bing pixel

Sabo Center News

Should higher education reject elitism and return to solving real community problems?

Posted on

In February, Harry Boyte and Augsburg President Paul Pribbenow were interviewed for a Civic Caucus Focus on Human Capital. Here’s an excerpt from the summary:

According to Harry Boyte, senior scholar at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, we must think of colleges and universities as more than a private good, more than a ticket to a job, but as a public resource. He believes that is the legacy of the land-grant tradition, in which there was a great sense of interactivity, partnership and collaborative work and university scholars were seen as grounded in the public problems of society. But he says that vision goes against the conventional wisdom of higher education today, where elitism has become common, along with detachment from community engagement.

Augsburg President Paul Pribbenow says colleges can play a critical role both in equipping students to go out into the world with a sense of agency, no matter what their profession is, and in finding ways to be part of the community.

 

 

Campus Kitchen goes “green” at Brian Coyle Center!

Posted on

plates

This semester, Campus Kitchen has been able to resurrect a practice that’s both earth-saving and cost-saving with the youth at Brian Coyle Center. A year ago, an intern created a reusable plate system to use with the youth, but the system (and plates) got lost in transitions through the summer and fall. Now, thanks to a donation from Seward Community Co-op, thoughtful clean-up skills from the youth, and a little extra elbow grease from our current interns and volunteers, re-usable plates have returned!

The youth are back in the habit of saving plates every day, and Campus Kitchen students have been able to use the dishwasher at Brian Coyle to make clean-up efficient and effective. These cheery green plates are now saving about 100 Styrofoam plates from a landfill each week!

photo 3

DEMOCRACY’S EDUCATION – TAKING THE FUTURE IN OUR HANDS

Posted on

Presented by the Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship and the Augsburg Education Department

March 31, 2015, 4:00-6:00 p.m. | East Commons, Christensen Center

Augsburg’s Department of Education and Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship invite you to a celebration of Democracy’s Education, the new book collection edited by Harry C. Boyte, Senior Scholar of the Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship.

This event will feature Special Education at Augsburg and its partners as outstanding examples of equipping students to change the world of work as civic innovators and citizen leaders.

Cedar Riverside Youth Workers Collaborative.

Posted on

Last week was the first convening of a Cedar Riverside Youth Workers Collaborative (facilitated by the Youth Coordinating Board), a collection of individuals who live or work in the neighborhood and work directly with young people here. This group, which we hope to host at Cedar Commons sometimes, will gather every month to discuss ways that our youth work connects, ways that we can collaborate to strengthen each others efforts and ways that we can support each other. There are many exciting ways that Augsburg students might be able to connect to the youth work represented at these meetings, and I (Rachel Svanoe) was there to explore the possibilities. Connectedness and collaboration is growing and we look forward to seeing what new initiatives will emerge, connecting Auggies with important neighborhood work!

Campus Kitchen Expands Outreach To Seniors

Posted on

 

CK student leaders deliver senior meals with nutritional information
Sophomore Rhys Dilenschneider and freshman Xochil Martinez delivered a special brochure with nutritional information as part of our initiative to expand outreach to seniors this year.

Every Thursday, Augsburg Campus Kitchen students package and deliver balanced meals to 50 seniors in our community. Thanks to a partnership between The Campus Kitchens Project and the AARP Foundation, we are excited to expand these meal deliveries and offer new programming, including nutrition education and themed community meals, to further combat food insecurity and anti-isolation.

This semester, sophomore Rhys Dilenschneider is leading these Thursday delivery shifts and working on nutrition education opportunities. For our first foray into nutrition education, Rhys created a handout explaining the nutritional components of a pumpkin/yam/chickpea patty that sophomore Hannah Thiry and cooking shift volunteers whipped up especially for seniors. Next on the horizon is a collaborative workshop, where Campus Kitchen leaders and seniors at Ebenezer Tower Apartments can share tips and techniques while learning to cook an easy meal together.

Picture6
Sophomore Hannah Thiry and the cooking shift crew prepared vitamin and protein packed pumpkin/yam/chickpea patties especially for our seniors.

One of our newer community partners, Common Bond Communities Seward Tower West, is eager to bring more of their residents into this program. Already, they have 14 residents on a waiting list to receive meals. Because Rhys and the other Campus Kitchen student leaders are on a tight schedule doing deliveries between classes, we are looking for a few more volunteers before we can start serving our neighbors Seward Tower West.

If you’re interested in helping us expand our outreach by volunteering or assisting with nutrition education, contact Allyson at campuskitchen@augsburg.edu. And stay tuned to our facebook page or Twitter for more news from our work with seniors and other neighbors!

First Cedar Riverside Newsroom Cafe at Cedar Commons

Posted on

Last Wednesday over the lunch hour, we hosted the first Cedar Riverside Newsroom Cafe at Cedar Commons. Newsroom Cafes, hosted by the Twin Cities Daily Planet in a different location each week, are opportunities for community members to meet with editor Allison Herrera, other staff, and neighbors to engage in a conversation about stories they would like to see covered in the Daily Planet. Ideally participants step up to help report those stories (this could take the form of an assigned article, a community voices piece, a video, a photo essay, etc.) but they can also join the conversation just to highlight important happenings in their community that deserve the attention of the press!

Just as the Northside Newsroom Cafe has been framed as an opportunity to counter the negative narratives about North Minneapolis and uplift all of the positive things happening everyday, this Newsroom will be an opportunity for us to shift the narratives about our neighborhood which is similarly stigmatized. This gathering is open to anyone who may want to write for the Daily Planet, learn about the story publication process as well as to anyone who would like to contribute story ideas for someone else to do a story about or just meet your neighbors! The first Newsroom Cafe included the neighborhood business association, a neighborhood youth worker and publisher, a neighborhood organizer and a student writer from the Echo.  The next one will happen on Wednesday April 8th, 12:30-1:30pm. Feel free to bring lunch!

Cedar Commons (2001 Riverside Ave. S, below Trinity offices, across from Afro Deli)

Breaking the Bahá’í Fast during Tuesday Night Interfaith Gathering.

Posted on

IMG_2094    IMG_2103

Tuesday night’s Interfaith meal, a celebration of the Bahá’í fast over delicious Persian food and tea, was the fullest interfaith gathering yet! Our Bahá’í friends shared their experiences with this nineteen-day fast, compared notes with folks who fast during Ramadan, answered the many questions that we had about the founder of their faith, the texts that Bahá’ís look to for guidance and, when the sun when down, we broke the fast with a few prayers and a beautiful song. This interfaith community is growing and if you haven’t come out on a Tuesday night yet, we hope you will do so soon!

This Tuesday (St. Patrick’s Day) from 6:30-8:30, we will drink tea and talk about the people that we look to as saints or honored spiritual leaders within our own lives or faith traditions.

Join us in the Augsburg Community Garden this season!

Posted on

DSCN0146IMG_6003

Whether you’ve been gardening for 50 years or you’ve never touched a seed in your life, we welcome you to join us this season in the Augsburg Community Garden! Since 2008, we have given students, staff, faculty, neighbors, and community organizations an opportunity to learn and grow their own fresh produce. The Augsburg Community Garden has four main goals: to provide a space for the community to come and learn together; beautify the neighborhood and campus; provide growing space for those without it; and to assist gardeners in providing themselves a healthy diet. If you or someone you know would like to be a part of this community this season, visit the Campus Kitchen website to learn more and apply for a plot.

Legendary Somali singer visits Cedar Commons mentorship program!

Posted on

AhmedNajiGroup

West Bank College Bound, the mentorship program that we’re hosting in partnership with Somali Youth Link, had a surprise visit from legendary Somali singer Ahmed Naji on Tuesday! Our piano wasn’t in tune enough for him to share a live song, but we looked him up on youtube and we were very impressed. Afterwards we did some “speed-dating” style networking practice before walking over the the Muslim Student Association’s networking event where the students got to meet with Muslim professionals from around the Twin Cities. It was a great night and our high school mentees are looking forward to hearing about college from a panel of Augsburg student leaders next week.

Civic Agency and Executive Function: An Emerging Conversation

Posted on

Here’s an excerpt from Harry Boyte’s column in Huffington Post from February 20, 2015:

A conversation is just beginning between practitioners and theorists of civic agency and scholars and educators promoting educational experiences which develop Executive function. It may have large potential.

Civic Agency

Today, most people feel powerless to do much of anything other than complain or protest about public problems from the local traffic sign to racial profiling, from school bullying to global warming. Young people in low income and minority communities especially feel powerless.

Check here to read the whole article.