The Justice

Photo by David Sheppard-Brick / the Justice

A group of children, chattering in Spanish, clutch colorfully decorated airplanes as they sprint across the Great Lawn. Their mothers dance alongside them, warmly applauding as the children jump off a nearby wall, into the arms of Brandeis students.

The mothers, 18 new immigrants from Latin America, and their children came to Brandeis from a low-income housing development in Waltham to participate in a special workshop with Peruvian actress Ana Correa and to see a show during the "Acting Together on the World Stage: Setting the Scene for Peace" conference several weeks ago. While the mothers enjoyed the cultural show, students looked after their children.

In a thank-you letter to the CEL committee, Waltham Family School student Nelly Villegas wrote that a few days before the conference she felt like she was "inside a dark box" but could not think of a reason why. She said that the afternoon she spent at Brandeis made her understand how important she is, and that there were many good people around her who made her smile.

"It was a wonderful bringing together of the mothers and the children of the community with the Brandeis students and faculty. We all had learned something profound from one another," Prof. Mark Auslander (ANTH) said a week after the conference.

"I thought, 'This is why we're doing this work,' because this beautiful university is no longer an island unto itself, but it's a place where Brandeis people and our neighbors are working to create something entirely new."

Little by little over the last several years, professors and students in a myriad of departments have reached out to Waltham residents and citizens of nearby towns. Students in an environmental studies course conducted environmental testing in low-income Waltham housing developments; a sociology course looked at the impact Brandeis students have on the city's housing market; and an anthropology class partnered with the African-American community in West Medford, Mass. to document its history.

These individual efforts over the years culminated in the founding of the Community Engaged Learning initiative last year, which Auslander, the initiative's academic director, says integrates Brandeis' dedication to academic excellence and social justice with its obligation to be a part of the surrounding communities.

Continued...

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