In these ways, the Public Service Scholars Program adds depth to a student’s service experience. As these students work to improve the quality of life for people in our community and state, they help fulfill Carolina s promise of service, made by the nation s first public university over 200 years ago.

The program is open to all full-time UNC-Chapel Hill undergraduate students with at least four semesters remaining. Program requirements include:

– Attend Service Scholars Program Orientation
– Perform and document 300 hours of service
– Complete 2 service-learning classes
– Complete trainings/workshops in four skill areas
– Create and present a summative Service Portfolio
– Maintain a minimum overall GPA

Students fulfilling these requirements receive the following recognition:

– Notation of public service achievement on their official academic transcript (students with a minimum GPA of 2.5 receive “”special recognition in public service”"; students with a minimum GPA of 3.0 receive “”Public Service Scholar”"
– Listing in the commencement program
– Certificate of achievement and a letter from the Chancellor
– A special event honoring their accomplishments

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

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

SDSU Service Learning home: http://servicelearning.sdsu.edu/
E-mail: servicelearning {at} sdsu(.)edu

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.

Website: http://www.eckerd.edu/academics/

Not all community service, however, is good community service. Unfortunately, service can easily be done badly optimistic ideas thrown together can cause more harm than good. Fortunately, service can also be done well bringing mutual benefit to those serving and those served. The Harris Homes First Grade Initiative provides an example of co-curricular service at its best.

The initiative started in 1996, when parents at Harris Homes in Atlanta suggested that their children be exposed to college life through mentoring. The idea was a tried and true one: mentors are matched one-on-one with children whom they serve as a teacher and friend once a week. In the process, the children gain new visions of what the future might look like. One hundred twenty-five first graders from Harris Homes were paired with 125 freshman college students from Spelman College and Morehouse College, and a co-curricular service project had begun.

This alone would be a strong, on-going, co-curricular service. But there s more. The college students realized over time that their one-on-one relationship with these children could not so easily be relegated to a once-a-week relationship. For one thing, college students are part of a college, and it was difficult to separate their service work from that. So, mentees would come over to campus for visits with their mentors. And have lunches with their mentors. And sleepovers.

Just as college students are part of their college, the mentees they worked with were part of families. As it had been at the beginning of the program, parents input remained a driving force of the program. Mentors invited entire families onto campus, offered to share university resources, and acted as resources for neighborhood parents to address issues and concerns in the neighborhood.

It is now three years later. The mentees, now third graders, have become a familiar part of campus. Their small bodies have made frequent appearances in the cafeteria. Regularly, their shouts are heard across the campus green.

Their families too are part of campus. Support for Harris Homes parents is formalized in a peer group that meets on campus monthly to discuss common concerns. Classrooms are used for town meetings, and libraries for research.

Last year, outside funding made possible the founding of the Dean Rusk Enrichment Academy, an after-school program specializing in science and technology instruction for Harris Homes mentees that is run collaboratively by Spelman and Morehouse mentors and Harris Homes parents.

The Harris Homes Initiative has succeeded by being ongoing and long-term; building upon human relationships; involving thorough engagement with community members; and evolving over time to meet changing ideas, abilities, needs, and visions. From the start of the Harris Homes co-curricular service project in 1996, the Spelman and Morehouse students wanted their mentees to get the message that: This is college and you can come here. Over the course of three years, that message has been joined by a chorus of others: this is your neighborhood, this is your family, this is your community.

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

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.

“”Discover Chicago”" web site: http://condor.depaul.edu/~firstyr/discover.html

DePaul and other schools are setting up such educational opportunities in an effort to move away from the parties, picnics, and goofy sports competitions that traditionally mark freshman orientation week.

Website: http://www.millikin.edu/academics/mpsl/IN150.html

The Volunteer Center has been in contact with more than 50 non-profit agencies in the area and has participated in many civic events. In addition to serving on many of the mayor s projects, volunteers and contributions have been provided to local cultural festivals, Make a Wish, and MASSPIRG.

Contact person: Cindy Flynn, Coordinator, Volunteer Center
Volunteer Center web site: http://www.fsc.edu/sacc/volunteer_center.html

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

The academic element began the summer before students arrived on campus. In the months preceding their first year, incoming Wheaton students are traditionally asked to complete an academic assignment. With the newly devised introduction to service, the students academic assignment was carefully selected. First, they would read The Call of Service, Robert Cole s Pulitzer Prize-winning book about youth and community service. Then, they would translate their understanding of Cole s ideas into a community engagement project. Students came up with a variety of ways to do this. One student assessed needs in Westborough, Massachusetts, and produced his findings in a photo documentary. Another student interviewed four community leaders to write a social science essay on community issues in Westwood. When the incoming class convened for orientation week, students presented to their peers the work that they had done in response to their reading on service.

Having introduced students to service through an intellectual and experiential exercise, the planning committee organized an event that would introduce new students to the ways that talking and thinking about service can build community. Upperclassmen transformed a house on campus into the Salon du Service, an intimate caf

Website: http://scholars.umd.edu/

Contact: Larry Cockrum at cockrum {at} cofo(.)edu

In Campus Compact s recommended assessment of civic responsibility, the category of “”curriculum”" organizes one set of features through which institutions might judge themselves. Curricular changes inspired by SMSU s public affairs mission were guided by the Faculty Senate and include changes in both mandatory and optional offerings.

A number of components of the course “”Introduction to University Life”" promote public affairs: The First Year Student Convocation speech an address with a public affairs theme is processed through classroom discussions and written assignments. Large group presentations cover fundamental and contemporaneous value issues, diversity, and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Students are encouraged to vote and guided in the registration process. This course is required of incoming students who have yet to complete general education.

Capstone courses offered under the title “”Public Affairs for the 21st Century”" offer an integrative and interdisciplinary experience which addresses public affairs issues and choices of broad importance from the perspectives and interaction of multiple fields. Titles in the first offerings include “”Corporate Responsibility: The Role of Business as a Corporate Citizen,”" “”Public Opinion, Propaganda, and the Mass Media,”" “”Exploring Community Well-Being Through Performance,”" and “”Sustaining the Earth: An Integrative Perspective.”" A capstone course is required of students once they have reached 60 semester hours.

“”Citizenship and Service Learning”" options append an additional hour of credit in selected courses in exchange for the learning achieved by completing and reflecting upon forty hours of service over a semester. Students in computer science have worked with elementary students and teachers in setting up their computer facilities. Students in mathematics have tutored challenged teens. And students in fashion design have developed dignified clothing for Alzheimer patients.

SMSU s “”Introduction to University Life”" course, its “”Public Affairs for the 21st Century”" courses and its “”Citizenship and Service Learning”" program were each recognized in Templeton s Colleges That Encourage Character Development.

The public affairs mission has also inspired the development of new courses (e.g., “”Chemistry for the Citizen”"), programs (e.g., the “”Environmental Sciences and Policy”" minor), and cocurricular entities. Students find public affairs readily available and well supported at SMSU.

Public affairs at SMSU is so integrated into the whole university enterprise that it shares the highest levels of planning and reporting with academics, administrative services, student affairs, university advancement and finance.

Contact person: Dr. Debra McDowell, Director, Citizenship and Service Learning
CASL web site: http://www.smsu.edu/casl/
SMSU Public Affairs home: http://publicaffairs.smsu.edu/

For the past six years, hundreds of students in The Global Experience classes have participated in simulated Model United Nations Security Council conferences. Freshmen learn about international issues from the perspectives of the countries that are members of the U.N. Security Council. They research the history and foreign policy of their assigned countries so they can accurately portray positions on various issues. Assuming a different cultural role deepens the student s understanding of his or her own views and beliefs, as well as those of others.

Upper-class students from the 40-member Model U.N. club visit The Global Experience classes to discuss world events, the structure of the U.N., and parliamentary procedures. The Model U.N. club works with faculty to organize and run three-day mock Security Council meetings at the end of the semester. The freshmen serve as delegates and advocate for their assigned countries as the council members present and debate their positions, synthesize divergent opinions, and pass resolutions to resolve world issues, such as nuclear proliferation, the Bosnia situation, or any other current crisis or problem. Without exception, these marathon conferences bristle with energy, and the level of student engagement is remarkable. Seniors surveyed at graduation indicate that the Model U.N. simulation was the best learning experience of their freshman year or of any General Studies class in which they were enrolled.

In 1999 the methodology of this simulation was adopted for all Global Experience classes and expanded to include simulated conferences on gender and environmental issues as well as the U.N. Security Council. All first-year students now participate in simulated conferences requiring them to research, present, debate, and reach resolution on political, gender, and environmental issues from the perspectives of different foreign countries.

Connecting first-year Global Experience classes with simulated international conferences helps students to make connections between classroom knowledge and real-world dilemmas and to develop the competencies and habits necessary for responsible civic leadership. This practice has promise for developing students as capable leaders committed to finding solutions to public problems in local and global communities.

Website: http://www.elon.edu/ev/slc/index.htm

http://www.tcnj.edu/~gened/fye.htm

Service Learning Initiatives
First, the CSL assists with and expands upon the College s existing service learning initiatives. Currently, every Keystone student must take IDS 101: College Seminar, which is a three-credit course designed to acclimate new students to college studies and life. A key component of this course is a major-related service learning project. The CSL is responsible for providing expert service learning support for the approximately twenty-two sections of the course each year. The CSL also provides assistance and training to other faculty members interested in incorporating service learning into their courses. Examples of such service learning projects include: Human Services majors hosting the on-campus display of the Names Project AIDS Quilt, Physical Therapist Assistant majors volunteering at the Riverside Rumble International Wheelchair Classic, Sports and Recreation Management majors running programs at a local nursing home, Economics and Business majors working with low-income families, and Liberal Studies/Education majors mentoring/tutoring disadvantaged students through Big Brothers/Big Sisters.

Campus-Wide Service Activities
Second, the CSL also directly develops and administers volunteer service projects in which the entire campus community can participate. Such projects during the current academic year include: Special Olympics Softball Game, March of Dimes Blue Jeans for Babies, Millennium Tree of Giving, Junior Achievement Shadow Day, National Volunteer Week Activities, and the American Heart Association Heart Sale. The CSL also runs an Alternative Spring Break Trip to Washington, DC. This trip first exposes the students to issues of homelessness, poverty, and justice through service work at after-school programs and soup kitchens. It then empowers the students to address these issues through discussions with members of Congress.

Volunteer Coordination
Third, the CSL encourages civic responsibility by acting as the volunteer coordinator for the College. The CSL is constantly being contacted for assistance by local community agencies and organizations, particularly by those who address low-income and literacy issues. The CSL then attempts to meet these needs by finding volunteers from the campus community. Whenever possible, the CSL provides the volunteers with transportation and training. In this capacity, the CSL also assists the campus clubs with their service project requirements. Volunteers have recently been provided for such community partners as the Friends of the Poor Thanksgiving Dinner, NEPA Community Reading Day, Christy Mathewson Park Project, Jaycees Children s Christmas Parade, United Way Day of Caring, Friendship House Children s Fair, Scranton Tomorrow Heritage Week, Lupus Foundation Family Walk/Run, District Attorney s DWI Program, and Tyler Hospital Grounds Clean-Up.

Providing leadership and citizenship development opportunities is the fourth way the CSL promotes civic responsibility. The CSL participates in the Intercollegiate Leadership Wilkes-Barre Program. Through this program, a select group of Keystone student leaders meets once a month with student leaders from other local universities to develop skills, engage in service work, interact with community leaders, and network. In addition, the CSL coordinates Keystone s participation in Pennsylvania s “”Day in the Life of Democracy,”" which includes a voter registration drive and a guest speaker. The CSL also facilitates leadership training both on campus and throughout the region and hosts conferences for local Learn and Serve grantees. Moreover, the CSL houses the only active Circle K Service Club (the collegiate affiliate of Kiwanis) in the Scranton area. Finally, the CSL hosts public lectures on civics-related topics. Recent speakers have included: Judge Richard Conaboy, former Chairperson of the Federal Sentencing Commission; Brian Reap, Member of the Scranton City Council; US Congressperson Don Sherwood; Senator Robert Mellow, PA State Senate Minority Leader; and Attorney Eric Brown, Assistant DA from NY County.