CBL Talk to Share Insights on Youth in Scranton

This spring, the Office of Community-Based Learning is pleased to provide an encore to last spring’s inaugural “CBL Talks” series with a “CBL Talk: Youth in Scranton” on Wednesday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. in the Pearn Auditorium, Brennan Hall. This CBL Talk will feature community leaders from the Scranton School District and NEPA Youth Shelter who work with K-12 youth in the local area. They will discuss the programs they run and the challenges, hopes, and dreams of the youth they encounter along the way.  

This event will feature guest speakers Mina Ardestani, principal at McNichols Elementary Plaza and founder of Presence from Prison, and Maureen Maher-Gray, executive director and founder of the NEPA Youth Shelter. Speakers will discuss the city of Scranton’s youth population, which represents the diversity of the community, faces poverty at a high rate, has endured the pandemic as children, and are poised to inherit a world with many difficulties, including global climate change. Despite the many challenges, there are also great opportunities for the youth of Scranton, and they bring with them innovative ideas and aspirations for our future. This talk will align with the Jesuit universal apostolic preference “Journey with Youth” in which Superior General, Fr. Arturo Sosa, S.J., has called on all of us to “accompany young people in the creation of a hope-filled future.” 

Registration is required for this event at: surveymonkey.com/r/ScrantonYouth2022 

The Office of Community-Based Learning plans to record this event to serve as a resource for CBL faculty and will also provide reflection questions after the event for university students to utilize in considering the information shared. “To go” snacks will be provided. This event is sponsored by the Office of Community-Based Learning in collaboration with the Office of Community and Government Relations, the Center for Service and Social Justice and the Jesuit Center.  

CBL Faculty and University students are also encouraged to “Save the Date” for a “CBL Walk: West Scranton” on Friday, April 22 at 3 p.m. This CBL Walk will offer University students the opportunity to engage with the West Scranton area by meeting with representatives from community-partner organizations and local business owners and exploring a part of Scranton’s West Side neighborhood.  

For more information on the “CBL Talk” and “CBL Walk,” please visit scranton.edu/CBLTalks.  

This spring’s “CBL Talk” and “CBL Walk” builds upon the “CBL Talks” series first offered in the spring semester of 2021 during the period of remote format community-based learning due to the pandemic. This series was created by the Office of Community-Based Learning in collaboration with various campus partners to give university students a way to learn about the city of Scranton’s people, challenges and opportunities and how students can be a part of positive change. Over 280 students and faculty attended these events which focused on topics: Black Scranton Then and Now, Economic Insecurity Amidst a Pandemic, and Immigrant Inclusion. The CBL Office is excited to continue this programming to foster community-engaged learning, discussion, collaboration and solidarity.  

For questions, please contact community@scranton.edu.