UW1020: Professional Communication in International Social Enterprises: A Community Engaged Scholarship Course in Partnership with Clinic+O, taught by Dr. Jessica McCaughey.

At its core, this course interrogates the question: How does writing allow mission-driven organizations to get work done? This first-year writing class is themed around the topic of international healthcare communication, particularly that of our class partner, Clinic+O, a relatively young organization in West Africa that is “committed to

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Students in PT 8352: Teaching in Physical Therapy taught by Dr. Erin Wentzell complete a variety of service projects that help community members learn how to live healthy lives and adapt to their unique needs.

For information about Community Engaged Scholarship at GW: https://go.gwu.edu/cesc

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Semester Reports

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Spring 2024

Projects:

Projects in this course vary, but all focus on providing valuable educational resources and support to community members with specific health needs.

HSC Kids In Action: Yoga program at Children's National Medical Center. Students assisted with setting up and cleaning up yoga sessions, led yoga activities, helped with check-ins, and provided one-on-one engagement with children who needed direct supervision.

Personalized home exercise program. Students worked directly with a community member, researching and developing exercises tailored to the individual's complex needs, helping them readjust to community life.

Personalized health goals for community members. Students conducted interviews with local community members, gathered information, and created resources including exercise routines and nutritional recipes specific to the individual's health objectives and condition.

Student Comments:

"It was amazing to learn how to create a Home Exercise Program (HEP) for a more complex individual and help her readjust to her community."

"I learned how to apply motivational interviewing in a clinical setting."

"It was a great opportunity to work on my interview skills, be able to take in and process information from a real person, not a student reading a case, and then come up with a way to share high level information in a way that can be patient friendly."

"I got to learn more about my community and become connected with our community partner."

"I learned that you need to be adaptable to every child's specific needs because they have varying learning abilities."

"I worked with the Free Minds Book Club to take poems created by incarcerated members of their club and design expressive typographic works."

"Through the Free Minds Book Club collaboration, my students not only worked with real content, but also had the unique opportunity to interact with the authors of the content and learn about the lived experiences that inspired the words. Students' exceptional level of engagement and commitment was evidence that they were aware of the impact their work would have on someone at a personal level. There was a sense of great responsibility and care that students put into this work, wanting to do justice to these extraordinary narratives. Throughout the collaboration, there was a sense of joy, curiosity, and respect developed on both sides, along with an appreciation for unfamiliar perspectives.

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This Public Health capstone course, developed by Sara Wilensky, engages students in research and advocacy projects with local community-serving organizations, such as the Latin American Youth Center.

This senior seminar course was designed as both a writing in the disciplines and a community engagement course. Professor Wilensky has created a capstone experience for public health seniors, focusing on real-world projects with community partners.

Speaking at the 2024 Annual Meeting for Academic Public Health, Wilensky described the key aspects of her course design:

1. Co-creation of projects with community partners, ensuring the work would be useful for them.
2. Flexibility in course design to accommodate real-world challenges and changes.
3. Use of student teams (pairs) for projects, with multiple teams working on each community partner project.
4. In-class work time to facilitate collaboration and provide informal feedback opportunities.
5. Variety of writing assignments, including the main project, complementary papers, reflections, and a learning portfolio.
6. Emphasis on project management skills, providing tools like worksheets and templates.

Professor Wilensky highlighted the importance of being proactive in addressing team dynamics, maintaining open communication with community partners, and being prepared to adjust projects as needed.

Wilensky's community partners have shared that this course strengthened relationships with GW. They received high quality, useful products, and appreciated the opportunity to contribute to students' educational experiences.

Student feedback is also positive, "I think that applying the concepts of advocacy, health education, service learning, and others that we have focused on in depth throughout undergraduate coursework has made this project a significant milestone in my public health work."

For information about Community Engaged Scholarship at GW: https://go.gwu.edu/cesc

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Semester Reports

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This capstone course for majors in GW's Geography program engages students in valuable projects with urban planners, local government, and community organizations. Students apply geographic concepts and methods to real-world urban issues.

Semester Reports

...continue reading "GEOG 4195W Proseminar-Geographic Thought"