Mission Statement

William Jewell College establishes the Center for Justice and Sustainability in order to develop in its students the commitment, competence and confidence to address significant societal, economic, and ecological challenges facing society.

• Justice/Sustainability is the ‘center’, the focal point, for a Jewell-Liberal Arts education.
• This ‘center’ represents the College’s historic and dynamic expression of the Judeo-Christian faith.
• Jewell students think with a lens of justice about social, economic, and environmental systems. 

The work of CJS is organized around three goals --

-Learn:  the majority of William Jewell College students learn about issues related to social and economic justice and environmental sustainability
-Practice:  the Center provides the College community, students, faculty and staff, opportunities to conduct research about and to work on projects for justice and sustainability
-Partner:  the Center maintains a presence beyond the campus that includes alumni, friends, and partners

Signature Programs

• Annual Justice and Sustainability Summit
• Projects for Justice and Sustainability Grants
• CJS Lectures
• Local Action Projects
• Campus Sustainability Work Group
• Village Partners Project – distinctive Jewell approach to community development (Honduras/Kansas City)

Dr. David Walton of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and Partners in Health in Haiti, spoke on our campus in October 2011.  He used an analogy that is an applicable to CJS.  He asked us to think of standing at a raging river just as it goes over a falls.  People are in the river and going over the falls.  He compared many humanitarian efforts to heroic people leaving the bank, entering the river, and struggling to pull people to safety.  At some point, you have to go upstream to where the people are falling into the river.  Going upstream is descriptive of CJS.  We want our students to be people who go upstream, learn why people are falling into the river, and devise solutions to prevent them from falling in the river.

CJS Work 2011-2012

At the start of the year, CJS, Student Senate, and the leaders of Sustainable Life worked together to orient new students to the sustainable practices of Dining Services and to the goals of CJS (learn, practice, partner).

A Sustainability Work Group representing all populations of the campus functioned throughout the year.

The Smith Family Lectures in Contemporary Jewish Life and Thought (four lectures) were held this year with the generous support of the family of Ed and Beth Smith (through the Jewish Community Foundation).  The lecturer was Rabbi Neal Schuster.

September and October were dedicated to an energy conservation emphasis.  The emphasis began with people painting their feet green and then placing their footprints on signboards to show their commitment to sustainability.  The signboards included ideas for ‘reducing one’s carbon footprint’ on campus.  The signboards were moved to different locations on campus throughout the month.  The emphasis concluded in October with a competition among residence halls for reducing water consumption.  For two weeks, water use was reduced by 20% on campus.

In October announcement of the Projects for Justice and Sustainability and Pritchard Humanitarian Service Award competitions and application materials were distributed to campus.  The deadline for full applications was December 9, 2011. 

November 14 -18, Professor Nicholas Wolterstorff visited campus.  He delivered a public lecture on Wednesday evening, met with faculty on Tuesday evening, and visited classes during the week.  Kurt Ver Beek and Jill Van Beek from the Association for a More Just Society also visited campus.  They led two workshops for students on putting justice into action.  AJS is active in justice issues in Honduras.  Jewell has been working on community development in Honduras for 5 years.  These leaders from AJS brought ideas for new dimensions to Jewells work in Honduras.

In November, the Physics Department with the leadership of Patrick Bunton, conducted a Rocket Camp for middle school students in the Westside neighborhood of Kansas City.  The students built model rockets and then traveled to the Jewell campus to launch them.  The Rocket Camp was an initial project for a VPP relationship with Westside Housing Organization.

In December, the following CJS grants and Pritchard Awards were granted.

Pritchard Awards

Caty Compton and Emily Gates will be using their Pritchard Award to travel to LaVictoire, Haiti to provide mission work through Haiti Missions, Inc. They will spend the majority of their time working on teaching English to school children, as well as adults. In addition to providing these classes, they will be educating villagers about the importance of sanitation and wellness in hopes to stop the destruction of preventable diseases such as cholera and malaria. Emily and Caty also hope to find opportunities for community Bible studies and fellowship with the women of LaVictoire.

Projects for Justice and Sustainability

Cole Wrisinger, Keith Smith and Christian Zirbel

Wrisinger, Smith, and Zirbel traveled to Honduras with the January 2012 Jewell team.  They learned that the most pressing needs are for a transformer for the village to facilitate electrical power and a fishing boat to initiate a new commercial fishing cooperative.  Cole, Keith and Christian are planning and implementing a fund raising strategy for these two projects.  The goal is to raise the needed funds by December 2012.

Chelsea Taff, Christopher Reimer and Charlotte Belshe

Chelsea, Christopher and Charlotte used their Pritchard Award to provide a connection between Jewell and “TOMS Day Without Shoes” annual event, April 10. Chelsea, Christopher and Charlotte hosted a day and evening for William Jewell students to be together as a community to raise awareness about the mission of TOMS. The Jewell community was encouraged to go barefoot for the entire day in order to experience the pains of having no shoes. The day concluded with a campus-wide dinner picnic, an outdoor concert and an informational documentary about the cause.

January 6 – 16, Jeff Buscher and Lori Wetmore led a team of students to Honduras.  They worked in the village of Embarcadero as well as visiting several villages in different parts of the area.  These visits anticipate new work in other villages.

February 24-25 was the annual CJS Summit.  The theme of the Summit was Village Partners Project – Honduras.  For the Summit we welcomed three partners from Jewell’s work in Honduras:  Prof. Rafael Carias, Sarahi Zeron, and David Romero.  On Friday evening a dinner/reunion was held of Jewell students, faculty and staff who traveled to Honduras on Jewell sponsored trips.  After dinner there was a program, “Accomplishments, Memories, Reflections.”  On Saturday was a one-day workshop focusing on the Village Partners Project Approach, the model Jewell has developed for service/mission work.  The afternoon session began with a panel discussion with the three Honduran partners.  Concluding the Summit was an address by Marco Cáceres, founder of Project Honduras, an annual conference held in Copan that brings together all the NGOs and groups working for the betterment of Honduras.

On March 2, Adam Campbell led thirty members of the Jewell community in a conversation about Permaculture.  Here is a sampling of what Adam shared.  "The Prime Directive of Permaculture is - "the only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children.  Make it now."  The guiding Ethics of Permaculture are:  1. care for the earth; 2. care for people; and 3. set limits, and share the surplus.

In late March, Jewell students from the group DIAKRINOMENA conducted an event on campus called Facets of Faith.  The event mirrored the Table of Faiths event sponsored by the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council.  The event brought to campus representatives of diverse religions who displayed information in the Union Atrium and then shared table fellowship with students in the dining hall.