By Ryan Lamberton
Special to The Voice

“What is a moment in your life when leadership and social justice were connected?” asked Malena Hernandez, a senior at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga. There was buzz in the room as 130 students from various Bay Area colleges and universities stood up, introduced themselves, and shared stories with one another.

In 2004, as a St. Mary’s undergraduate, I may have said, “Befriending a 12-year-old boy named Gustavo while serving in the Dominican Republic.” Today, as a member of the college staff, I answered, “Right now! Surrounded by students who are passionate about social justice.”

As a way of celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Catholic Institute for Lasallian Social Action (CILSA) hosted a Leadership & Social Justice Conference, Oct. 17, on the Moraga campus. The theme was “Head, Heart, & Hands: Engage for Change.”

This conference brought together students from Saint Mary’s, Diablo Valley College, Notre Dame de Namur University, Santa Clara University, Sonoma State University, UC Berkeley, and the University of San Francisco. All are student leaders dedicated to social justice.

Through keynote speakers, 18 interactive workshops and networking opportunities, they were connected with essential tools to be agents of positive social change on their campuses and in their communities. Some workshops explored building leadership skills such as creating action plans or resolving conflicts, while others focused on specific social justice issues.

Wayne Meisel, a keynote speaker and president of the Bonner Foundation, shared his appreciation of the Catholic social tradition, which has deeply enriched his commitment to supporting leadership and community service programs across the country.

“It’s a theology that claims justice . . . to walk and be amongst the poor . . . and to do that with a sense of joy, a sense of possibility and hope.”

The Bonner Foundation provides scholarships for low-income students at 27 colleges and universities. In return, each scholarship recipient performs 600 hours of community service a year.

Invoking the words of Micah 6:8, Meisel invited students to write down how they would think differently, (how they would engage their heads) what they were passionate about (how they would engage their hearts) and how they would walk differently (how they would engage their hands). The room filled with another buzz of energy as the students shared their thoughts, feelings and actions concerning creating positive change.

“I realized that I was surrounded by students who are working to bring about social justice, and this makes the road to justice less lonely and difficult,” said Courtney Neal, a senior at St. Mary’s.

The other keynote speaker, Raj Jayadev of Silicon Valley De-Bug (a progressive collective of young writers, artists, organizers, and workers based in San Jose), urged students to bring about positive change through collective action. “An individual can change the unchangeable by working in concert with others,” Jayadev said.

Underscoring the idea of collective action, conference participants were told about the United Nations Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals to end extreme poverty by 2015 and invited to join the “Stand against Poverty” campaign in support of the millennium development goals. More than 173 million people around the world stood up October 16-18 in solidarity to end extreme poverty.

The 130 students who stood up at the leadership conference are committed to taking action, making stands for social justice and becoming change agents for their communities and society. As the organizer of this regional conference, I am both proud and humbled to stand in solidarity with them.

(Ryan Lamberton is community engagement coordinator for the Catholic Institute for Lasallian Social Action (CILSA) at Saint Mary’s College. For more information on CILSA go to: www.stmarys-ca.edu/cilsa)

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