The Consultants undergo a competitive selection process and, once selected, are under contract for two years. They educate the campus community in the pedagogy of service-learning, with emphasis on faculty education, and reinforce the awareness raised by the Service-Learning Coordinator. They receive an intensive one-day training in service-learning, meet bi-monthly as a team, and consult with faculty colleagues regularly.

Website: www.norwich.edu/servicelearning

Contact: Michelle Barber, mbarber {at} norwich(.)edu

The center’s mission is to lead the University’s engagement efforts and service to the state of North Carolina and beyond by linking the expertise and energy of faculty, staff, and students to the needs of the people.

In all our work, the Carolina Center for Public Service seeks to build partnerships throughout the University and the state as we:

– Advance the quality and sustainability of efforts through effective practices
– Recognize and celebrate exemplary service
– Share information, strategies, and outcomes of UNC s service endeavors
– Facilitate community-based scholarship in addressing community issues

As the first public university, Carolina has a proud history of changing lives through educating scholars and leaders dedicated to forging a brighter future for our state, nation and the world. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is committed to expanding its tradition of engagement and responsiveness through the Carolina Center for Public Service.

The center provides a number of programs and services for students, faculty, staff, and the public, including: awards, service fellowships, trainings, and enrichment programs for students; grants and awards for student organizations; trainings, awards, and grants for faculty; an online searchable database of University engagement activities; a weekly listserv of service opportunities; an annual volunteer fair of community agencies; and an annual “”Bus Tour”" of the state for new faculty and administrators.

For more information, visit our webpage: www.unc.edu/cps/

Contact:
Lynn Blanchard, Director
Carolina Center for Public Service
(919)843-7568, ccps {at} unc(.)edu

This is an example of a true community partnership. In Fall 1999, outgoing President Randolph asked the college to identify a project that would involve our “”GateWay Family”" (our entire campus community). About that time, we received a call from the principal of our neighboring elementary school asking us to consider becoming community consultants to deliver the Junior Achievement curriculum to all classrooms at her school. Junior Achievement s mission of teaching children to value themselves, others, their education, and the American free enterprise system aligned perfectly with the the goals of our service-learning program. A representative from Junior Achievement met with our Service-learning Committee, a interdisciplinary group charged with overseeing service-learning activities on our campus and making related recommendations to the administration, to explain the program. The committee embraced the project and recommended to President Randolph that this would be our all campus spring project.

In January, President Randolph was reassigned to the MCCD District office as Acting Vice-Chancellor for Quality and Employee Development. Acting President Gaudet made the suggestion that we form teams of GWCC personnel and service-learning students. The call went out from President Gaudet and volunteers from all divisions came forward. While all volunteers saw the project as a way to fill an unmet need for an inner city school, faculty viewed it as an opportunity to partner with their students, students saw the project as a way to interact more informally with campus personnel and administrators had an opportunity to interact more with students. In less than two weeks, all 24 classes were assigned. President Gaudet volunteered to be consultant to an 8th grade class. (As an extension activity, he and the nursing faculty member who was the consultant to the other grade class, sponsored Career Awareness visit to the campus for the 8th grade students and their parents. Thirty-five participants spent three hours at the campus completing computer based career assessments and touring the campus.)

A core team with faculty representation from each instructional division and the Director of Community Partnership Programs participated in a training workshop with the teachers from the elementary school and went through a Junior Achievement provided train-the-consultant workshop. Team members in turn provided training to campus volunteers. During the next three months, teams made 6-8 visits to their assigned classrooms to deliver the citizenship lessons. The evaluations have been overwhelmingly positive and about 75% of the consultants have asked to participate next year.

Our campus has decided to continue the project. Ideally, children who spend their K-8 years at Crockett Elementary will have nine years of citizenship and stay in school messages. We also see it as an opportunity to informally mentor our future civic leaders and our future GateWay students. We are certain that there will be additional related service-learning opportunities at the school.

Website: www.gwc.maricopa.edu/partnerships

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

The Tutoring Program utilizes the volunteer services of the University s student body to act as Reading and Math tutors for K-6 grade pupils in the Alvord Unified School District. While realizing the nation s need for quality teachers, the Tutoring Program provides an opportunity for University students to explore teaching as a career goal. As a result of the tutoring experience, several tutors express a new or increased desire to enter the teaching profession. They also state benefits of acquiring effective teaching skills, gaining leadership confidence and making a difference in the lives of others. While disadvantaged students receive this additional learning opportunity, they also gain self-esteem, enthusiasm for learning, hope for a better future and a positive perception of La Sierra University.

The Mentoring Program is providing an equally beneficial experience for its participants. This program places high school students in a one-to-one mentoring relationship working with a University professor. This employment opportunity allows them to explore their interests in a chosen career field. The mentoring experience teaches them how to operate in a professional work environment. In addition to learning new skills, these students testify about other benefits increased self-esteem, motivation toward higher education and a positive perception of the La Sierra University s educational experience. The University professors make these benefits a reality through their dedicated volunteer service. While the professors appreciate the assistance they receive from these students, they welcome the chance to make a difference in the lives of our youth.

The Tutoring and Mentoring programs twofold ability to benefit every participant makes the Arlanza/La Sierra Community Collaborative a perfect example of “”best practices.”"

Operation Bridgeport was organized by Phyllis Macklett, the director of community service, at Sacred Heart University as a method of introducing faculty not only to service-learning, but also to the neighborhood. While Sacred Heart draws a considerable portion of its student body from the neighboring community of Bridgeport, few faculty members live in the area. As a result, faculty are largely unfamiliar with the neighborhood, which is in the most poverty-stricken district in the state. Through Operation Bridgeport, a small group of faculty spend a weekend in downtown Bridgeport at the St. Charles Urban Center to learn more about the lives of the people who live just outside the place where they teach.

The program begins with a guided bus tour, narrated by a Sacred Heart professor, that transports faculty from the richest parts of the city to the impoverished downtown area. After arriving downtown, faculty meet with the leaders of community organizations from the area, between doing service work in the neighborhood at Habitat for Humanity sites, food pantries, or youth centers.

Sunday morning brings a unique twist, when faculty members cook breakfast for Sacred Heart students who live in some of the most impoverished sections of Bridgeport. After the breakfast, students deliver a presentation to faculty on their experiences growing up and living in Bridgeport. According to Ms. Macklett, the presentations never fail to move faculty members, many of whom were previously unaware of the hardships faced by some of their students.

A faculty-administration brainstorming session that comes at the end of the weekend brings ideas from faculty excited about new possibilities. In the past, faculty have suggested new courses and new community activities for Sacred Heart. The outgrowth of one weekend was a free Grassroots Leadership Training Seminar Series for community leaders from Bridgeport. Faculty involved in the series gave seminars on grantwriting, communication skills, and group organizing.

Several faculty who attend the weekend have gone on to incorporate service-learning and community engagement into their classes. Dr. John DeGraffenried, one faculty member introduced to service-learning in the first Operation Bridgeport, now offers free after-school art classes as a community service in high schools in Bridgeport and neighboring towns. He ends each year with an art show. Bridgeport youth who once would have never come to Sacred Heart University s campus have their art on display there; Sacred Heart faculty who once would have never met these youth, see the work that the youth produced under the tutelage of a fellow faculty member.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

For more information: http://www.sacredheart.edu/mission/service/lead-serv/OpBpt/

For many years FSU has worked well with the school district to achieve their mutual agenda. The new agreement sets forth a “”professional development schools network”" with the intent of reforming schools, developing exemplary models for teacher and administrator preservice and inservice education, and achieving the highest quality educational results. Through the implementation of this partnership special attention and resources will be focused on the southside schools, most of which are in neighborhoods nearby the campus and most of which are lower achieving than other schools in the district.

The collaboration is managed by a highly experienced former principal reporting to the provost and is overseen by a steering committee comprised of the university presidents, superintendent, education and arts and science deans. Advice is provided by two committees broadly representing interests and disciplines: the professional development school committee and the outreach advisory committee. A needs assessment undertaken among the southside school administrators provided important guidance for the new initiative.

Early projects include establishing professional development school relationships among the College of Arts and Science, the Colleges of Education, and several “”high needs”" elementary and middle schools which focus on reading and literacy. Technology training is being provided by the university this summer to support these efforts. Several joint proposals have been written to provide resources to support the work of the partnership.

One visible example of the partnership is the mentoring program through which faculty and staff have committed to working with youngsters in southside schools. Both the FSU president and the LCS superintendent have chosen to mentor to demonstrate their support for the program.

For further information contact Dr. Laura Hassler, K-12 Initiatives Director or go to http://www.fsu.edu/~k12.

A few years ago Dr. Bob DeHaan, a professor of biology at Emory University and a resident of Atlanta, decided it was time something was done about science education in elementary schools. Recent research showed that the way science was taught to elementary school students was simply incompatible with the nature of the discipline. Classes looked more like science history teaching students about science and the key words and ideas than like science education teaching students how to do science and engage in scientific inquiry about the world around them.

Dr. DeHaan approached the principal at his grandson s elementary school and asked whether seventy math and science majors would be of use to teachers. When the answer was yes, he found a host of Emory students who were interested in participating. The students, all science and math majors, received nine hours of training in which they learned not just how to help teachers, but how to help change the way teachers teach. These students would serve as science partners in Atlanta public schools, assisting teachers in inquiry-based science instruction. Together, they founded Elementary Science Education Partners (ESEP).

At many colleges and universities, students are matched with public schools to provide services to children. While such a match may be a service partnership, it is not an educational partnership. In an educational partnership, campuses work with the community to effect change in the way education itself works. What made ESEP a true partnership was the idea of participatory reform, which guided ESEP s work. By this method, teachers and administrators work with college students to take an active role in the reform process.

ESEP was an immediate hit, and Dr. DeHaan soon discovered that this partnership was only the beginning. Science teachers began requesting that their principals provide them with additional science instruction. Out of this request, grew a teacher training program: Science, Knowledge, Inquiry, Leadership (SKIL), a program in which teachers who have worked with ESEP provide professional development to their colleagues in the Atlanta public school system. Every year, 38 SKIL teachers provide this science training.

The partnership continues to grow. With demand for undergraduate science partners outpacing the supply at Emory, six other campuses in Atlanta have joined ESEP: Clark Atlanta University, Georgia Sate University, Morehouse College, the Morehouse School of Medicine, Morris Brown College, and Spelman College. Students, faculty, and staff work in mentoring and partnering relationships with elementary teachers, principals, and the Atlanta Board of Education. The Atlanta public school system now provides every elementary school science teacher in Atlanta with science kits that are designed by the partnership members to assist in course instruction.

What began as a small-scale effort to change science education at the school where Dr. DeHaan s grandson was a student, has grown into a partnership that includes all seventy Atlanta public elementary schools. By the year 2000, ESEP will have worked with all 1,700 science teachers in the Atlanta school system.

From

Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

For more information: http://www.emory.edu/COLLEGE/ESEP/

DePaul University is a Catholic, urban institution, which was founded in 1898 to educate the children of Chicago’s large immigrant community, and has had service and citizenship as part of its core values throughout its history. DePaul has taken very seriously its responsibilities as a member of the larger community of Chicago. As it grew, the University included in its mission the education not only of first generation Americans, but also other non-traditional and underserved students and has as one of its goals being an internationally known provider of the highest quality professional education for adult, part-time students. In recent years the University has intensified its efforts at community service through a wide variety of programs that aim to provide solutions to the problems that face Chicago and many other large American cities.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Web site: http://www.luc.edu/curl/prag/

Contact: Philip Nyden, Director, pnyden {at} luc(.)edu

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

More information on the project:
The Program is a service-learning program centered at Purdue University and supported by a Learn and Serve America Higher Education grant. Students from freshmen though seniors work in multi-disciplinary teams to solve engineering-based real world community problems in partnership with community service and education groups. Last year, the program involved 249 students from 20 different university departments, including liberal arts as well as engineering majors. Notre Dame and Iowa State universities also have EPICS service-learning efforts.

The Results:Last Spring, Purdue EPICS students developed a database for the Tippecanoe County probation court and county caseworkers. Other initiatives included a “”web information system”" for the local Habitat for Humanity – EPICS, and facilities designed for Purdue students with disabilities. Purdue and Notre Dame EPICS students set up database systems for community agencies serving the homeless in Lafayette and South Bend. A survey of service-learning participants resulted in 75% saying EPICS made them more resourceful, 70% reported a positive impact on organizational skills and 83% said their communication skills benefited.

Why It Works: Local industry joins faculty members advising the 20 EPICS student teams. Starting this fall, an advisor from Microsoft in Washington State will conduct a pilot experiment in distance advising through video teleconferences. The Local Corporate Partners Program and Corporate Team Sponsor Program seek to match an industry partner with each team. There is strong support from the universities. The Program Director, Professor William Oakes, was chosen as a Campus Compact Faculty Fellow.

Lessons: Building on the success at Purdue, Notre Dame, and Iowa State, EPICS is expanding to involve three additional schools, including Wisconsin-Madison, Georgia Tech, and Case Western Reserve. Microsoft Research endorsed EPICS as a model for service-learning and has pledged over $1 million in software, training materials and books. The expanded effort is supported by a Learn and Service America Higher Education grant.

Website: http://epics.ecn.purdue.edu/

Contact: Co-Directors – Leah H. Jamieson, lhj {at} ecn.purdue(.)edu or William C. Oakes, oakes {at} purdue(.)edu

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

web site: http://www.iupui.edu/~floc/home.html

e-mail: floc {at} topaz.iupui(.)edu

See New York Times article “”For Homeless, Rebirth with Socrates and Plato”", by Ethan Bonne

There are several factors that influence whether faculty will view service as a central element in their scholarship. Three key components community relationships, institutional support, and scholarly integrity are illustrated in the example of Regis College. At that school, a service enclave a small group of faculty that has adopted the role of public servant as a primary responsibility illustrates what scholarship can look like when faculty recognize the importance of professional service.

Regis College is a small, liberal arts college in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. Not far from Regis, Boston-based parochial schools have recently begun efforts to extend enrollment through scholarships to low-income children, many of whom are from recent immigrant families. In the spring of 1997, principals of three grammar schools and one high school expressed the need for health services for their students, many of whom were underserved. While basic services would be available at public schools, the parochial schools had no way of providing them.

When this need came to her attention, Regis s nursing department chair Amy Anderson visited the school and was, she recalls, appalled at the unmet health needs of children. Working closely with the schools and the local department of public health, the nursing department set up clinics at each school. The close relationships and communication that the college established with the schools and other health services helped the effort come off without a hitch. In the fall of 1997, the clinics went into operation, each staffed by a nursing faculty member and students.

With full funding from Regis College, the four clinics have been able to provide immunizations and conduct physical examinations. Student health problems are discussed with parents and students receive important vaccinations with parental approval. Classes in prevention and health promotion are offered for parents and children. In the course of the school year, the clinics have treated 859 children, most of whom would have received no health care otherwise. With additional funding from the college to purchase new equipment in the fall, the faculty and students will be able to perform hearing tests on all children.

The institution doesn t provide only financial support for this effort. The service that faculty are providing is given the same emphasis as would teaching or research. In terms of faculty workload, serving at the clinic once a week is counted as the equivalent of teaching one course on campus.

The growing relationship between the college and the school clinics helps improve the health of children in the community while fulfilling the service mission of faculty at the college. Through the clinics, nursing faculty have been able to engage their discipline in meeting a defined need in the community. Although the connection between the discipline and community need may be clear in a service profession such as nursing, it can be made with some effort in any field, from engineering where faculty can use engineering skills to help communities design solutions to problems to philosophy where faculty can lead community members in thoughtful discussion and decision-making related to community issues.

The relationship that faculty have developed with the community, the level of support they have received from their institution, and the extent of the tie between their discipline and service they provide make this an exemplary case of professional service in academic scholarship.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Regis College Department of Nursing: nursing {at} regiscollege(.)edu

Fitchburg, Massachusetts, like many small cities around the United States, has a downtown that looks more like a ghost town; the growth of the suburbs has come at the expense of the inner city. Two years ago, the Fitchburg Safe and Healthy Neighborhood Coalition came to Fitchburg State University, asking for their assistance to build and revitalize the community of Fitchburg. The two organizations joined together to apply for funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development s Office of University Partnerships an office developed to recognize the potential of such partnerships to address urban problems.

With this funding, the Fitchburg partners have embarked on a series of initiatives that highlight the variety of ways in which campuses across the country have engaged in community development. These include: initiating neighborhood planning; improving public health; supporting economic development; and changes within the structure of the university as a result.

The first and foremost role of the university in community development is as a support system for neighborhood residents to discuss how they want to change their community. Community development simply cannot occur if the community itself is not the central figure in all planning. Faculty and staff at Fitchburg State participate in meetings with neighborhood associations and community residents to discuss the residents plans and vision for the community. Through these meetings, ideas are shared and planning for specific projects begins. The university also helps leaders of community organizations to build their skills through the Citizens Leadership Institute, which provides training for leaders of community organizations.

A number of community development efforts focus on the health of the community. In Fitchburg, the neighborhood coalition had already conducted a health needs assessment before the university began working with them. When the university joined the partnership, the neighborhood association found that they were able to re-assess what they could accomplish. Working together, the university and community agencies developed an information referral system for community residents to more easily access health services. Plans now call for the development of a community health clinic over the next year. Economic development is key to bringing back the jobs and commercial life that enhance community development. Fitchburg State and the local community development corporation are attacking this issue on two fronts. First, they have developed an entrepreneurial training program for small business owners and residents with entrepreneurial aspirations to learn effective business practices. Second, they have developed the Main Street Business Support Center, a building which houses the training program and also serves as a place for community members and associations to meet downtown.

These efforts have led to introspection and change at Fitchburg State, as various departments re-envision how they can support the community. The university has provided release time for the chairs of the nursing and business departments to support efforts in the community. The nursing department is revising its curriculum to integrate service-learning and community engagement. Various other faculty members, students, and staff have begun to commit their time and university resources to community activities that support the community development effort.

Through community development, Fitchburg State has begun to redefine its role in the community, and the community s role in higher education.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

For more information: http://www.fsc.edu/community/aboutus/partnership/

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Outreach at Michigan State virtually identical to community engagement as it has been discussed here is defined as a form of scholarship that cuts across teaching, research, and service. It involves generating, transmitting, applying, and preserving knowledge for the direct benefit of external audiences in ways that are consistent with university and unit missions.

Faculty are rewarded, as they have always been, for teaching that responds to the needs of their students on campus. But faculty are also rewarded for teaching that responds to the needs of members of the external community for instance, by teaching outside the university, or through service-learning.

As always, faculty are rewarded for research that builds knowledge in their profession. But they are rewarded still more when that research engages and serves the outside community.

Faculty are rewarded for service to their profession or the university. However, they are also rewarded for service to outside organizations and communities in need that benefit from the skills of their discipline.

The university s Office of the Vice Provost for University Outreach provides top level support and leadership for this new approach to scholarship. The Office has developed a guidebook distributed and presented in workshops to deans, faculty, and academic chairs that provides in-depth explanations, planning tools, and resource materials on the outreach component of scholarly activity. The office provides a file of model faculty portfolios and case studies to help faculty envision how they can document their outreach activities. As another form of support, experienced faculty members serve as coaches and peer reviewers for faculty who are preparing documentation for promotion and tenure. Ask how faculty get tenure on most campuses and you ll hear many of the same answers: publish articles; teach courses; serve on university committees. At Michigan State, the answers will be somewhat different: publish articles about research you have done to address real community problems; teach courses that provide direct benefit to community members; and don t only serve on university committees, serve society.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Contact: outreach {at} msu(.)edu or visit http://ntweb4.ais.msu.edu/

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

web site: http://www.kirtland.cc.mi.us/~techprep/index.html

Contact: Nicholas Holton holtonn {at} k2.kirtland.cc.mi(.)us