Mission

The Dorothy Stang Center for Social Justice and Community Engagement is dedicated to increasing awareness, dialogue, and activism around the issues of social and environmental justice. Through collaboration and partnership, the Center provides leadership and opportunities for NDNU and the larger community to develop an enhanced understanding of critical social issues, a deepened sense of civic commitment, and positive social change.

What is Community Engagement?
Community Engagement describes the collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.

Our Programs

Our programs are designed to provide a synergy that advances dynamic contributions to social and environmental awareness, involvement, and change. They are organized around the three over-lapping, integrated emphases of the Center: student engagement, community partnerships and outreach, and faculty engagement. Each is designed to use our campus and community-based resources to advance the missions of NDNU and the Center.

Student Engagment Objectives:
Deepen a culture of service and activism on campus through programs and partnerships that develop and enhance an understanding of critical social issues,a deepened sense of civic commitment, and positive social change. For example:
NDNU Bonner Leaders Program - These student social activists are engaged to volunteer with NDNU's community partners for a minimum of 300 hours per year and, in return, are awarded up to $10000 in financial aid. Each Bonner Leader is trained on effective leadership techniques and is availed the resources to begin to question historical social injustices and to offer solutions for materializing equaility wherever the opportunity may manifest. In essense, we are transforming students into informed community activists
School of the Americas Watch - Keeping vigilant watch and engaging in Non-Violent Direct Action with the aim to close the School of the Americas
Alternative Spring Break - Bringing passionate service to spring break

Community Partnership Objectives:
Develop projects, programs, and events that integrate the work creativity, and energy of campus and community partners in curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular activities. For example:
Suginami Aikikai of Notre Dame de Namur University - Aikido is peace in action. It is the bringing together of two opposing perspectives when it is extremely difficult to do so. It focuses on harmony of mind, body, and soul in relation to the other. Aikido represents a worldwide community of peacemakers. It cultivates, through rigorous physical and mental training, a cohort of courageous warriors full of serenity and loving kindness. Sr. Dorothy Stang was such a warrior in the face of injustice and the suffering of others. We will work in collaboration with NDNU’s Center for Conflict Resolution create a world-class Aikido dojo. Open to NDNU students, faculty, staff and visiting practitioners from around the world
Career and Internship Fairs & Forums with NDNU Career Services - In partnership with NDNU's Career Services Department these interactive events provide the communities we serve with dynamic opportunities to engage with Community Based Organizations, Government Institutions, and For and Not-For-Profit Enterprises. Each NDNU/DSC Fair is open to NDNU students, faculty, staff, and San Mateo County community members who are seeking opportunities to serve, volunteer, intern, or work with companies that have expressed a commitment to furthering the individual as well as the common good
Sustained Outreach to and Relationship Building with Community Partners - We maintain an ever-expanding repository of community engagement opportunities that our community partners (who share a common commitment to the values, hallmarks, and missions of NDNU and the Dorothy Stang Center for Social Justice and Community Engagement) work with us to maintain. At present, we have over 135 listings of volunteer, service, internship, practicum, and career opportunities in San Mateo County

Faculty Engagement Objectives:
Our Faculty Engagement initiatives provides the infrastructure and resources to institutionalize and support Community Based Learning and Community Based Research by:

• identifying and maintaining relationships with community partners
• offering faculty resources for course planning, professional development, and connecting with community partners
• providing student-led projects with support and leadership development
• acting as communication nexus for community partners, faculty, staff and students engaged in community based learning

Community Based Learning (CBL) and Community Based Research (CBR) at NDNU are designed to enhance student learning through connecting academic learning and community engagement. It does so by creating partnerships in the community with organizations that help students achieve learning goals while simultaneously affecting positive change in that community. Our Faculty Engagement services provide professional development and mentorship to faculty and community members as they work together to develop CBL/CBR courses, with the goal of creating a community of social justice activists. For example:
Dorothy Stang Scholars Program - In 2007 the Dorothy Stang Faculty Scholars Program was established for faculty interested in teaching CBL/CBR courses. These educators, versed in the “best practices” of community based learning (CBL) and community based research (CBR), have participated in professional development activities designed to integrate these practices into their curricular outcomes. Currently, the Dorothy Stang Faculty Scholars represent NDNU's three schools, both undergraduate and graduate studies, and ten disciplines.
Environmental Justice Minor - a curriculum designed to provide leadership while increasing awareness, dialogue, and activism related to environmental justice and sustainability

Our Logo

The Dorothy Stang Center’s Logo is adapted from the Amazon’s Ceiba Tree. With its expansive branch canopy, long trunk, and large buttress roots (which are a source of protection from the elements for indigenous peoples), it is symbolic of the connection between the heavens, the earth, and the underworld. It is also evocative of the Tree of Life; a symbol which exists in almost every known culture on the planet. This powerful and ubiquitous representation of the interconnectedness of life connects the work of the Dorothy Stang Center to the sorority of organizations and individuals with missions to save Mother Earth, while fostering communities of equality and justice.

Who Was Sister Dorothy Stang?

Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, Dorothy Stang, moved to Brazil 40 years ago to help poor farmers build independent futures for their families. She was shot to death by hired gunmen on Saturday, February 12, 2005, in Anapu, Para, a section of Brazil's Amazon rainforest. A Citizen of Brazil and the United States, Sister Dorothy worked with the Pastoral Land Commission, an organization of the Catholic Church that struggles for the rights of rural workers and peasants, and defends land reforms in Brazil. Her death came less than a week after meeting with the country's human rights officials about threats to local farmers from illegal loggers and ranchers. Sister Dorothy was a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, an international religious order of about 1,800 women serving on five continents. Each Sister of Notre Dame commits her one and only life to work with others to create justice and peace for all…

Vision

By 2013, the Dorothy Stang Center for Social Justice and Community Engagement will be nationally recognized for its leadership in fostering community engagement programs, and events that inspire social and environmental justice. Housed in a facility that is organized to encourage open communication, dialogue, and activism – including community art exhibits and performances, seminars, public speaking events, and community action gatherings – the Center will become a dynamic hub that encourages efforts and fosters enthusiasm and creativity for education for the common good. The Center will bring together prominent community leaders from the worlds of the arts, community service, government, education, religion, and business to work with our students, staff, administration, faculty, trustees, and alums, and community members from other institutions and associations of higher learning, to explore new knowledge, insights, and opportunities that help make the world a better place for all.

Staff

Stuart "Eli" Latimerlo, M.A.,Director
Cheryl Joseph, Ph.D., Director
Gretchen Wehrle, Ph.D., Director, Dorothy Stang Faculty Scholars

Center Location

1500 Ralston Ave., Kane 9
Belmont, CA., 94002
+1.650.508.4120

Center Hours

Monday - 8am to 3pm
Tuesday - 8am to 3pm
Wednesday - (limited hours)
Thursday - 8am to 3pm
Friday - 8am to 3pm