Reconciling with the Past: Ana Lucia Araujo’s Lecture on Coming to Terms with the Past When Monuments Are Taken Down

On Thursday, November 2nd, Howard University History Professor Ana Lucia Araujo visited Gettysburg College to give a lecture titled “Slavery, Memory, and Reparations: Coming to Terms with the Past When Monuments Are Taken Down.” The historian, author, and professor talked about the history of slavery as well as the concepts of memory and reparations. One form of reparations discussed recently has been the removal of Confederate monuments in the United States, which has been heavily debated for years. [excerpt

Match Made in Heaven: Investment Benefits of Coworking Spaces in Historic Sacred Places

Coworking has experienced exponential growth and established a global identity in the short period of a single decade. While the terms “coworking” and “shared work space” existed prior to the market collapse in 2008, their presence as an asset class and worldwide network had not developed fully. Philadelphia has seen firsthand the rapid expansion of coworking spaces with companies like WeWork and Benjamin’s Desk (1776) opening multiple locations with thousands of square feet in the space of a few years. These and other coworking companies continue to see growth with some seeking to expand into more suburban areas once a CBD flagship has been established. With growing membership and a need to be near members (either directly or through transit), where are the locations in Philadelphia where coworking companies should consider investing? As coworking demand increases, Philadelphia also has an increasing inventory of vacant historic sacred places—currently at thirty-nine buildings equaling approximately 500,000 square feet (Partners for Sacred Places, 2017). This paper will first define coworking and the coworker, give statistics on coworking growth, identify key real estate needs, and finally propose historic sacred places as an alternative for coworking expansion

Meeting Transfer Students Where They Are: A New Organizational Approach to Transfer Student Communication, Support, and Recruitment

Transfer students have long played a significant role in the growth and diversity of colleges and universities. Recent research points to a continuous decline in enrollment over the coming decade (Kelderman, Gardner, & Conley, 2019), and as tuition costs continue to increase and enrollment numbers decrease, institutions of higher education have begun turning to transfer students to fill their lecture halls and football stadiums. A key variable in higher education’s transfer recruitment blind spot is a fundamental lack of understanding of the structural and organizational changes needed to both attract and retain these non-traditional students (Tobolowsky & Cox, 2012). For too long, leadership in higher education has operated under the assumption that the ingredients for recruiting and enrolling prospective transfer students are largely consistent with the strategies and practices used in the recruitment of an incoming freshmen class. While these strategies may produce a consistent and reliable yield of transfer students, it falls short of producing the type of wholesale change needed for institutions to leverage transfer students as a tool for growing enrollment

Megachurches: A Growing Community Anchor

Real estate value reflects a factor of risk. Community risk inherently is captured in real estate value and is a composition of such elements as employment, income, and population growth (Carr, et al., 2003). These elements provide tenants to rent space and customers to buy products thereby increasing property value. The inverse, then, is true - that the decline of employment, income, or population will negatively impact value. Employment and population growth are accelerated with anchors. The term “anchor” in real estate denotes a use that provides stability and attraction that ultimately lowers risk and increases value. While there are commercial anchors such as large private corporations or retail centers, key community anchors come in the form of public or non-profit entities whose interest is in the long-term viability of the community. Anchors include schools, libraries, public halls, hospitals, and religious institutions. They provide important services to the community such as employment, interaction, communication, education, governance, health services, counseling, and moral teachings

Perceptions Of Compassion Fatigue Amongst Master Of Social Work Students And Self-Care Strategies To Build Resilience

Due to the unpredictable nature of the social work profession, MSW interns may find themselves unprepared when dealing with clients that have suffered through traumatic events. For those that are not adequately prepared, there can be risks of experiencing compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue is a process by which a professional’s inner experience is negatively transformed through empathic engagement with clients’ trauma material (Killian, 2008). This research project examined possible contributing factors to compassion fatigue among MSW students and recent MSW graduates from a large public university in Southern California. The study also focused on whether self-care methods were being used, what worked, and what participants did to prevent against symptoms of compassion fatigue and burnout. The researcher utilized qualitative methods and conventional content analysis to identify themes and sub themes after completing one-on-one interviews with eight participants. Key findings from the study included that a lack of knowledge by student interns and recent graduates left them unable to define compassion fatigue although they recognized related concepts. Also, most of the participants actively engaged in self-care in order to keep their health and mental health fit. Last, participants described how working directly with child and adolescent clients that were vulnerable and had survived or experienced trauma could lead to compassion fatigue symptoms. The research aims to benefit future social work practice by increasing awareness about what leads to compassion fatigue symptoms, reminding new social workers about self-care methods that protect against compassion fatigue, and by contributing to the implementation of better education, and or training policies within the field of social work about the risks of compassion fatigue