Cabrini Day

No Day Classes
On Cabrini Day, classes are cancelled until 4:30 p.m. Students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to participate in a day filled with mission-oriented activities.

Events for the day focus around a different theme each year. The Cabrini Day 2011 theme was “Orphans and Vulnerable Children: Children Who Hurt.”

More than 70 student posters displayed research projects about the challenges that vulnerable children and orphans face and solutions that will help make a difference.

Speakers included author John Shors and Holocaust survivor Erica Van Adelsberg, as well as many faculty, staff, and students.

Student honorees included Harry Friedman for the Best Summer Book Student Essay Award and Cathy Matta and Lisa Gomez as the Charles A. Mastronardi Service and Leadership Award Winners.

The day was capped beautifully with a performance by the Mwamba Children’s Choir from Uganda.

Cabrini Day 2012—Tuesday, Nov. 13—will center around the theme, “We The People, Democracy and Diversity.”

• Students will present their posters related to this year’s theme:
  “Orphans and Vulnerable Children: Children Who Hurt”

“Dragon House” is a tale of two Americans who heal their painful pasts while caring for street children in Vietnam. The book explores themes of suffering, sacrifice, friendship, and love, while celebrating the resilience of the human spirit.
“Dragon House” is available at www.JohnShors.com.

The author, a graduate of Colorado College, taught English for several years in Kyoto, Japan. He traveled across Asia, visiting 10 countries and climbing the Himalayas, before returning to the U.S. His first two novels, “Beneath a Marble Sky” and “Beside a Burning Sea,” have been translated into more than 20 languages.

First-year students and faculty took a literary trip to Vietnam, the setting of “Dragon House,” the book selected for the College’s summer reading project.

2 p.m.

Mastronardi Service and Leadership Award Presentation
Grace Hall Atrium

The Charles A. Mastronardi Service and Leadership Award will be presented to a student or students who have demonstrated outstanding contributions to community service projects and civic engagement.

• Overview of HIV in Africa and the Effects on Children
  Dr. Shelby Hockenberry, Assistant Professor of Political Science

• Our Partnership with Swaziland
  Dr. Susan Pierson, Assistant Professor of Education
  Dr. Beverly Bryde, Associate Professor of Education
  Mr. Joseph Clark, Assistant Professor of Education
  Mrs. Christina Starken, Alumni Cabrini College

• Dr. Michelle Filling, Assistant Professor English and Youth Advisory Board Member
  Dr. Michelle Filling and a member of the Pennsylvania Youth Advisory Board (an organization comprised of former foster youth) will provide an interactive session on the "aging out" process that foster youth face in Pennsylvania when they turn 18. This session will highlight conditions and policies that impact youth who never get reunified with their biological family members or adopted.

• Stephanie Salinis, Cabrini College Campus Minister
  The presenter will give an overview of the services Mercy Home for Boys and Girls in Chicago, Illinois has to offer, share stories and pictures of the youth, and take questions about the youth and the issues they face, as well as the presenter’s experiences while working and living in Chicago.

• Maureen Browne, Cabrini College Education Major
  Maureen will show a slideshow of pictures of the children the Cabrini group worked with in Ecuador last winter break. The group lived in solidarity with the community in Duran, Ecuador. Maureen will also answer questions about her experience with the kids in Ecuador.