  Providence Campus Students "Raise Their Voices" PROVIDENCE, R.I. — March 13, 2007 — How can college students make a difference in their community? Johnson & Wales students will find out on Tuesday, April 17, when the University hosts a panel discussion that will feature refugees from Somalia, Ethiopia and Burundi and their J&W student mentors who have partnered with these newly arrived, displaced families to help them with a successful transition into American life. This event, part of Campus Compact's Raise Your Voice, will take place from 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. in the Tyson Amphitheatre at the University's Harborside Campus. This event is open to the public. There is no fee, however space is very limited. For reservations or more information on this event, please contact Susan Connery at 401-598-1265 or by e-mail. For the fourth year in a row, Johnson & Wales has received a Raise Your Voice grant from Campus Compact to organize this President-sponsored, student-led citizenship initiative. This year's focus is on educating students for global citizenship. Rhode Island Campus Compact is a coalition of college and university presidents dedicated to helping campus-based community service initiatives coordinate, organize and deepen their individual and collective work, and their collaboration with other service organizations, to make significant, positive impacts on student learning and the quality of life in the state. Akhil Gupta, vice president Providence Campus, will open the discussion by talking about diversity and education and the priority J&W places on being active participants in the community. The panel will offer personal stories with assistance from their translators, about their flight from their troubled native countries - fleeing famine and civil war - and the important ways in which the students have helped them to gain self-sufficiency as new members of the community. The students, in turn, will discuss how their interaction and involvement with refugees has offered them a complex understanding of world-wide issues, and how these global concerns may be witnessed in individual lives. In doing so, the student volunteers will educate their fellow studentaudience on international questions of human rights, social justice, and global citizenship, thereby generating on-going student participation with refugee populations in the state of Rhode Island. In addition, the forum will examine the expectations, surprises and insights learned through aiding the families with cultural orientations, a first apartment, school enrollment, and advocacy efforts. The panel will conclude with a Q&A session. The panel discussion will be moderated by Dr. Dorothy Abram, assistant professor in the School of Arts & Sciences, who has organized in-depth service-learning projects through her Culture & Food courses. Johnson & Wales University, founded in 1914, is a nonprofit, private institution. A recognized leader in career education, we offer accredited degrees in business, hospitality, culinary arts, technology and education. With a diverse student body of more than 16,000 graduate and undergraduate students, representing all 50 states and 89 countries, JWU prepares students for personal and professional success by integrating rigorous academics and professional skills, community leadership opportunities and our unique career education model. The university is committed to urban revitalization and thoughtful historic renovation. Through active civic participation and by offering unique learning opportunities, JWU improves the quality of life in its campus communities in Providence, R.I., North Miami, Fla., Denver, Colo., and Charlotte, N.C. For more information visit www.jwu.edu.
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