Photo by Sarah GoodProfessor Giles is the executive director of the CRJ.

Photo by Sarah Good
Professor Giles is the executive director of the CRJ.

The Center for Responsibility and Justice is taking their program in a new direction this year.

Under the guidance of professor Laurie Giles, CRJ will be running three new programs: a literary magazine, the Keys to Success program, and a partnership with the Boston Public Schools. Each program or service focuses on the issue of education equality for ENC, the Boston community, and beyond.

Paul Bowen, adjunct professor in the History Department, helped Giles put the vision into the three-part plan.

The theme of education is CRJ’s focus for the fall semester; next semester, a different theme and new programs will be started. The main goal is to connect people across campus to the importance of social justice. To help achieve this, they are working with different departments within ENC.

CRJ will be adding a global component to their program in the spring. They currently plan to partner with the nonprofit organization Ten Thousand Villages.

“We all have a social responsibility,” Giles said. “CRJ wants as many people as possible to learn about service and to actively engage them in social justice.”

CRJ Literary Magazine

CRJ is partnering with the Language, Theatre, and Communication Arts Department to create a literary magazine. Run by senior Taylor Kelliher, the magazine’s mission is to “raise questions, sustain conversations, and act creatively to address injustice,” as described in the magazine’s brief.

Anyone can make a submission to the magazine, Giles said. Photography, artwork, poems, scholarly articles, and interviews are among the pieces that the magazine is looking to publish.

The first edition will be available homecoming weekend and will feature submissions from former professor Dr. Eric Severson and professor Matthew Henry. A second edition with a new social justice theme will be published in the spring.

Keys to Success

For Keys to Success, CRJ will be joining with the Center for Academic Success to provide a program for ENC students that may need extra assistance with the college transition or with classes in general.

“Keys to Success is meant to help students define what ‘success’ means to them and to help them achieve that,” Giles said.

Keys to Success is sponsoring a weekend leadership retreat in October. Five alumni will be guest speaking at the retreat and providing personal advice and support on how to succeed at college.

Partnership with Boston Public Schools

The Education Department and CRJ are joining together to improve education for fourth and fifth graders in Boston’s Tobin K-8 School. This semester, ten education majors and CRJ members will collectively put in 700 to 1000 hours of tutoring for students at Tobin.

“We want to make a noticeable impact,” Giles said. “I think we will definitely achieve that in this school by the end of the semester.”

For more information on how to be involved in any of these programs, contact professor Giles.