Artist as citizen: Art and Community Service course

At the Massachusetts College of Art, a course entitled Art and Community Service emphasizes the artist s role as an active citizen by finding socially meaningful outlets for students creativity. In addition to readings and frequent journal writings, students in the class are required to develop an art-related community service project. In the past, students in the class have helped design brochures for local nonprofits, painted murals for local schools, and visited hospitals to provide art therapy for patients.   From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy Website

The Speaking, Arguing, and Writing Program

Education for citizenship has always been a cornerstone of the Liberal Arts Education at Mount Holyoke College. We believe that institutions of Higher Learning have a particular responsibility in responding to society s major challenges, through their teachings and their own actions. The challenges of the 21st century demand that we reverse the widespread feelings of apathy, impotence, and cynicism towards public and civic life and that we build a common understanding of the pressing problems of our times and of possibilities for solving them. To that effect, Mount Holyoke College founded the Center for Leadership and Public Interest Advocacy…

Service Learning Practicum for Special Education majors

This service-learning course has been developed as a first of many practicum experiences courses for Coppin State College Special Education majors. Its purpose being to enhance these students in the areas of civic literacy, cultural diversity and social conscious. To this end, this course has been designed to meet the transition needs of children with disabilities from elementary to middle school. This project will provide: transitioning elementary school children with special education needs with 1) presentations, discussion, and assimilated activities in preparation for their transition to middle school; 2) structured visitation to the middle school settings; 3) mentorship from current…

Partnership with the Twin Cities metropolitan area

Metropolitan State University, founded in 1971 to provide alternative educational opportunities for working adults, has evolved into a comprehensive urban university serving 9,000 residents of the Twin Cities metropolitan area. In 1992, the university acquired its first campus and its first “”neighborhood”” when it occupied the facilities of an abandoned hospital in the Dayton s Bluff community on the East Side of St. Paul. In the years since, the university has worked closely with neighborhood organizations and agencies to build multi-dimensional partnerships based on mutual interests and shared values. These university-community partnerships involve faculty, staff, and students from every college…

SEBRA South-East Brainerd Residents Association: becoming part of the neighborhood

Central Lakes Community College – MN, Minnesota In order for any organization, institution, or person to be a part of solving a community s problems, that group has to know, understand, and be a part of the community. Higher education is no exception. As illustrated in the story of Central Lakes Community College in Brainerd, Minnesota, when an institution establishes genuine relationships with the members of its surrounding community, only then can it become an engaged campus. Since the day three years ago when Central Lakes first ventured into the South-East Brainerd community, the college has become an integral part…

Providing shelter for the homeless on campus

Every Saturday night last winter, students at Davidson College in North Carolina transformed an unused wrestling room on campus into a shelter for the homeless. College laundry facilities donated their services and the campus food services prepared meals for five homeless guests. Student volunteers coordinated the project and spent the evenings with their guests, talking, playing ping pong, and sharing sleeping quarters in the wrestling room.   From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy Website: http://www.davidson.edu/student/service/

Buckley Public Service Scholars Program

Launched in 2003, the Buckley Public Service Scholars program provides a framework for students at UNC Chapel Hill who are interested in developing their commitment and capacity to serve. The Buckley Public Service Scholars program incorporates a commitment to public service along with structured training and reflection on that service. To successfully complete the program, the student must complete and log: A BPSS orientation session 300 hours of public service One service-learning course Four approved skills trainings A senior reflection activity Minimum cumulative GPA (of 3.0 or above Buckley Public Service Scholar and 2.5-2.9 for Special Recognition in Public Service) Throughout the program,…

Student Leadership and Engagement at NC State

Student Leadership and Engagement at North Carolina State connects students to meaningful leadership development, campus involvement, and civic and community engagement opportunities. Website: http://csleps.ncsu.edu/

Project Dialogue

Project Dialogue is a variety of programs designed to encourage public moral discourse in the context of academic excellence. It includes four main objectives: -encourage students to reflect on their opinions and their role as citizens at Vanderbilt   -to give students the opportunity to consider others’ views in a safe environment   -to instill in students a broader understanding of the connections between knowing and doing and between truth and goodness   -to empower students to be leaders and to reflect civic virtues Website

Teacher education program incorporates community engagement

Changes in society warrant changes in education. As the United States as a whole is affected by progress in technology, developments in the economy, or shifts in values and beliefs, schools must evolve in response if they are to prepare youth for the world in which they live. Change in education occurs on a variety of levels, and a number of colleges and universities have used their resources to touch on many of these levels: from k-12 to adult to teacher education. It is the contention of Service Matters that one of the most important changes that can occur in…

Are College Graduates Prepared to Support their Alma Maters?

In recent weeks, public universities across the country have found themselves buffeted by political forces. In Wisconsin, Louisiana, Illinois, and North Carolina, budgets have been cut, longstanding missions questioned, and centers closed. In states that have attracted less attention, the story is not all that different. In May of 2014, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported that 48 states had not brought per student higher education spending back up to pre-recession levels, and the average state was spending 23% less per student than before the recession. Earlier this year, Young Invincibles released a report card grading states on…

Exceeding goals: AmeriCorps program provides needed services to at-risk youth and their parents

Our local AmeriCorps program is one of the first programs to start up in the country. We have received funding to sponsor 20 to 25 AmeriCorps members for each eleven-month term. At the end of their term of service AmeriCorps members receive $4,725 towards their higher education goals. It is a win-win opportunity all the way around. Our members serve in rural mountain communities of the Colorado Rockies, covering a several hundred-mile region of the College district. Our mission for 1999 was to increase self-reliance by developing program members and by identifying and providing needed services to at-risk youth and…

College Park Scholars (CPS)

The College Park Scholars program, a thematically based, two-year program for academically talented students, engages its students in both curricular and co-curricular service. All 12 of its academic programs incorporate service-learning in some form. For example, the Advocates for Children program brings children from Paint Branch Elementary School to campus for tutoring once a week. The Media, Self and Society program is developing a video to educate children about homelessness. The video will be distributed by a national nonprofit organization. This year, the College Park Scholars annual Service Day involved more than 900 students in service in the City of…

The Weissman Center for Leadership

The Weissman Center for Leadership is a promising practice at Mount Holyoke College that illustrates how our campus is successfully fulfilling its civic mission. Our strategic plan, The Plan for Mount Holyoke 2003, adopted in 1997, centers the College on our mission to foster the alliance of excellent liberal arts education with purposeful engagement in the world. It spawned a number of faculty-led initiatives including our now thriving Weissman Center for Leadership. The overarching goal of the Weissman Center is to enhance students abilities to become effective agents of change. In its first few years the Center has drawn significant…

“Managerial Accounting” and The American Cancer Society: A Blending of Business and Community

Business and Public Service is a dynamic, forward-looking department that believes there is more to earning a degree or certificate than textbook knowledge. Working with community leaders and business partners, Raritian Valley Community College has developed innovative programs that help students develop professional skills as well as foster entrepreneurship and civic responsibility. Internship opportunities are available to help gain hands-on experience. Website

Regional Ecosystem Applied Learning Corps

The Regional Ecosystem Applied Learning Corps is a collaborative program between Southern Oregon University, The Rogue River National Forest, the City of Ashland, and twelve other land management and community organizations. The program intergrates an academic and applied learning curriculum allowing REAL Corps members to gain a comprehensive understanding of public land management policies and practices, knowledge of social and ecological issues and gain practical experience through accomplishment of projects benefiting public lands, the surrounding communities, and enviroment. Website

Citizen Scholars’ Program

The requirements of the program are as follows: Complete 300 hours of community service-learning (up to 100 hours of prior service before entering the program can count toward the total required hours) Keep an on-going reflective journal Successfully complete three regular courses, which have service-learning components or 4th credit options Successfully complete SOW 2054 Community Involvement (3 credits) or SOW 1051, SOW 1052, SOW1053 Human Service Experience (three one credit hour electives) Complete an integrative service-learning final essay prior to graduation. Possess at least a 3.0 grade point average while a student at Brevard Community College Upon satisfactory completion of…

“Place-Based” Service-Learning program

Denison’s Center for Service-Learning has taken very seriously the issue of how university-sponsored service-learning programs can sustain their community contributions on an ongoing basis. Students leave for the summer and other breaks, students graduate, courses end, professors go on sabbatical, but our community partners and clients and their interests and needs remain. Drawing on the work of Ken Reardon, Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, Denison’s Center for Service-Learning, under the leadership of Director Dave Ball, has developed what we call “”Place-Based”” Service-Learning to address this issue. While we continue to encourage students and faculty to pursue…

The Skills to Make Local Change