, and bass player, Peter Spaar, are long-time Bach Festivalparticipants. Photo by Jim Bishop.
“Great music. Great musicians. Nourishment for the soul.” Artistic director and conductor Kenneth J. Nafziger made these promises to the audience at the start of the 19th annual Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival.
In keeping with Nafziger’s comments, the June 12-19 festival at Eastern Mennonite University featured works by Bach and Mozart, energetic vocal and instrumental performances and a closing Leipzig worship service with a homily by Margaret Foth.
The opening concert included Bach’s “Concerto in C Minor for Violin, Oboe and Strings” and Mozart’s “Sinfonia Concertante for Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn and Orchestra.” But performances of works by Chopin, Rachmaninov and Haydn provided some of the liveliest moments.
Filling in at the last minute for another musician, pianist Naoko Takao of Miami offered rousing solo performances of Chopin’s “Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, Op. 60″ and three short works by Rachmaninov. And cellist Paige Riggs of Pittsburgh received sustained applause for her performance of Haydn’s “Concerto in C Major for Cello and Orchestra.”
Vocal music played a prominent role in the June 17 and 18 evening concerts. The Saturday program featured Mozart’s challenging “Missa in C Minor” and the second act from his Marriage of Figaro, while the Friday concert included Bach’s “Cantata No. 49,” Ich geh und suche mit Verlangen and Gian Carlo Menotti’s humorous operetta, “The Telephone,” with soloist Sharla Nafziger, soprano, and Thomas Jones, baritone.
Also during the week, festival musicians offered solo and chamber group performances at free noon concerts Monday through Saturday. The standing-room-only events were held in the beautiful sanctuary of Asbury United Methodist Church in downtown Harrisonburg and underwritten by local businesses and individual “friends of Bach.”
Again this year, the hands of time were pushed backward as EMU’s Lehman Auditorium was transformed into St. Thomas Lutheran Church in 18th century Leipzig, Germany, where Bach was cantor and composed a cantata for each Sunday’s service.
According to the program notes, the city of Leipzig’s town fathers “reluctantly accepted Bach as their third choice because no one of better qualifications was available” and for nearly 27 years “had at their service the greatest church musician and quite possibly the greatest musician the world has ever known.”
The well-attended Leipzig service featured Bach’s “Cantata 172,” with the festival choir and orchestra and soloists Christine Fairfield, soprano; Carrie Stevens, alto; Daniel Buchanan, tenor and Thomas Jones, bass and Marvin Mills, organist.
Mills, organist at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Kensington, Md., played Mozart’s “Church Sonata No. 15 in C Major for Organ and Strings” as the prelude to the service.
Former radio speaker Margaret Foth of Harrisonburg, who works with EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) program, gave the homily on the theme, “How is it that we hear, each of us, in our own language?”
Foth shared stories of students from around the world who came to study and learn peacebuilding skills in the CJP program at EMU and returned to their home countries
“The language of peacebuilding is courageous and risk taking; it’s breaking down prejudices with new friendships; it is listening deeply,” Foth said. “The language of peacebuilding may open the depth of our pain to the possibility of healing and transformation.
“The language of peacebuilding is invitational – ‘all are welcome’ – and the Holy Spirit is healing,” Foth said. “Today we celebrate the Spirit of God moving in our world, so that each may hear in our own place, the sounds of peace.”
For Douglas Kehlenbrink of Alexandria, Va., principal bassoonist in the festival orchestra, coming back to Harrisonburg to participate in the Bach Festival is “a pilgrimage, a spiritual journey.
“There’s a spiritual center here in this place,” said Kehlenbrink, who has played in 18 of the 19 festivals. “The noon chamber music programs are a highlight for me, plus I love the music of Bach and Mozart.”
Lisa Mast of Bridgewater, Va., a member of the Bach Festival board, felt “honored” to sing soprano in the festival choir and have opportunity to work with Ken Nafziger. Mast, a 2005 EMU alumna, is choral director at Ft. Defiance (VA) High School.
“It’s amazing how a diverse group of people can come together, rehearse music of this caliber and then sing together publicly in this unique setting,” Mast said. “It was a joy to be part of it.”
Next year’s program, to be held June 10-17, 2012, will mark the 20th anniversary of the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival and will feature a commissioned work by guest cellist and composer Eugene Friesen. Friesen, a faculty member faculty of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass., who lives in Vermont, was a featured performer at the 2008 festival.
Story by Dave Graybill & Jim Bishop
Sam Gbaydee Doe and Al Fuertes: Two SPI learners/teachers who keep coming back
Al Fuertes, who taught the "Trauma Awareness and Transformation" course at SPI this year, enjoys the opening welcome session of the 2011 Summer Peacebuilding Institute. Behind Al is Babu Ayindo, another MA graduate of EMU, who taught "Arts and Media-based Peacebuilding." Photo by Jon Styer.
For both Sam Gbaydee Doe and Al Fuertes, the vocation of peacebuilding was forged in the trauma of civil war. In Doe’s native Liberia, 10 percent of the population perished. For Fuertes, growing up on the Philippine island Mindanao, one of the world’s longest recent wars seemed “a given.”
Now, over more than a decade, both men have been familiar faces at Eastern Mennonite University’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute in Harrisonburg, Va., first as students and later – including this summer – faculty.
Doe sought a place to recover from the trauma in Liberia, as well as seek ways to prevent such disasters, when he first attended SPI In 1996.
After earning a master’s from EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Doe worked with later CJP graduate Emmanuel Bombande to launch the West African Network for Peacebuilding. WANEP works with intergovernmental bodies on human rights and education while training local volunteers to spot “early warning signs” of violence.
Doe received EMU’s Distinguished Service Award in 2002 and earned a doctorate in 2010 from the UK’s University of Bradford. He has mentored fellow-African SPI alumni including Leymah Gbowee, who organized Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace; fellow-Liberian Mack Mulbah, who established a peer mediation program; and Takwa Suifon, a research analyst from Cameroon.
Since 2005, Doe has worked for the United Nations, serving in Fiji before becoming a Development and Reconciliation Advisor in Sri Lanka in 2007. In the wake of Sri Lanka’s long civil war, challenges include resolving conflict between Tamil and Sinhalese communities.
In his “Conflict-Sensitive Development and Peacebuilding” SPI course this May, Doe had students address the interrelated problems of “Tala,” a fictional name for a country struggling with issues resembling Uganda’s.
Students find that “development” in less-powerful nations may entail profiteers exploiting a less-regulated environment: “You’re not building factories; you’re only taking the trees, taking the oil. It leaves a lot of people disempowered,” Doe says. He hopes CJP, like WANEP, can evolve to “engage on the policy level.”
Reflecting on a recent visit to his extended family, Doe says, “Liberia is on a path of healing, but healing takes a long time.”
In May, as Al Fuertes finished teaching his SPI course, “Trauma Awareness and Transformation,” he was preparing to lead a George Mason University student group to the Philippines, where he directs a global education program.
Fuertes was a youth-camp leader, organizer and pastor in Mindanao before his first visit to EMU (then Eastern Mennonite College) as an undergraduate with the1990-91 International Visitors Exchange Program.
He has participated in SPI as a student, dorm resident assistant, and — from 2001-04 as well as this summer — teacher.
Meanwhile, Fuertes has taught for 10 years in GMU’s multidisciplinary New Century College on topics including the refugee experience, forgiveness in divided communities, trauma healing and spirituality. He earned his doctorate at GMU, where he received the 2008 Teaching Excellence Award.
Fuertes’ book, Community-Based Warviews, focuses on displaced communities with whom he has worked: Karen refugees (many having lived 40 years in camps on the Thai-Burmese border) and those in Mindanao. He also writes about the importance of humanitarian groups asking beneficiaries what they need rather than deciding for them. He’s working on a book that draws from his popular spirituality class.
In teaching, Fuertes employs hands-on activities, storytelling and reflection. “Trauma,” he notes, is not only a clinical condition but one that affects whole communities. In SPI courses, despite the shared peacebuilding commitment, he finds, “Some members of a class may meet people there whom they believed to be their enemies.” That is how powerful learning challenges may begin.
Story by Chris Edwards
EMU launches community health pilot project
Kate Clark, coordinator for the new community health services project, reviews protocols with (l. to r. around table): Reem Mohammed, Tina Beachy, Paloma Saucedo and Salime Almanzar. Photo by Lindsey Kolb
The scenario is commonplace. A young mother or couple, perhaps new to the area and not fluent in English, has what is perceived as an emergency health care situation with their child and either doesn’t know where to turn or shows up at the hospital emergency room. There, it is discerned that the “urgent” need really wasn’t a crisis.
This situation, repeated in towns and cities everywhere, may be addressed and eased locally through a community health worker pilot project being launched in June.
The nursing program at Eastern Mennonite University and the Harrisonburg Community Health Center (HCHC) have been awarded a $115,000 grant to train lay persons to be “front line workers” on the HCHC health services team. The funds from a private foundation were provided by Dr. Arthur (Tim) Garon, provost at the University of Virginia
Ann G. Hershberger, professor of nursing at EMU, set up the pilot training program in cooperation with HCHC officials.
According to Dr. Hershberger, EMU’s nursing department will manage the project, working in conjunction with HCHC in an eight-week training program for the four health care workers as well as a two-week field/clinic training program
Kate Cockley Clark, who has been hired as project coordinator, is a 2007 graduate of EMU with a BS in nursing and graduated May 21 from the University of Virginia with a MSN degree in public health nursing. She is also joining EMU’s nursing department faculty part time this fall, teaching community health and introductory undergraduate clinicals.
“The primary aim of this project is to assist local individuals and families who need some extra attention to navigate the health care system, and particularly ” Clark said. “We believe that EMU was approached to start this program because it fits with the university’s mission and service values.
“Experience with similar projects in other locales has shown this to be a cost-effective program,” she added.
Clark has led an eight-week training sessions at EMU using available curricula with the four community health workers. They will also complete a two-week field-clinic training session with HCHC. Clark will continue to supervise the workers and provide followup training when they begin working.
The community health care workers who are completing training are Paloma Saucedo, a native of Mexico who is fluent in English and Spanish; Salime Almanzar (Spanish/English) from the Dominican Republic; Reem Mohammed from Iraq (English/Arabic); and Tina Beachy (English/Kurdish).
Once the program is under way in June, the workers will proactively make calls and visits and respond to family calls. Their training enables them to follow protocols for about 25 different common health conditions as well as work with families to develop health plans and goals to promote and improve health.
The initial project will run one year, and funding is being sought to extend the life of the program.
“This program will not only improve the health of participating families, but will also promote health in the broader community,” Clark said. “By teaching healthy practices and lifestyles, the community health workers will not only affect the lives of the families they are directly working with, but also the friends, relatives and neighbors of those families.
“The collaborative nature between HCHC and EMU adds strength to the program,” Clark added. Both EMU and HCHC are well established and trusted organizations in the Harrisonburg community. In working together, they can more effectively meet their mutual goal of improving and promoting health for the local community.”
