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Category: CES Courses

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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

Semester Reports

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."

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

From Professor Aasawari Kulkarni:

"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.

...continue reading "CGD 2060 Typography II"

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In this service-learning class by Prof. Karina Lora, students partner with CentroNía,  a bilingual and multicultural learning community in Washington, DC. The main project involves teaching nutrition education to preschool students at CentroNia's Columbia Heights neighborhood. Students gain cultural competence and learn to tailor educative messages to to specific audiences.  In the classroom, students reflect on current events related to food and nutrition issues affecting underserved populations in the US, and learn about other community/school-based programs like CentroNía.

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

Semester Reports

...continue reading "EXNS 3120 Experiences in Community Nutrition"

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In Disaster Preparedness, a course originally developed by Karen Dawn in the School of Nursing, students learn disaster response  guidelines used by nurses in communities, such as limiting injuries and maintaining community health. Students immerse themselves in disaster nurse roles, including rapid, effective response, and care coordination.

Students identify an organization to work with, and use the principles gained in class and lectures, to develop disaster preparedness plans with them. Depending on what the partner organization requests, students provide disaster plan handbooks, conduct workshops, and connect them to local resources to increase capacity to effectively respond to disasters.

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

Semester Reports

...continue reading "NURS 4105 Disaster Preparedness"

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In Professor Sean Cleary's course, "The Autism Experience," students gain insights into autism from a public health perspective. Through service-learning and community participatory research methods, they engage with autistic young adults, their parents, researchers, clinicians, and service providers. The course explores the science, various viewpoints, and real-life experiences of autism, with a specific emphasis on the transition to adulthood for young adults. Working alongside community advocates, students delve into research that directly impacts the autistic community.

Professor: Sean Cleary

...continue reading "PUBH 6232 The Autism Experience"

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As a primary project for this course, students learn to operate a real foundation, which they call the GW Arc Foundation. This annual course project is funded by the Learning by Giving initiative, which engages students in communicating a Request for Proposals (RFP), evaluating submitted proposals given their own clear criteria, and awarding the funds to a local nonprofit organization.  Prof. Michelle Kelso has carefully designed this project as the culminating experience for the Human Services and Social Justice Program. It ties together the knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes needed to address complex real-world issues in socially just ways. This course represents the integration and reflection on the key theories, research, practices, issues, and policies addressed throughout the program. Program majors take this course during their last semester in the program.

Throughout the semester, students focus on philanthropy, grant-making, and community-engaged research practices. Students engage in a philanthropy project through community partnerships with nonprofit organizations in the District of Columbia and surrounding areas.

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

Semester Reports

...continue reading "HSSJ 4195 Senior Capstone"

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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

Semester Reports

...continue reading "PUBH 4140W Senior Public Health Seminar"

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In Marc Choi's CGD 2091: Design Studio II course, students learn about brand identity systems and programs, and the iterative design processes used in developing a cohesive and comprehensive branding program (print, social media, and motion). Using a community-centered design approach, student teams partner with local community service organizations like the Rock Creek Conservancy and Free Minds Book Club to visually capture the values and spirit of these organizations for online and print branding.
Students are overwhelmingly positive about the impact of working for a real client who is serving our community, "This project taught me so, so much and I look back feeling so many emotions, but mostly gratitude to be given this real-world experience. It didn't feel real until the members watched us present and seeing their faces and genuine reactions made my heart happy and all those long and stressful hours worth it."
Our community partners are consistently impressed by the quality of the student work, "I’ve gotten so many compliments on these materials. Nobody can believe our brochure was designed by undergraduate college students. They really listened to us and managed to capture not just the message content but the values and tone we want to convey.” - Denise Snyder, Executive Director, Foggy Bottom West End Village

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

...continue reading "CGD 2091 Design Studio II"

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BADM 4001: Business Leader Launch is an experiential learning course by Prof. Wendy Wagner, which provides opportunities for students to leverage their business skills with local nonprofit and public service organizations. Students use marketing and communication skills, data analysis, project management and other business skills to help community partners build capacity and impact.

Students complete projects designed by the staff of local community-serving organizations like the Foggy Bottom Association, the Foggy Bottom West End Village, Little Friends for Peace, Raising a Village Foundation, Centronia, Age-Friendly DC, and the GW Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Clinic.

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

Semester Reports

...continue reading "BADM 4001 Business Leader Launch"

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This course by Prof. Sangeeta Prasad pertains to theories of human development from infancy to young adulthood. Dominant psychosocial, cognitive, and physical competencies; motivational changes; coping styles; and normative and non-normative behaviors. In addition to lectures, students served at least three hours per week in an appropriate agency, but many did more.

Prasad, a psychologist who teaches in the Human Services and Social Justice department, is also one of the founders of In the Streets, a D.C.-based nonprofit with a community-first approach to dealing with trauma. Rather than bringing outsiders in to help people in Black, underserved communities, the nonprofit creates a space for community members to work through trauma affecting their physical and mental health altogether.

Students serving with In the Streets built close relationships with participants through weekly calls and group meetings. In doing so, students were able to share resources, support, and learn directly from participants about social services. This semester, In the Streets, was also featured in the Washington Post, a testament to the organization’s growing presence.

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

...continue reading "HSSJ 2171: Child & Adolescent Development"

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Students in Dr. Scully’s Food, Nutrition, and Service class were able to learn about the study of biology and nutrition directly through hands-on service projects in their community. Through community-based lab activities and projects, students had the opportunity to receive an in-depth look at the concepts being taught in this service-learning course, reinforcing the importance of sustainable food systems. Student teams collaborated with a wide range of community partners to design and implement educational workshops, activities or resource materials aimed at educating the public on food and nutritional concepts.  

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

...continue reading "BISC 1007: Food, Nutrition, and Service"

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In HSSJ 2170, Professor Linda-Jeanne Mack leads a dynamic Community Engaged course focused on cultivating professional communication skills within the human services field. Through this course, students gain practical experience in engaging professionally with individuals and groups, preparing them for impactful interactions within diverse human service settings. The primary goal of HSSJ 2170 is to help students understand personal and cultural bias and improve their listening skills. Professor Mack emphasizes the importance of effective communication in fostering positive relationships and delivering quality care and support to individuals and communities in need.

 

Professor Mack's course extends beyond theoretical knowledge, encouraging students to reflect on the ethical dimensions of professional communication within the human services field. This reflective approach fosters a deeper understanding of the responsibilities and ethical considerations inherent in serving vulnerable populations. Moreover, HSSJ 2170 emphasizes the value of cultural competence and sensitivity in communication. Students learn to recognize and appreciate diverse perspectives, which is crucial for building trust and rapport in cross-cultural interactions within human services settings. This course prepares students to navigate the complexities of the field with confidence and empathy, positioning them for success in their future roles as compassionate and effective human service professionals.

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

Fall 2023

Professor:  Linda-Jeanne Mack
Students Reporting: 20
Time Reported:  485

Community Partners:

CP # of students at site
826DC 1
Capital Area Food Bank 1
Children's Defense Fund 1
Foggy Bottom West End Senior Villages 4
Francis on the Hill 1
FRESHFARM FoodPrints 2
GroW Garden 1
GW Black Student Athlete Alliance (BSAA) 1
Horton's Kids 2
Justice Policy Institute 1
Latino Student Fund 4
Little Friends for Peace (LFFP) 1
Martha's Table 1
Miriam's Kitchen 3
The Petey Greene Program 1
Thomson Elementary School 4

Student Comments:

"One of the most relaxing and thoughtful experiences. I Learned to be patient while doing service work. The other volunteers are extremely welcoming and joyful to be around. I am sad that the gardening hours might come to an end when the winter kicks in, but I am excited to volunteer and explore with Freshfarm in different areas." - student working with FreshFarm Foodprints

"I learned to be patient with kids and become aware of how much they take from the world without us knowing. I’ve always been and will continue to be kind to children because they cannot communicate like adults can.  My student and I were able to find common interests and from that, continued to talk about them. I always want the people I’m working with to feel comfortable so I try to serve them as much as I can. I would tie my student’s shoes when needed and get up to get any missing supplies. I also like how the classroom was set up and how many resources, like crayons, markers, stickers, and paper, were available to everyone upon entry. We were free to get and grab anything we wanted at any time."-student serving with LFFP

 

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Service Learning in Public Health by Prof. Sara Wilensky is a course where students connect significant community service experience to course work on social systems, health outcomes, and vulnerable populations. Examples of service sites include the Latin American Youth Center, Mary's Center, National Alliance on Mental Illness, Horton’s Kids, and Charlie's Place.

Professor: Sara Wilensky

...continue reading "PUBH 2117: Service Learning in Public Health"

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