December 12, 2010
Providing a framework to understand the world: Sandra Enos
A nationally recognized expert in sociology and service learning, Associate Professor Sandra Enos provides opportunities for students to make a difference outside the classroom.
Associate Sociology Professor Sandra Enos’s arrival at Bryant coincided with the unveiling of a new Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology. Since joining the Bryant community nearly five years ago, Enos has embodied the Character of Success by empowering students to be change agents.
“I have never been on a campus where the culture of service is so strong,” says Enos, citing student-organized projects such as Relay for Life, Northern Rhode Island Special Olympics, and a trip to Peru to perform community service. “It’s amazing.”
In 2009, Enos and Toby Simon, director of the Gertrude Meth Hochberg Women’s Center at Bryant, teamed up to plan the first international service learning trip to the Dominican Republic. The trip was part of Enos’s Globalization and Childhood class in which students researched the challenges of growing up in a developing country. The trip took place again last March and plans are being finalized for another excursion during Spring Break this March.
“The students have a better idea of social problems and their power to make change,” says Enos. “Problems may seem overwhelming but there is always something that can be done.”
‘Kind of citizen they want to be’
The multitude of volunteer and service learning opportunities across the University helped earn Bryant a spot on the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll in 2008 and 2009.
“It takes a village - or, in our case, the Bryant community - to create a culture of service,” says Enos, who was honored in 2009 with the “Michelle Norris Award," a prestigious community award from Children’s Friend and Service. Previous winners include Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy, Family Court Chief Judge Jeremiah Jeremiah Jr., and former Governor Lincoln Almond.
“By providing service learning opportunities in the classroom and volunteer opportunities in the community, our students are acquiring the skills to implement creative solutions to some of society's problems,” she continues.
Even if students do not plan to pursue employment in human services or in the nonprofit sector, they develop a better understanding of issues affecting a community. That is knowledge they can use in any profession, as volunteers, or board members in the future, says Enos.
She is encouraged that so many Bryant students, no matter their career path, choose to engage in service learning. “That’s a lens that illuminates the kind of citizen they want to be in the community,” says Enos.
Potential of social enterprise
Enos and Trustee Professor of Entrepreneurship Cary Collins are working together to develop an interdisciplinary program in social entrepreneurship. The goal is to complement the entrepreneurship concentration in the College of Business and the sociology minor in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Recently, Enos and Collins collaborated with Social Venture Partners Rhode Island, a partnership of entrepreneurs and social investors, to create the Social Enterprise Rhode Island Summit. For the last two years, the conference has brought together business executives, community leaders, and students to share ideas and strategies about social enterprise playing a role in attracting businesses, adding jobs, and improving social services with less reliance on public funding.
Instead of focusing solely on profit, social ventures, often called double-bottom line businesses, use a second metric – positive social impact – to measure their performance.
“I am interested in what we need to do to prepare students for a rapidly changing world,” explains Enos. “By this, I don’t mean narrow preparation for a career. What I mean is helping them connect to the some of the important cutting-edge ideas that meld organizational acumen with social purpose.”
Read an op-ed about social enterprise written by Sandra Enos Kelly Ramirez, executive director of Social Venture Partners Rhode Island.
