News & Resources |
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Current Issue - September 2007
Resources Scroll down for a list of current resources related to civic engagement efforts in higher education.
International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement Launches New Web Site NEW! The International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE) has recently launched its new website. IARSLCE seeks to advance the fields of service-learning and community engagement research across the educational spectrum by promoting the development and dissemination of research on service-learning and community engagement. The IARSLCE website provides information about the Association, membership, the annual International Research Conference on Service-Learning and Community Engagement, edited volumes of conference papers, and more. To learn more, visit http://www.researchslce.org/ Why Community Matters: Connecting Education with Civic Life by Nicholas V. Longo NEW!
Providing a new perspective on the undeniable relationship between education reform and democratic revitalization, Nicholas V. Longo uncovers and examines practical models in which communities play an essential role in teaching the art of democracy.
Nicholas V. Longo, former Campus Compact National Student Coordinator (Raise Your Voice project), is Director of the Harry T. Wilks Leadership Institute and Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at Miami University in Ohio as well as Associate at the Kettering Foundation. The publication is available from SUNY Press http://www.sunypress.edu/details.asp?id=61491
MTV’s Choose Or Lose Seeks Citizen Journalists NEW! MTV's Choose or Lose seeks aspiring journalists to cover the 2008 election via written stories, vlogs, and photos. As part of their collaboration with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Knight News Challenge, MTV is looking for one aspiring reporter from every state and Washington, D.C. Participants must be at least 18 years old by December, 2007, must reside in the state they are covering from January to November, 2008 and must have the time and ability to travel within their state and file at least one video, written, or photographic story per week. To learn more click here. "Teaching the Levees" Curriculum Distributed to Teachers Nationwide NEW! "Teaching The Levees: A Curriculum of Civic Engagement to Accompany the HBO Documentary Film Event, Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts" includes the DVD-set of Spike Lee's documentary film along with a 100-page curriculum book supported by online resources. The documentary focuses on the situation of individuals who, by dint of race and class, found themselves most vulnerable to the storm’s wrath, and to the failure of local, state and federal governments to protect them from the disaster’s worst effects. The Teaching the Levees website created by EdLab at Teachers College's Gottesman Libraries, is the collection center for the names of people who wish to receive the package. The creators of the curriculum plan to follow up with those who request the curriculum to get feedback, evaluations and ideas on how they used the package in their classrooms and groups. Portland State University Launches online Certificate in Service-Learning NEW!
Increase in Child Poverty rates in rural North Carolina NEW! In 37 states, a higher percentage of rural children live in poverty today than in 2000, with the South and Southwest having a higher percentage of children living in poverty than other regions of the country, according to a new study released by the Carsey Institute. The Institute analyzed new poverty data available Aug. 28, 2007, from the U.S. Census Bureau, and found many parts of rural America where the child poverty rate is much higher than the national rural child poverty rate of 22.2 percent. Read the Study here. Applications for Mobilize.org's Party for the Presidency Now Available The Party for the Presidency is a leadership development conference that will bring together 435 citizens (one from each Congressional district) to unite behind moblize.org’s Democracy 2.0 initiative. Democracy 2.0 seeks to call attention to the main problems of our current political system, highlight the distinct characteristics young people, and provide guidelines for change to help cultivate a new political process in America. Moblize.org is seeking young people ages 16-30 who are working to make a difference in their communities to apply for the Party for the Presidency event. Applications can be found at www.mobilize.org. Early Registration and Standard registration deadlines are past. The late Deadline is October 1, 2007. Please contact Maya at maya@mobilize.org or 202.736.5744 with any questions.
NC Campus Compact Service-Learning Director Releases Publication Dr. Glenn Bowen, Director of Service-Learning at Western Carolina University, has released the following publication. Bowen, Glenn A. Reflection Methods and Activities for Service Learning: A Student Manual and Workbook. Copyright © 2007 by Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company ISBN 13: 978-0-7575-4546-7 Please place your order via the Kendall/Hunt Web site at www.kendallhunt.com or: Call Customer Service Directly: North Carolina Student Inspires HOPE Handicapped…Impaired…Disabled. The negative connotation of these words stigmatizes people with disabilities. More so, however, words such as these often discourage persons—particularly college students—from interacting with people with disabilities as a result of fear, ignorance, or lack of experience. Fortunately, the college experience presents opportunities to educate not only ourselves but also others about certain interests and ideas. Indeed, this is the quintessential aspect of college: to learn and to teach, to touch and to serve. That’s why HOPE is here to help! HOPE is a collegiate student service organization that actively supports and engages mentorship of Individualized Education Plan (IEP) goals for children with disabilities. HOPE is a growing network of service chapters, affiliated with colleges, which serve their local community’s special needs schools and facilities. College student volunteers, called Hopesters, provide weekly one-on-one mentoring support for children with disabilities to promote the academic, social and emotional development of each child served by the organization. Your NC Campus Compact institution is a perfect location for your students to start their own HOPE service chapter. Find more details, visit HOPE online and be sure to read some of the inspiring Hopester Profiles from our current members and children (the large orange box on the right of the website). You can also send the PDF documents about HOPE at this link to your students. Jonathan Barry Founder, HOPE 423-747-2349 "The Religious Engagement of College Students" The Social Science Research Council
Understanding students' engagement with the "big questions" and with religion and spirituality has become a challenge for those who work on today's college campuses. With 83 percent of American college students reporting an affiliation with some denomination or religion, American campuses are no longer the bastions of secularism they were once considered to be. In addition, the spiritual landscape is virtually unrecognizable from the past. Evangelicalism has eclipsed mainstream Protestantism. Catholicism and Judaism, too, are thriving, as are other faiths. To help make sense of these new realities, the SSRC's Religious Engagements of American Undergraduates project offers the new online guide: "The Religious Engagements of American Undergraduates". The guide was derived from a series of essays the project commissioned from leading authorities in the field of religion and American higher education as well as from a thorough review of the current scholarship. Contributors include Alan Wolfe, Diane Winston and Robert Wuthnow. Start a Nourish International Chapter on Your Campus! Nourish International is a university chapter based model in which each chapter conducts international development projects each summer. The projects are organized and led by students. Examples of past projects include the construction of a micro-irrigation system in a Bolivian mountain top village and the construction of a production facility for open source appropriate technology in Uganda, just to name a few. So far Nourish International has launched chapters at UNC, Duke and NC State and is now in the process of expanding further. They have developed a strong portfolio of service learning opportunities as well as great on campus vehicles for generating income and membership. If you feel as though your campus would benefit from more international service learning initiatives and innovative ways to get a wide variety of students engaged in anti poverty efforts, please contact Joel Thomas, Director at joel@nourishinternational.org. Visit the website for more information. Faculty Toolkit for Service-Learning in Higher Education Click Here for the toolkit with worksheets PledgeBank www.pledgebank.com This new site allows folks to create a pledge to action and to encourage their friends to join them. The site follows a simple format: pledge creators promise to do some action, but only if a certain number of other people will join them (i.e. "I will collect 20 used books for Rock Creek Elementary's after-school program, but only if 20 other people will do the same"). The site serves two main purposes: to help one person maximize their impact, and to ensure that no one is left to do good work on their own. It's a great tool for creating a plan for some "next steps" after one-time service events or at the end of a service-learning class!
Service-Learning Book Review
International Association for Research On Service-Learning and Community Engagement Launches New Web SiteThe International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE) has recently launched its new website. IARSLCE seeks to advance the fields of service-learning and community engagement research across the educational spectrum by promoting the development and dissemination of research on service-learning and community engagement. The IARSLCE website provides information about the Association, membership, the annual International Research Conference on Service-Learning and Community Engagement, edited volumes of conference papers, and more. To learn more, visit http://www.researchslce.org/ New Video Series on Sustainability in Higher Education
Arnold Creek Productions, Inc. has launched a website showcasing colleges and universities across the U.S. that are integrating sustainability within their missions and operations. "A New Course for Higher Education" is a collection of free Web-viewable videos and accompanying descriptive content that cover accomplishments in areas such as leadership, energy, buildings, recycling, transportation, curriculum and food.
An American Mosaic: Service Learning Stories The entire text of the monograph may be found on AACC's Web site by Clicking Here.
Doing the Public Good: Latina/o Scholars Engage Civic Participation Edited by Kenneth P. Gonzalez, Raymond V. Padilla Coming in November 2007 from Stylus Publishing How can scholars reconnect themselves and their students to higher education's historic but much diluted mission to work for the public good? Through the lenses of personal reflection and auto-ethnography and drawing on such rich philosophical foundations as the Spanish tradition of higher learning, the holistic Aztec concept of education, the Hispanic notion of bien educado, and the activist principles of the Chicano movement these writers explore the intersections of private and public good, and how the tension between them has played out in their own lives and the commitments they have made to their intellectual community, and to their cultural and family communities. Through often lyrical memoirs, reflections, and poetry, these authors recount their personal journeys and struggles often informed by a spiritual connectedness and always driven by a concern for social justice and show how they have found individual paths to promoting the public good in their classrooms, and in the world beyond. Details at: http://styluspub.com/books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=165028 |
The materials in this online toolkit are divided into 10 units designed to aid faculty in every step of planning, designing, and implementing service-learning programs into their curriculum and institutions as well as program evaluation and assessment. Each unit includes tips and in-depth content information about the topic presented and most units include case studies providing ‘real life’ experiences for readers to learn from.