Robert Baker, 2021 Community Education Fellow

Robert was awarded Dominica University’s Willenborg Civic Action Fellow in the Criminology Department.  As part of the fellowship, he will serve as the Community Education Fellow for SBI.  Over the course of six weeks, Robert will develop tools and assessments for evaluating engagement and success of certificate students at the Cook County Department of Corrections.Certificate students will also be invited to provide input on the competency, structure, and educational materials of the course(s) as well as instructor(s) experience.

To develop these tools Robert will utilize student data (homework attendance and so forth), previous student evaluations, course syllabi and input from professors, course instructors and other teaching faculty at McCormick Theological Seminary via interview.  As a culminating resource, with the data collected, Robert will create a presentation deck that captures SBI’s impact.   

Robert is currently a junior at Dominican University studying psychology and neuroscience. Outside of class, Robert wears many hats including being a mentor for Black and African American sophomores and helping to lead a cohort of 12 Black scholars at Dominican.

His most prominent work is that of the University Ministry and the Office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion where he works as a Waters Intern tasked with student engagement and outreach for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Initiative.

Maryclare Beche, Angie Smith and Minnie Hawkins, seminarians at McCormick Theological Seminary, as part of a final class assignment in fall 2020, spearheaded a GoFundMe account to support incarcerated learners in the SBI program.  

This campaign supported the purchase of course material and the end of the course celebration care packages (which include hygiene products, toiletries, and devotional readings) for 16 women, detained at the Cook County Jail, enrolled in the spring correspondence course A Beloved Community: Healing, Justice, and the Urgency of Mindfulness taught by Dr. Johari Jabir. The course centers on healing as a life-long learning commitment that sustains a collective public witness of justice. Mindfulness is but one path we can use in the service of healing, justice, and the Beloved Community. 
The GoFundMe campaign raised $1,829