ISSL 2024 Symposium Program

• Luz Avruj
• Prof. Dr. Phillip Cartwright
• Gurinder Kaur
• Chevaan Peters
• Elaisa Vahnie
• Laura Weaver

Luz Avruj

Institutional Relations and Networks at CLAYSS (Latin American Center for Solidarity Service-Learning)

B.A. in Institutional Organization and Management (UNSAM), Specialist in Social Network Analysis and Management (Universidad Bolivariana de Chile) and University Diploma in Education (Universidad del Museo Social Argentino). Her two passions have always been Education and Social Development and she has worked in both fields for more than 20 years: in schools and universities as a teacher and teacher trainer and with social organizations offering technical assistance, facilitation, training and developing didactic materials. She has also worked with companies in negotiation and conflict management. She was CLAYSS Training Coordinator for several years and was in charge of the Service-Learning Promotion Program in Central and Eastern Europe. She is currently the Coordinator of Institutional Relations and Networks, an area from which she promotes the formation, strengthening and interrelation of networks related to the subject all over the world.

Prof. Dr. Phillip Cartwright

Dean of DBA Program & Direction of CABMR - Collège de Paris

Dr. Phillip A. Cartwright is an American citizen raised in the Chicago area living in France for over thirty years. A Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, he has forty years of academic and business experience and he has published extensively in leading journals. He has been posted at the University of Georgia, Imperial College School of Business, London Business School and INSEAD. Today, he is Full Professor and Academic Dean, International DBA, Ascencia Business School, Paris and Director, Ascencia Center for Applied Business and Management Research; and Visiting Researcher, Royal College of Music, Centre for Performance Science, London. Phil’s teaching and research interests are in the areas of research methodology (quantitative), corporate finance, performance science, and the performing arts. He is Founder, HorizonVU Sound and Movement. He studies music theory and composition at the Berklee College of Music and he is a member of the American Economic Association, American Psychological Association, American Musicological Society, the Dance Studies Association, and the Society for Dance Research.

Gurinder Kaur

CEO of the Immigrant Welcome Center

Gurinder Kaur is a servant leader, compassionate advocate for equity, and champion for social Justice. Gurinder was born and brought up in New Delhi, India. Her formative years were influenced by her middle-class working parents—both teachers. As a Sikh, Gurinder learned the principles of seva, which means selfless service for altruistic purposes on behalf of, and for the betterment of a community, early in her life. Gurinder endeavors to make an impact on the lives of those who need it most through her service on the boards of local nonprofits. She currently serves on the boards of Indiana Public Health Association, WFYI Community Advisory, and Lilly sponsored CFRO.

Professionally Gurinder trained as a physical therapist in India and arrived to work at Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn, Michigan in the early 1990s on a H1B visa. She fondly remembers the day her plane was preparing to land at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, and she saw white clouds on the ground. As she stepped outside, the bitter cold Michigan winter wind hit her face and she realized that the white clouds on the ground was snow. To this day, Gurinder is amazed by snow. Gurinder earned her post professional master’s degree in physical therapy from the University of Indianapolis in 1995.

In October 1999, Gurinder became the proud citizen of the United States of America. In 2001, Gurinder earned her master’s in public health from the Fairbanks School of Public Health. Since then, she has worked in the leadership roles in public health, nonprofit, and most recently in higher education at the University of Indianapolis. Gurinder is the proud mother of two children. She enjoys walking on the canal towpath near the 100 Acre Woods, reading, and yoga. In her role as the CEO of Immigrant Welcome Center, Gurinder is focused on initiatives to increase community-wide awareness of the rich cultural and ethnic diversity that our new immigrant and refugee neighbors bring to the City of Indianapolis. She is also excited to work with the board and key stakeholders to clearly describe the impact of barriers and challenges that our new neighbors face and work with policy makers to identify and implement innovative solutions to address these challenges.

Cheevan Peters

Manager of Knowledge Information Systems & Marketing at the Centre for Social Impact and Transformation

Chevaan Peters is a dedicated scholar and community advocate hailing from Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Born and raised in Makhanda formerly known as Grahamstown, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, he developed a strong sense of social responsibility from an early age. This drive led him to become actively involved in various community initiatives aimed at addressing social inequalities and promoting education access for underserved populations and marginalized communities. He has over a decade of experience in community engagement within the Higher Education sector of South Africa and remains actively involved through his current role as Manager of Knowledge Information Systems, Communications and Marketing at Stellenbosch University, Centre for Social Impact and Transformation. Chevaan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Community Development and is accountable for the strategic and operational management of SU’s Social Impact Knowledge Platform and provides essential support for the institutionalization of social impact at the university.

He fulfils a critical role in advancing the university's mission to create positive social change. The platform serves as a hub for knowledge-sharing and collaboration, bringing together faculty, students, and external partners to address complex social challenges. Chevaan is further known for his passion for academic excellence and his commitment to making a positive impact in his community. Further in his capacity, he serves on various SU committees, task teams, and working groups where he continually strives to add value and bring about critical consciousness, significant change, and transformative impact. Through his cross-cutting role, the platform supports and enables social impact through its various modalities and for the past several months he has been engaged in analysis towards the redevelopment of the Social Impact Knowledge Platform for Stellenbosch University.

He is a firm believer in the power of collaboration and teamwork to effect positive change, and he actively seeks out opportunities to contribute to causes he is passionate about. With a strong foundation in Development Studies and a heart for service, Chevaan Peters is poised to make a meaningful difference in his community and beyond.

Elaisa Vahnie

National University of the Union of Myanmar President, Executive Director of the Burmese American Community Institute

Elaisa Vahnie has over two decades of active engagement and experience working on issues related to Myanmar (also known as Burma), the Burmese-American communities, and the global interests, and has led and formed various successful collaborative and strategic partnerships nationally and internationally. He has been actively involved in the Burmese struggles for democracy and in refugee protection since 1996, when he fled his native country to escape arrest for having participated in the pro-democracy Movement. Mr. Vahnie is currently the Executive Director and President of the Burmese American Community Institute (BACI), which he co-founded in 2011. Since its inception, the Institute has assisted more than 20,000 Burmese individuals in the Indianapolis area through innovative and highly successful educational programs and provision of integration services. Mr. Vahnie came to the United States as a recipient of a scholarship funded by the U.S. Department of State. He has worked with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia, and successfully advocated for the smooth processing of Burmese refugees’ third country resettlement, including to the USA.

Under his leadership, BACI recently became the Welcome Corps Private Sponsor Organization (PSO), which will leverage its expertise to help recruit, support, and oversee Americans who are sponsoring newcomers through the Welcome Corps. Mr. Vahnie continues to engage and contribute to change in Burma through international advocacy, direct service delivery, and consultancy services including regularly giving briefings to various bureaus at the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Congressional Offices, and international institutions regarding trends of key issues in Myanmar. As part of an effort to support democracy and peace in Myanmar, Mr. Vahnie has organized the unprecedented annual Spring Flowers International Conference on Myanmar over the past three years designed to support peace and democracy in the country. Over 100 high profile speakers have attended this online conference. He also organized the U.S.-Myanmar Engagement Conference in Indianapolis in 2015 where Nobel Laureate & State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi delivered a video keynote Address.

As a foreign policy advocate and a community organizer, Mr. Vahnie has been recognized with numerous awards for his dedication and service, including the most recent honor, being named one of Indiana’s 50 Global Leaders in the past 50 years by the International Center for his leadership and contributions to elevating the State of Indiana on the global stage. Mr. Vahnie holds a Master’s of Public Affairs (MPA) degree from Indiana University Bloomington, where he specialized in Comparative International Affairs and Policy Analysis. Vahnie has also received executive training in public leadership from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Laura Weaver

Special Projects Manager serving with Campus Compact

Laura Weaver, M.S. Ed., is an engaged scholar-practitioner dedicated to facilitating authentic community-campus relationships and partnering on community-driven engaged scholarship. She has nearly 20 years of experience supporting institutions as they work to actualize their culture for community engagement. Laura is the former Director of Professional Development and Engaged Learning at Community-Engaged Alliance/Indiana Campus Compact, where she spent eight years assisting faculty with their teaching and engaged research activities involving reciprocal community-campus partnerships and supporting scholar-practitioners as they work to actualize and deepen the culture for community engagement. Additionally, she spent eight years developing and directing a university-wide center for community engagement and several years with a national nonprofit organization partnering with college students to build awareness and support for healthcare initiatives. Laura’s passion and research focus on how colleges and universities create an environment where community-driven engagement can occur and how this is actualized through institutional policies and procedures and its overall culture.

She frequently presents at state, national, and international conferences, has published several articles related to her work in these areas, and has served as a Research Fellow for the Campus Compact Project on the Community Engagement Professional. Laura is finishing her doctorate in Adult and Community Education from Ball State University, where her dissertation focuses on the evolution of community engagement professionals and faculty as they transition to senior and chief community engagement administrative roles as framed through the lens of a tempered radical. She holds an M.S. Ed. in Counseling, Adult, and Higher Education from Northern Illinois University and a B.S. in Communication from Bradley University.

• The repository gathers all types of materials (papers, but also handbooks, articles, videos, etc)
• RIDAS is an academic journal

RIDAS is a scientific journal co-edited between the Faculty of Education of the University of Barcelona, CLAYSS (Latin American Center for Solidarity Service-Learning) and the Ibero American Service-Learning Network. It is aimed at researchers, academics, educators, specialists, and people interested in service-learning and intends to contribute to the creation of knowledge about service-learning in all socio-educational areas and educational levels. The articles it contains can be theoretical, conceptual and historical reflections; research articles; good practices analyzed, case studies; short experiences and testimonials; literature reviews and reviews. It is issued biannually and has a Peer Review Process. Articles can be presented in Spanish, English and Catalonian.

Storytelling (SC010) - 30 minutes per presentation

• D. Pracht, K.H. Fletcher, C. Lawlor, & M. Coyle  
  Overcoming challenges through successful partnerships for an international service-learning study abroad program.
• E. Kung, K. Kaiser, & C. van der Vyver
  Rising from the ashes – the story of a faculty’s journey to a culture of Service-Learning.
• J. VanSickle, K. Watkins, A. Garabrant, & S. Wareham
  Service-learning Across Disciplines: One Event, Multiple Opportunities.
• L. Gilchrist
  Service-Learning and Inclusion: Building Capacity and Partnership through Universal Design for Learning Principles.

Research (SC011) - 30 minutes per presentation

• S. Denney & K. Reinhardt
  Exploring Service-Learning as a Tool for Expanding Pre-Service Teachers’ Professional Role Identities.
• P. A. Cartwright
  The Impact of Service-Learning on Public Policy Making.
• A. Naidoo
  Enacting community service learning as an integrated social justice pedagogy: Lessons from a 25-year retrospection.
• S. Ross, W. Scogin, & B. Aho
  An International Service-learning Trip’s Impact on Graduate Students’ Interprofessional Collaboration: A Mixed-methods study.

Workshops (SC012) - 60 minutes per presentation

• C. Ruby, M. Drnach, A. Pilsner, B. Sloane, B. C. Chávez, & G. K. Góngora
  Cultivating Change: A 20-Year Journey in Global Rehabilitation Partnerships.
• D. Coker-Kolo & L. Reed
  Integrating service learning with social justice: A critical opportunity for candidates in an educational leadership program.

Workshops (SC013) - 60 minutes per presentation

M. Pietersen, R. Hector-Kannemeyer, & P. Khosa
Utilizing a Moodle platform to advance engaged citizenship and enable national virtual service-learning initiatives as a curricular requirement for social work students at Stellenbosch University.

Storytelling (SC010) - 30 minutes per presentation

• S. Asim
  An Easy Tool to Transform Teacher Preparation: Integrating Global STEM Career Role Models through Leveraging Picture Books.
• S. Ramer & K. LaComba
  Global Leadership in Troubled Times: A student-led international sister city project.

Research (SC011) - 30 minutes per presentation

• U. Useh
  From job-seeking to job-creation initiative: Changing the ecosystem and improving graduate attributes for African graduates through service learning.
• E. Gahimer
  Upon Return: Cultivating Global Citizenship & Social Action in U.S. Global Health Students: A Case Study in Córdoba, Argentina

Workshops (SC012) - 60 minutes per presentation

T. Morris
An Innovative Faculty Role: A Catalyst To Incorporate Service Learning And Engaged Scholarship Into Higher Education.

Workshops (SC013) - 60 minutes per presentation

T. Jones, P. Jones, M. Voice, & G. Gee
Beyond Words: Service Learning and Hip-Hop as a Language of Social Change.

Storytelling (SC010) - 30 minutes per presentation

• I. C. Beulaygue & K. S. Murch-Shafer
  Service Learning Impacts on Career Exploration and Wellbeing in the Exploratory Studies Program
• T. Pierce
  How to promote a global change from a service-learning course on your campus.
• P. Cartwright
  Ascencia’s Center for Applied Business and Management Research
• J. Bester & M. Kloppers
  Going full circle in SLEAK project & Stronger together.

Research (SC011) - 30 minutes per presentation

• M. Foulkrod & P. Lan Lin
  Global Leadership Adaptability Through Servant Leadership and Cultural Humility: A Conceptual Framework
• L. Avruj
  Service-learning networks: conceptions, skills and conditions of a glocal transformative movement.
• M. D. Freeman
  Self-Directed Learning to Promote Healthy Lifestyles for Adults with Chronic Illness.
• T. Nqowana
  Fostering Social Justice Through Service-Learning: A Closer Look at the Vulindlela Parent Engagement Program's Initiatives.

Workshops (SC012) - 60 minutes per presentation

• L. Borrero
  Indirect Service-Learning: Aims, Advantages and Best Practices.
• E. Orr
  Changing Knowledge, Awareness, and Stigma Through the Service Learning Activity of a Mental Health Awareness Walk.

Workshops (SC013) - 60 minutes per presentation

C. Peters
Bridging Knowledge and Action: Insights from Stellenbosch University's Social Impact Knowledge Platform

The Cheraw Kan dance is a traditional bamboo dance, and it is one of the most famous dances among the Chin traditional dances in Burma/Myanmar. Male performers clap bamboo staves rhythmically while female dancers move intricately between them. The Cheraw Kan features traditional music with instruments like gongs and drums, accompanied by agile dancers in colorful attire. They skillfully navigate bamboo sticks, creating intricate formation amidst a mesmerizing atmosphere. Women wear Vakiria (headdresses) adorned with feathers, beetle wings and other colorful objects, along with Kawrchei (traditional blouse) and Puanchei (sarong). Men wear Khumbeu (bamboo hats) and Ngotekherh (black and white checkered fabric that can be worn as a shirt or sarong).

Originating from the vibrant Indian state of Gujarat, Dandiya Raas is a captivating socio-religious folk dance deeply intertwined with the festivities of Navaratri. Dandiya Raas adds an exhilarating twist by incorporating sticks held in both hands while dancing. The dance is traditionally performed in pairs, with each group consisting of an even number of participants. As the music sets the rhythm, participants form two lines facing each other, moving clockwise in a synchronized motion. The dance unfolds in an eight-beat time cycle known as Kaherva, where participants rhythmically strike their own sticks together, followed by coordinated movements with their partners. With each step forward, the exchange of stick hits creates a mesmerizing visual and auditory spectacle, symbolizing unity, harmony, and community spirit. As the dance progresses, participants seamlessly transition between partners, ensuring a continuous flow of movement and energy throughout the performance. This dynamic interplay of music, movement, and camaraderie makes Dandiya Raas a truly immersive cultural experience, embodying the joy and vitality of Gujarati heritage. In essence, Dandiya Raas is more than just a dance—it is a celebration of tradition, togetherness, and the timeless spirit of Navaratri.

Line dancing is a form of dance where individuals perform choreographed steps in unison, arranged in lines or rows, typically without a partner. It originated from folk dance traditions where dancers would line up in rows and perform repetitive steps to music. However, the modern form of line dancing, as we know it today, emerged in the United States, particularly in the country and western dance scene during the late 20th century. Line dancing became particularly popular in the 1970s and 1980s, especially in country and western bars and clubs across America. Its simplicity and the fact that it doesn't require a partner made it accessible to a wide range of people. As it gained popularity, line dancing evolved to incorporate influences from various music genres, including country, pop, rock, and even Latin music.

Bachata is a style of dance that originated in the Dominican Republic. It is danced widely all over the world but not identically. The basics to the dance are three-step with a Cuban hip motion, followed by a tap including a hip movement on the 4th beat. The knees should be slightly bent so the performer can sway the hips easier. The movement of the hips is very important because it’s a part of the soul of the dance.

Storytelling (SC010) - 30 minutes per presentation

•  A. Schlessman, J. Foucrier, S. Trotter, & C. A. Berg-Carramusa
  The Implementation of Service Learning into an Accelerated Hybrid Multi-Site Physical Therapy Program.
• S. Moore, J.R. Jamison & T. Morris
  Service-Learning for Student Transformation.
• J. Schlessman
  A High School Service-Learning Course: Transforming Students into Engaged Citizens.
• K. H. Fletcher, D. Pracht, C. Lawlor, & M. Coyle
  An Irish tale: How four unlikely characters came together to create a successful international service-learning study abroad program.

Research (SC011) - 30 minutes per presentation

•  J. M. Viola
  Service Learning as a unique way to develop soft skills.
• M. Foulkrod
  Leadership Transformation in times of change and cultural adversity.
• C. Pearison
  Theory Integration in Education Transformation and Resilient Service-Learning Amid Global Crises.
• S. Shall
  New constructs for service, learning, and practice: Understanding the transformative power of building abroad on communities and students.

Workshops (SC012) - 60 minutes per presentation

• M. Glowacki-Dudka & R. Lordeni
  Service-Learning for Communities through Transformative Leadership and Culturally Expansive Learning.
• L. Kojich & J. Gahimer
  Enhancing the 21st Century Skills: An E-Service Learning Toolkit of Creative Pedagogies. 

Storytelling (SC010) - 30 minutes per presentation

• R. Wolverton
  Becoming change makers through service-learning and human-centered design: Students & community standing in the gap together.
• T. Jones
  Amplifying Voices: Service Learning and the Imperative to Capture the Experiences of Black Women.

Research (SC011) - 30 minutes per presentation

• E. Konwest, K. Silvester, & S. Asim
  Implementing the Global Community Engaged Learning Course Development Institute at Indiana University-Bloomington.
• R. Rostom & C. Paterson
  Building Energy Conservation and Cost Savings Into A Campus Renovation.
  

Workshops (SC012) - 60 minutes per presentation

M. Sass
Connecting AI with Service-Learning.