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Margo WR Steiner
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On March 30, Salem State University honored four individuals who are actively addressing social and environmental challenges in our communities and in the world. The four, representing students, faculty, staff, and alumni, were inducted into the university’s 2016 Civic Engagement Hall of Fame at a dinner in their honor at the Hawthorne Hotel.
Each of the four, along with their fellow nominees, demonstrate a sustained commitment and passion for improving, assisting and helping organizations in need through their community involvement. Those honored on Thursday join the 20 recipients who have been inducted since the hall of fame was created in 2012.
Committed to imbuing a spirit of service across all sectors of its campus, Salem State has for the past three years achieved the highest federal recognition possible for an institution of higher education, placing it on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. This year’s inductees reflect the university’s commitment to service through their volunteer activities on behalf of a variety of organizations.
Inductees receive an award designed by art + design professor Kenneth Reker, along with a donation to the community partner of their choosing.
This year’s inductees are:
Student
Briana Scata, of Revere, has been a member of the Salem State University Community Service Group for three years, serving as the vice president last year and president this year. The student organization sponsors service events on campus, including alternative spring break trips, the daily volunteer van, and monthly Service Saturdays, among other service activities. Under Briana’s leadership, the Community Service Group expanded its offerings to make two alternative spring break trips available this year and added the Service Saturday program to give resident students more opportunities to participate. Briana has traveled to Missouri and New Orleans on previous spring breaks to work with her fellow students to build homes in low-income communities, and has just returned from her third. Ms. Scata also volunteers with the local North Shore Habitat for Humanity on similar projects closer to home.
Briana chose the St. Bernard Project of New Orleans as her community partner and the recipient of her donation.
Staff/Administrator
Anna Wistran Wolfe, of Swampscott, is the event creator and organizer of the North Shore Walk for Parkinson’s disease, a fundraising and community event held in Swampscott each October to raise money for The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and Team Fox. Anna’s father, Dr. Daniel Wistran, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 19 years ago. Raising money and creating a community event gave Anna a way to support her father and feel engaged with the Parkinson’s community.
Since 2004, she has raised more than $200,000 for Parkinson’s disease research; last year’s walk raised close to $25,000. This year the walk will mark its 10th year, a time during which the fundraiser has grown from 20 walkers to more than 200 in 2015. Local patients, caregivers, families, and friends participate in the 3-mile amble along the ocean boardwalk in Swampscott.
The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson's disease through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson's today. Team Fox is the grassroots community fundraising program of the foundation. Through a generous donation, 100% of donations to Team Fox go directly to research.
Anna is the assistant director of admissions marketing and communications at Salem State University, where she has worked for eight years. Her community partner is The Michael J. Fox Foundation, which will receive her monetary award.
Faculty
Jeramie Silviera, PhD, of Beverly, is involved with numerous community agencies including: the Community Partner Spectrum Adult Day Care Center, which works with and meets the needs of those who are caregivers for persons with Alzheimer’s disease; Empowering People for Inclusive Communities (EPIC), which prepares young people with disabilities to be actively engaged community leaders through education and community service; North Shore Community Access Advocacy Team and the All People Accessible Business Project for the Independent Living Center for North Shore and Cape Ann; and the Department of Public Health Early Intervention Task Force for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Professor Silviera is also co-coordinator of the healthcare workforce development grant that supports the inter-professional community engagement of Salem State University students.
Professor Silviera, associate professor of occupational therapy at Salem State, directed that her community partner, North Shore Elder Services, be designated the recipient of her donation.
Alumnus
Nazda Alam, of Weston, is the university’s 2016 alumni inductee into the civic engagement hall of fame. A 2004 master’s degree recipient from Salem State’s School of Social Work, Alam was born in a small town in Bangladesh, and came to the United States in 1982 as a graduate student. She believes in core democratic values and fundamental human rights and has applied her beliefs in ways that benefit others in a number of ways, including—among others—service as chair of Massachusetts’ Muslim Voter Registration Project and team leader for the national effort, a delegate to the 2012 Democratic National Convention, a past member of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Immigration and Refugee Policy, and an organizer for immigrant worker’s freedom rights.
In addition, Nazda Alam runs charity organizations in Bangladesh, including a school for the children of domestic workers and homeless families. She has also provided tuition for 15 women to attend two-year colleges in Bangladesh since 2006, and has financed a school for poor children in the southern part of Bangladesh since 2010.
Nazda Alam directed her community partner donation to the Bangladesh Association of New England.
“Civic engagement,” according to Cynthia Lynch, director of the Center for Civic Engagement, “is a vibrant and active part of the culture at Salem State University. Through academic study, research opportunities, service projects, and civic activities, students learn how to work in and with the community to address today’s complex societal problems.”
Photo: Left to right: Briana Scata (Revere), Nazda Alam (Weston), Professor Jeramie Silveira (Beverly), and Anna Wistran Wolfe (Swampscott) pose with their awards following induction into Salem State University’s Civic Engagement Hall of Fame.