The project students undertake, and the logistical support required for the project are determined during the summer months by the Director of Internships and Volunteer Programs. Projects in recent years have included: fence painting and spreading sand (seven tons!) throughout the playground of a local pre-school; cleaning up the local Little League field; landscaping the grounds and interior painting of the Crippled Children s Society; and landscaping the grounds of a local public school.

The Director has attempted to select projects which: provide new students with an opportunity to see they can make a tangible difference; provide students with a common bonding experience; and serve as vehicles to let students know about other “”helping”" opportunities in which they might involve themselves during their time at the College. Most importantly, the project – an outreach effort – serves to establish relationships with the local community.

The New Student Community Service project was initiated six years ago when student government agreed to give up a portion of the orientation program dedicated to social programming. Students were initially reticent about relinquishing that time. However, after the first entering class successfully completed their project they challenged each succeeding class to do a bigger or better job and the project took on a life of its own.

Contact: Bart Baca, Director of Aquaculture Programs, baca {at} nova(.)edu

Davie Aquaculture Research Center web site: http://www.nova.edu/ocean/aqua/ (this is the former sewage plant where the fish are grown)

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

Contact: Professor Christina McOmber at cmcomber {at} cornellcollege(.)edu or (319) 895-4137

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

Website: http://www.massart.edu/at_massart/

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

One example is a team of six students who worked with an anti-youth violence agency to create a “”national peace sculpture”" made out of five thousand toy guns turned in by children across the country. The sculpture is a permanent installation at the Capitol Children s Museum in Washington DC.

Students also coordinate an after-school program for second graders, and serve as mentors. Called “”Sharing Our Stories,”" this America Reads program was designed by the College to improve the literacy skills of children through the visual arts. Each year, forty children write stories based on their own lives, and with the help of MassArt students, illustrate and bind them into books.

Many MassArt students work on creating murals in collaboration with community agencies throughout the City. Recent mural sites include a Salvation Army daycare center and a pediatric oncology center. All service programs offered by the College provide students with opportunities for meaningful reflection on both issues and their goals for themselves as artists and citizens.

Website: http://www.massart.edu/at_massart/ (“”Community Partnerships”" is in the left sidebar)

Website: http://www.massart.edu/at_massart/ (“”Community Service-Learning”" is in the left sidebar)

This past semester, a course, called “”Navajo of the Southwest,”" was jointly developed by a professor of Anthropology and the Associate Dean of Students. Students studied the art and culture of the Navajo, as well as the history and the current social, political and economic issues. As a part of the curriculum, the class traveled to New Mexico for an Alternative Spring Break, working with Navajo children on the reservation to create a collaborative mural. Before leaving for New Mexico, students also learned about issues of diversity and culture while engaged in service, basic group process theory, and tools for successful collaboration. Over seventy students applied for the fifteen spaces available in this class, which was an overwhelming success. Through relationships developed with Navajo while in New Mexico, students became aware of the issues surrounding uranium mining on the reservation, and continue to be activists in working to gain compensation for Navajo who contracted cancer as a result of their work in the mines.

Website: http://www.massart.edu/at_massart/ (“”Community Service-Learning”" is in the left sidebar)

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

Website: http://www.massart.edu/at_massart/ under “”Community Service Learning”" then “”Co- Curricular Activities”".

The mayor obliged this unusual request, and identified twelve Brainerd residents. Central Lakes staff promptly contacted these residents and invited them onto campus, where they met and watched a brief film about asset-based community development. That night, inspired by the film and the discussion that followed, the group of twelve voted unanimously to form a residents association. With that, SEBRA South-East Brainerd Residents Association was born.

South-East Brainerd is the oldest part of Brainerd. Few residents own their own homes, incomes are low, and crime is high. In 1995, most neighbors didn t know one another, and there was little communal activity. Working with the college, SEBRA set out to change all that. The result is a neighborhood transformed not in grand ways that will put Brainerd on the map, but in small ways that highlight the vitality of human relationships. SEBRA began holding monthly meetings, which now bring together 65 or more community members each month. The association began printing a quarterly community newsletter, which Central Lakes work-study students help to write and distribute. They established an annual neighborhood clean-up day, which brings the whole neighborhood together once a year.

Students in a sociology class helped the neighborhood to develop an asset map, documenting residents skills and talents, which they can use to exchange services. The association brought in the local police to conduct crime prevention workshops in the neighborhood, and residents have volunteered their homes as safe houses for youth on the way home from school. Students from Central Lakes published oral histories of the community based on interviews with elderly residents.

Community members report that since the founding of the association three years ago, they know more of their neighbors, speak out more frequently, and find the town cleaner and safer. Indeed, since 1995 crime in the neighborhood is down 40%. Since that pivotal day three years ago, Central Lakes has played an integral role in the community. It has furnished Brainerd residents with the tools for reform, and manpower in the form of students and faculty to help facilitate their efforts. But perhaps the greatest contribution of college constituents has been their insistence that the association set its own agenda, and mine the resources of its own community, so that residents can accomplish change on their own. We know we ve done our job well, staff at the college s community service office explain, when we re no longer needed. Even if they say they are no longer needed, Central Lakes students, faculty, and staff continue to share ideas, advice, and work with the neighborhood. Through the relationships they have built, they have done more than serve South-East Brainerd; they have become a part of it.

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

During the fall of 1998, Defiance College participated in Kids Creation Community Playground. This project constructed a playground for the children of Defiance, and helped build a sense of community. The project cost $200,000. Defiance College faculty, staff and students joined the community in the weeklong build. Through the efforts of 4500 volunteers, the playground was built in six days.

This project gave Defiance College a perfect opportunity to put to work its service-learning philosophy. Students in marketing classes helped with promotions while those in communication classes served on committees and art students helped with murals. Instructors were able to tie course concepts and theories to the work that was being done by Kids Creation before and during the build. Our students gained an opportunity to see how their coursework relates to service as they enhanced their sense of civic responsibility.

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

Website: http://www.newurbanarts.org/