Gries Center Hosts Philanthropy Consortium

Earlier this month, Director of Community Partnerships and Service Learning Sara Mierke '84, along with Yolanda Polk, Scott Looney, and Monique DeVane, hosted members of the Philanthropy Education and Service Learning Consortium and the CCIS Service Learning/Civic Engagement Affinity Group at Hawken’s Gries Center at University Circle . Attendees came from as far as Portland and Atlanta and were particularly interested to learn about how Hawken came to establish the Gries Center and its related programming. Prior to meeting at the Gries Center, Chris Bongorno from University Circle, Inc. gave the group an animated walking tour of the Circle, beginning at the Gries Center and continuing through Wade Oval, the Botanical Gardens, the Weatherhead/Frank Gerry building, and back through Hazel Drive to our urban campus. Sara Mierke commented after the forum, “Participants were particularly struck by how committed Scott and our board are to institutional transformation rooted in civic engagement and experiential learning.”