BSLCE Bulletin ┃ December Edition

As our Fall 2024 semester finishes, we want to express deep gratitude to our BSLCE community.?This semester, our service-learning work was busy, as we sent over 500 students into the community under the careful mentorship of our 121 student Program Managers. All of this, of course, was made possible by over 75 dedicated faculty who supported the academic service-learning work of our students and the more than 50 community partners who welcomed our Bentley community into theirs.?

As always, the students went through a carefully crafted and pedagogically tied arc in parallel to their community work—Academic Session, Program Specific Training, Midsemester Reflection, Closing Reflection, syllabus-connected assignments, and meetings with their faculty sponsor, all overseen by Samantha Eddy .?This arc ensures deepened experiences for our students, strengthens outcomes across a variety of social, cultural, academic, and civic outcomes, and is part of what makes Bentley a national thought-leader in service-learning.?

Meanwhile, our three Student Directors ( Luke Andris , Caroline Bushnell , and Trevor Hodgson ), our Mentoring Coordinators ( Gabriella Furtado and Manya Yadav ), and the BSLCE staff brought a thoughtful series of professional development trainings to our Program Managers and Committee Members, helping to deepen their leadership and civic skills.?All of this, while we were also running workshops and social justice events, organizing speakers and panels, activating the campus through our #BentleyVotes campaign, celebrating our graduating Millennium Fellowship students (more on this in January!), launching our new Bentley Social Innovation Incubator, celebrating Bentley working toward becoming the first business school in the country to achieve Fair Trade University certification. It has been a whirlwind of positive energy, impactful work, and deep community.?We want to thank each and every person who has been part of this—past and present—and we wish you each a new year filled with joy, peace, community, and deepened civic connections.

Cheers,

Jonathan

Mock Interviews

Here in the BSLCE, we stand on the shoulders of the incredible student leaders who came before us. This was on full display on November 15, when David Segill ’15, Jason Benedict ’17, and Rebecca Heller, MBA ’20 returned to campus to conduct mock interviews with our Program Managers. During these sessions, our alum gave valuable feedback to our students and helped them to position their service-learning and civic engagement work as a differentiator during interviews.

This Mock Interview event was organized by the BSLCE’s Professional Development Committee: Makayla Diogostine , Desmond Piccicuto , Utsah Thakur , and Terann Selman . We look forward to continuing to find ways to connect our current students with our amazing alumni.

Bentley Says No

This month,?the Civic Initiatives?Committee ( Madelyn Connor , Jaden Hecht , Zoe Ragland-Haines , and Kassidi Thompson ) organized the 7th?annual "Bentley Says No Campaign." Inspired by the International Day of Tolerance, this campaign encourages the Bentley community to challenge the injustices and inequities we see in our world?and reaffirm our commitments to changemaking.

The committee hosted several events, including think tanks with student organizations, #BentleySaysNo photo sessions, a social media blitz, and even a social injustice pumpkin smash. The team also collaborated?with?Global Studies department, the Office of Sustainability, the Bentley Women’s Ultimate Frisbee team, the Bentley Equestrian team, the Bentley Women’s Basketball team, the Bentley Society for Academic Integrity,?and more organizations to raise awareness about the social justice passions that Bentley community members are inspired to address.

Overlook Farm Visit

The Pathways Committee, a new addition to the BSLCE this semester, is charged with “creating personal/professional development opportunities” by developing “intentional, unique, hands-on off-campus social justice experiences off campus to help provide our student leaders with opportunities to learn about organizations in the field to inform their journey and work as Program Managers.”

On Saturday, November 18th, a dozen BSLCE students spent their day at Overlook Farm in Rutland, MA. The day began with the students meeting in the BSLCE, where the members of the Pathways Committee gave an overview of the Farm and its history steeped in social justice work, followed by a short discussion with Jonathan White on the issue of food insecurity. While at the Farm, they learned about its role in producing fresh, healthy food for those in the region who otherwise have limited economic access to it. They also became acquainted with the history of the Farm as a cornerstone of the internationally recognized work of Heifer International, and they heard about the structural issues that have made the viability of small farming more difficult in the US.

After learning all about the Farm, the group of BSLCE students contributed a few hours of hard work to help the Farm close down for the winter. The students who participated all report having developed new perspectives on food insecurity, and were grateful for the fun and educational opportunity at Overlook Farm. Thank you to our Pathways Committee— Jason Ford , Emma Massih , Katey Witz , and Helen Yac Xiquin —for planning this great experience.

Friendsgiving

On Thursday, November 14, our Sustainability Committee hosted the 4th Annual Friendsgiving Farmers Market. Co-sponsored with the Bentley University Office of Sustainability , this event encouraged Bentley community members to integrate more local, sustainable, and ethically sourced goods into Friendsgiving gatherings.

Attendees were able to buy local goods from vendors such as Treats from Scratch, The Bone Sauce, Cafe El Camino, Wilson Farm, Inc. , Curio Spice Company , The Bagel Table and Dean's Beans Organic Coffee Company . They also participated in community art projects led by BSLCE Program Managers and learned how to pickle from Student Sustainability leaders at the Office of Sustainability.

Kudos to our Sustainability Committee members— Anna Grondin , Andrew McCusker , Helen Shen , and Dally Tran —who worked for months to make this event come to life. If you live near Waltham, please stop by the 5th Annual Friendsgiving Farmers Market next November!

Closing Reflection

Critical reflection is a key component of any service-learning experience. It not only helps students to contextualize their experiences, but also helps them to broaden their perspectives. Our Program Managers facilitate reflections throughout the semester, and on Tuesday, December 3, each program gathered for a final Closing Reflection.

To prepare for Closing Reflection, our Program Managers considered the best ways for their students to contextualize their experiences. With the help of Samantha Eddy, Associate Director of Academic Programs in the BSLCE, they designed workshops to facilitate deep discussion, promote high-energy engagement, unpack challenges, and engage groups of various sizes. These reflections engaged hundreds of service-learning credit students in conversations about social impact, identity, and community.

We appreciate all that these students have brought to our programs this semester, and we hope to see many returning applicants for service-learning programming in the spring 2025 semester!

Staff Spotlight

On Wednesday, December 4, Bria Milbery (she/her) was celebrated for her 10 years of outstanding contributions to the Bentley campus and beyond. Looking back, it is hard to properly relay the programs that Bria has built and helped to build, and harder still to fully describe the culture shift she has helped to create in the BSLCE and at Bentley. When Bria was hired for a new position in the BSLCE in 2014, she was charged with helping to create and oversee Civic Initiatives and Programs, and quickly this work helped us to grow from the Bentley Service-Learning Center to the Bentley Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Center. Bringing her years of social justice work and expertise in developing student leadership for social change, Bria quickly helped to transform our BSLCE student committee structure to include more civic engagement work.

Working with Bria, students on BSLCE committees have created annual events such as BUIILD (raising funds for sustainable development projects in partner communities), Bentley Says No (celebrating the International Day of Tolerance), the annual Friendsgiving Farmers Market and Business for the Greater Good Fair, a series of ongoing World Days (educating the campus about international human rights issues), and many more civic events and initiatives. Bria also helped to launch our first ever Social Justice Lounge speaker series, our #BentleyVotes campaign, and our mentoring program for new Program Managers.

Perhaps the biggest accomplishment stemming from Bria’s work and leadership, alongside our amazing student leaders, has been building the annual Fair Trade Fair. Now the second-largest Fair Trade Fair in the country, this pillar event has provided Bentley community members with more ways to embrace and support "good business." Just last April, Bentley committed to becoming certified as the first business school in the country to achieve Fair Trade University certification. (See the October 2024 Newsletter for more details). Congratulations and gratitude to Bria on being recognized for her decade of impactful work!

Thank You!

We always appreciate the support of our community, and we have certainly felt your support this fall semester. Thank you for all of your contributions to make the BSLCE even better. Additionally, thank you to Gavin Conway for planning the content for each BSLCE newsletter.

We have one final item to share with you. If you are looking for some last-minute holiday gifts, check out this Ethical Shopping Guide, curated by our very own Executive Director, Dr. Jonathan White.

We hope you enjoy your holidays! You are welcome to e-mail us at [email protected], call us at 781-891-2170, or drop by Morison 101 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on weekdays; however, we will be enjoying some time off from December 21 through January 6. Please enjoy the end of your year, and we hope to see you soon!