DLIS Student Wins University Essay Contest

Congratulations to Danielle Manri, a DLIS student, for her prize-winning Academic Service-Learning essay!

 

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St. John’s University offers both undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to compete in an essay contest regarding the participation in the University’s Academic Service-Learning Program. The essay contest, established in 1998, is held annually in the spring. Participants compete for a cash prize and a chance to have their essay published as a feature on the Academic Service-Learning Website.

 The essay is the student’s response to the fulfillment of the University’s Vincentian mission to search out the causes of poverty and social injustice to encourage adaptable, effective and concrete solutions through community service that directly relates to the student’s current coursework.

 During the Spring 2014 semester, Dr. Christine Angel forwarded the opportunity to her students engaged in ASL projects, urging everyone to submit an essay in regards to their experiences working on a service-learning project. Danielle submitted her essay based on the service-learning course requirement for LIS204, Introduction to Library and Information Science. While her individual accomplishments are awarded through winning the essay contest, Danielle wishes to acknowledge the group work with a fellow classmate in creating the ASL project webpage required for Dr. Angel’s course. She would also like to give a special thanks to Dr. Angel for providing her the chance to participate in meaningful ASL work.

Danielle’s essay entitled, Disseminating the Plight of Cuban and Haitian Refugees, recounts her experience working with the Center for Migration Studies, where she helped organize and research the Endres Collection, a collection of documents from the House Judicatory Committee on Immigration, Refugees and International Law counsel, Arthur P. Endres. She indicates her project’s ultimate goal to create a website as a platform to disseminate the information attained in regards to providing a voice for the under-representation of immigrant refugees to a large user audience.

Danielle writes, “My Academic Service-Learning (AS-L) project was a truly enriching experience. I attained a sense of personal fulfillment knowing I could take the knowledge from my courses and use it to improve the lives of others…As a result of my project, I learned how to work with an outside agency to propose and implement a solution to a social justice issue.”

Take an opportunity to peruse the website:

Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness: Cuban and Haitian Refugees

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