Mercyhurst students develop products to support MCRC mission as it approaches 50th anniversary
Mercyhurst University students are pooling their creative resources to help the Multicultural Community Resource Center prepare for its 50th anniversary in 2025.
The MCRC’s mission is to promote the development, empowerment, and advancement of all people while preserving their cultural identity. Toward that end, students in Dr. Benjamin Scharff's Introduction to Public History and Museum Studies class collaborated with Dr. Alice Edwards, Mercyhurst Spanish professor and MCRC board chair, to produce items supporting the agency’s mission.
Students created Erie history-themed coloring books to help children of refugees and new Americans learn about their community, coffee sleeves featuring snippets of MCRC’s history and QR codes to the agency’s website, kids’ trading cards and postcards that highlight historic people and places of Erie, and a webpage providing guidance on how to conduct oral histories of Erie’s migrant community.
"Good history connects the present to the past, and good public history improves our community,” said Scharff. “In engaging projects on behalf of MCRC, Mercyhurst students will have positively impacted the lives of Erie's refugee and new American community in powerful ways."
The students are slated to present their products to MCRC executive director Katie Kretz, agency staff, and Edwards at MCRC headquarters, 554 E. 10th St., on Wednesday, Dec. 13, from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m.
"Dr. Scharff's Public History class is a great example of community-engaged teaching that meets a need of a community partner while providing students with an opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills to meaningful, real-world experiences," Edwards said.
The community is invited to attend. Contact Scharff at bscharff@mercyhurst.edu with questions.
PHOTO: Dr. Ben Scharff previews a history-themed coloring book created by his students for migrant children.