In today's Baltimore Sun: as people around the world take part in MarchForOurLives this Op-Ed from Dr. Fran Buntman in the Sociology Department at GWU discusses struggles of youth for social change. Dr. Buntman reflects on the work of student activists in Soweto and the work of student activists from Florida http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-op-march-for-life-20180322-story.html
Category: Nashman Spotlights
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GW Teach is involved with schools in our community-check out their latest newsletter on STEM teaching
At the intersection of science and education sits GW Teach an initiative of Columbian College and the Graduate School of Education and Human Development learn more about the communities that GWTeach serves and their mission here https://gwteach.gwu.edu/
Drs Morrison and Wagner Continue Study of Community-Engaged Faculty Perspectives
Following up on their previous findings, Emily Morrison and Wendy Wagner are currently collecting data to further explore the perspectives that community-engaged faculty have on their work and on their professional identity. If you are interested in participating, please contact Wendy Wagner, wagnerw@gwu.edu.
Faculty Spotlight: Dean Vinson Columbian College of Arts & Sciences
Nashman Center's Community Engaged Scholars Yuval Lev and Ashley Hidalgo spoke with Columbian College of Arts and Science Dean Vinson about the importance of scholarly work that faculty and students do to engage with the community-and why this work is important at GW.
Yuval Lee (YL): One of the big things about CCAS is engaged liberal arts, so what does that mean to you in the context of service?
Dean Vinson (DV): Now, more than ever, our world is in need of people engaging with each other in helpful and constructive ways. At this particular moment in time, it is critical to encourage and promote at an early age the importance of interaction and dialogue. Blending this into the overall educational experience is critical to developing a level of social consciousness that is so necessary for our future citizens. Community engagement is elemental to what I call the engaged liberal arts. Refreshingly, it’s a characteristic of the type of students we have at GW.
YL: What does community-engaged scholarship mean to you in the context of the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences?
DV: In our classrooms, we see so much of the theoretical perspective. But how does that perspective translate to real world situations, with real world problems? Community-engaged service is the bridge between books and the classroom to what our students are really trying to do in the world to make a difference. To me, that’s the connection. Community-engaged service is exactly the modality for that transformation and transition of the ivory tower experience of knowledge and the real-world application of that knowledge.
YL: One of things you’ve done as dean of CCAS is to expand research opportunities and scholarship opportunities so I want to talk about what that has to do with service and benefiting the community as well.
DV: Community-engaged research reminds us of the larger world; it reminds us why we are being educated in the first place. Yes, we are trying to advance ourselves and our careers but, at the same time, we are also trying to do something more for the greater good and, to me, that’s part of why this type of research matters.
Ashley Hidalgo (AH): How does community-engaged scholarship enrich faculty, from their perspective as well?
DV: The same is true for faculty as it is for students. When faculty receive their doctorate degree and move on to make their mark in their field of research, they often crave a greater access or greater connection to the community around them. As scholars, we need to remind ourselves that what we are doing is part of a larger envelope, which can lead to deeper engagement. What I also think is important as it relates to community engagement among our faculty and students, is the symbiotic process between the two groups. Faculty are transforming as their students transform. Each encourages the other to achieve greater heights, which is an additional and an unexpected and unintended consequence of engagement, and one that is sometimes not talked about. You often see faculty, who have experienced a different modality of their work (through community engagement) prompted to make important changes semesters down the road. They have an ‘Aha!’ moment that leads them to new and fruitful directions in their teaching or research. What I often see as well is that they are more inclined to bring students along for the ride, going beyond the lecture and classroom experience. It becomes truly a more holistic endeavor in higher education when faculty and students engage together in the world through their research and projects.
Knapp Fellow Spotlight: Gayatri Malhotra
Gayatri Malhotra is a Knapp Fellow working with organizations such as Teach for India and Girl Rising on a gender sensitization curriculum in New Delhi. She is studying for her Master in Public Health at the Milken Institute of Public Health and previously studied Biology at Lawrence University, WI. Aleena Khan, a service-learning scholar here at the Nashman Center, spoke to Gayatri about her Gender Equality project and her experience as a Knapp Fellow.
Aleena: Can you briefly describe your project?
Gayatri: There is a lot of gender-based discrimination that happens in schools, especially in India. If you think about it, kids in India are in school a lot; we are a society in India that really prioritizes schoolwork, getting high marks, doing well in school, and are very career-oriented. There’s no emphasis on extra-curriculars, creativity, art, or sports, so students are spending a lot of time in school. This is where some of these entrenched behaviors occur. Since the teachers, parents, and communities have deep-rooted biases, students learn from them, where they continue to enact those behaviors.
For that reason, I wanted to focus on adolescent-aged students, basically fifth to ninth graders, and to assess gender norms, beliefs and attitudes. To date, there has not been much work done in this area in India.
To that extent, I am working with Girl Rising (GR) and utilizing their gender sensitization curriculum to conduct a feasibility study in Teach for India (TFI) urban-slum schools - specifically government-run schools - in New Delhi. We are evaluating five schools and one after-school community center to see how efficacious the gender-sensitization curriculum would be. Ideally, we would like to implement the GR gender sensitization curriculum nationwide.
The gender-sensitization curriculum specifically uses constructs from the positive youth development scales in addition to looking at gender norms, beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions of middle school students in these government schools in Delhi. In addition, the curriculum addresses topics such as child labor, child marriage, poverty, gender-based violence, and menstruation. Teachers have been trained through a train-the-training workshop and thus are able to provide the program. The teachers have also been provided a teacher’s guide to help implement the program.
In April, I plan to go back to conduct the post-assessment and see if there have been any changes in the students and the teachers.
I chose to work with TFI because while conversations around child marriage, labor and trafficking are difficult to have, young teachers from TIF are already having these discussions in their classroom but don’t have a formal structure or a way to fully address them in a way students can really learn and take action in the community. Girl Rising had already created the gender-sensitization curriculum and by partnering with TFI, we are able to implement the program in these very low socioeconomic government schools and reach a larger community in need. We are hoping to use this data to work with the Indian government and other government schools country-wide.
A: So when you collect that data, you’re planning on taking it to the Indian government?
G: We’re hoping to really scale it up by working with TFI. Right now, we are in the pilot phase and only in a few schools in Delhi. We want to work with TFI to expand the gender sensitization curriculum in all their partnered schools in six major cities. country-wide. We want to take it to the Indian Board of School Education and ask them, “What are the possibilities of this being a part of your required curriculum?”
A: How did you select the schools?
G: I wanted to evaluate schools from low socioeconomic communities -- I wanted them to be urban-slum areas that have deep-rooted gender biases in the community. We also selected schools depending on the interest of the TFI Fellows and their willingness to implement this 24-week gender sensitization curriculum in their schools. We tried to select second-year TFI Fellows who had more experience working at schools in these communities.
A: Did you look at the demographics for each school? Or was the selection based mostly on socioeconomic status?
G: It was mostly low socioeconomic status. We did look at some of the demographics-- we have some all-girl schools-- to see the difference between co-ed and all-girl schools and all-boy schools. We did not look at private schools in India since our focus was on government/ public schools.
It’s not an easy project, especially with our research team coming in the middle of class and conducting about 50 surveys at a time with the students on tablets. Each data collection session required 30 minutes of instructions and then about an hour to complete the survey.
Implementing this program is a big commitment for the TFI fellows; they have to be committed to teaching this curriculum for six months, come to workshop trainings, and follow-up with me and my in-country team member by filling out our fidelity form each month that lets us know how they’re progressing through the curriculum. We had to make such that the government schools were ok with the GR curriculum; we had to get approval from the principals, so there were a lot of loops we had to go through in order to select these schools.
A: What made you apply for the Knapp Fellowship? What inspired you to create this project?
G: When I came across the Knapp Fellowship, it seemed to be a good fit, as it is a service-learning opportunity that is research-oriented and allows for a sustainable project. That’s really what I wanted to do. I am passionate about this topic - inspiring children to realize their potential and achieve their dreams no matter the barriers in India. I also understand the difficulties of being a girl in a patriarchal society that oppresses women in many ways. I was personally a middle school student in India and understand the pressure, the stress, and the weight of needing to do well in school. It was all about school. Some of the gender discrimination that I went through as a middle school student allowed me to relate to the middle school students I was working with.
I saw the Knapp Fellowship as an opportunity to do something extremely important in an international setting. The Knapp Fellowship also supported innovative ideas, which encouraged my decision to conduct all our research with the students on tablets. This is a new method of research that engages students in a fun way so that they’re excited to complete the survey.
A: Although your project isn’t finished yet, how has your project personally impacted you thus far?
G: It’s been absolutely amazing. I’ve been learning so much about myself and the communities I’ve worked with in Delhi. Just talking to the students has been so impactful. When conducting fieldwork with the students, I got the chance to look into their lives and understand their everyday struggles. It really made me question, “Why is my life like this and theirs is like that?” which is really a tough question to answer. What did they do, as innocent kids, to deserve that kind of lifestyle?
Many of these kids wake up at around 4-5 a.m. to cook breakfast for their families and prepare meals for their parents, make sure their brothers or sisters are ready for school, and then walk an hour or two to go to school. In the evening, they come back and again cook, clean, work, run errands, and do all these things to help their parents. The struggle is so real for these kids and it’s just not fair. It’s supposed to be the few years in their life to learn, play outside, laugh, have fun, play sports, and just be a kid. The amount of responsibilities they have at such a young age is upsetting, but truly inspiring.
A: Do you think you can describe the international ramifications of your project?
G: The data we collect from this evaluation will be informative for future programs and interventions on gender-sensitization curriculums. I am hoping to publish my findings so that other individuals in the field can learn from it.
One of the smartest investment opportunities for a country that can increase their national economic growth is by simply investing in a girls’ education. By educating a girl in the family, the cycle of poverty can be broken in just one generation.
Through this program, I hope to change attitudes and perceptions among adolescents which will drive change for a new generation of adults. Educating girls can break cycles of poverty in just one generation,
A: How has the Knapp fellowship aided your project? What have you used the Knapp Fellowship for?
G: Everything! I use the Fellowship to fund my travel and for funding even basic things that you usually don’t think about, like printing costs, Wi-Fi (to sync the tablets), and workshop supplies. Now that data collection is over, I’m on the data-analysis side of the project, which has other costs such as translation. The Knapp Fellowship paid for nearly every aspect of my project.
A: What piece of advice would you give to someone who is unsure about applying for the Knapp Fellowship?
G: If you feel like you have a solid project in mind and that you’re passionate about it, then I would say go for it. The worst thing that they could do is say no. The grant writing experience is so invaluable. If you want to be able to fund your projects in the future, you need to know how to write specifically in a way where you can provide a story. I was trying to think about how I could convince the Knapp Fellowship judges to invest in my project, so that they can see the profound impact it will make for women and children in Delhi and eventually throughout India. If you can see that vision, then stick to it. Even if you don’t get it, it’s a learning experience; the Knapp Fellowship is not the first grant that I applied for, but you get better as a writer on how to pitch your project.
For more information on the partnership between GW and Girl Rising, check out this article in GW Today (which Gayatri was featured in).
The Knapp Fellowship for Entrepreneurial Service-Learning makes it possible for exceptional GW students to combine scholarship with action and change the world. Prizes of up to $10,000 will be given out to student-led service projects. Check out or profile of Knapp Fellow Chloe King here.
Don't miss your chance to apply! The 2018 application is live now and is due by January 12, 2018. For questions about the Knapp Fellowship or for mentorship with your idea contact Wendy Wagner at wagnerw@gwu.edu.
Student Spotlight: Dani Harton
Dani is a senior in CCAS majoring in Human Service and Social Justice. Anthony Hammani, a community engaged scholar at the Nashman Center, sat down to talk to Dani about her experiences in service-learning courses, HSSJ, and what she will take away from the program.
Dani first learned about the HSSJ program in Phyllis Ryder's University Writing course, a service-learning class. She wasn't aware of service-learning before she found herself thrown in the middle of it, and now you'll find her saying, "Everyone should take service-learning!"
It allowed her to become more engaged in the community and she changed majors to take more service-learning courses. The expectation was to engage the community in authentic ways so she registered for more of them.
In Dr. Wendy Wagner’s Ethical Leadership course, there was not a direct service experience, but a group project co-created with a community partner. Her group worked with Thompson Elementary, planning and executing field trips to Smithsonian Museums, including pre and post reflection worksheets that aligned the trips with the social studies curriculum. By working on this group project, she learned to observe group dynamics, reflected on her own leadership practice, and also had the opportunity to delve into the field of education.
The focus of the class was to examine the evolving scholarship of leadership, applying a variety of theories to the real word examples that emerged through their group projects.
Community-engaged scholarship strengthened the academic work. Dani learned to apply theory to inform how she worked with her peers, with the Thompson students and the teachers. She has taken a lot of classes without a service-learning component, and found it difficult to understand how those subjects applied in the real world.
When applying theory to real life, Dani took things she was learning in class such as positivism and trait leadership and explored the extent to which those approaches worked for each service-learning group that met outside of class. The groups spent time reflecting on how leadership theory informed and explained how they were able to work together, "The things we talked about in service-learning classes do directly apply to real life."
Dani went on 4 or 5 Saturday field trips with 5th graders. Thompson Elementary is dominantly Latinx and she identifies as Latina. Dani found it cool to connect with students in that way and said that students were both “hilarious to interact with” and “ brilliant.”
To explore the learning objectives of one trip, Dani talked about the civil war and compared it to contemporary events and social environments the students were all experiencing now. The experience solidified the importance of social studies for her and she was able to support that curriculum by helping to develop the program.
Overall, throughout all of her service-learning experiences, Dani felt learning how to ask the right questions was important. She said knowing that you have to ask questions and listen to feedback from community partners and participants. She says the service-learning experience is not impactful for community participants or you if you don’t do so. It was difficult for her to understand this at first, but has become the foundation for how she serves today.
Knapp Fellow Spotlight: Chloe King
Chloe King is a Knapp Fellow working to reduce food waste in DC schools, partnering with the World Wildlife Fund, where she interned last year. She is also co-founder and president of GW Scuba Club and studied abroad in Indonesia. Aleena Khan, a service-learning scholar here at the Nashman Center, spoke to Chloe about her compelling project and her experience as a Knapp Fellow.
Aleena: Can you briefly describe your project?
Chloe: Last year, I was interning for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in the fall of 2016 on their Food Waste Team – so I when I initially started, I was thinking, “How on earth does food waste relate to wildlife?” and that was normally a big question that people have when they hear about the WWF and the Food Waste Team. Why do they have that team?
Food and agricultural production are one of the biggest threats to wildlife on the planet, and at the same time, we’re wasting 38-40% of the food that we produce for consumption. It’s a massive problem, and one that I learned more about throughout the course of my internship there. My boss, Pete Pearson, was wonderful; he just said – partially because he was stressed by so many projects – to just pick whatever I want, and that I’ll manage it.
So, I picked schools – they’ve always wanted to start a project in schools – so I started developing a curriculum. I’ve developed a lesson plan, PowerPoints, educational posters, activities, things like that for an age range of 5th grade and up that’s really adjustable. I worked for them for that whole fall semester and were finalizing all those materials and other work as well that the team was doing. I then went abroad last year, from January until August, for 7 months, so I was not involved with food waste for a while.
When I was away, I heard about the Knapp Fellowship and I applied for it with the aim of working with the WWF when I got back. I knew that, regardless of whether or not I would have gotten [the Fellowship] that I wanted to work with the WWF again, since I wanted to complete what I had already done.
This big push this time around was to do it really locally and utilize the fact that the headquarters were here. There’s a lot of people in the office that have experience doing these kinds of food waste audits, and essentially being able to go into schools and helping them perform the food waste audits. At this point now, it’s really been about getting the approval of the people in DC, like the Department of General Services, DC Public Works, DCPS and the bureaucracy there, the Organization of Superintendent Schools and Education (OSSE). That’s essentially what’s been going on so far, with the project.
The plan, ultimately, is to get a lot of feedback from teachers this year when we’re actually doing the audits in the lunchroom and teaching kids about food waste so we can put this all on our website and have teachers all over the nation collecting data about food waste audits in their schools and collecting donations as well and getting that to food banks and people that need it.
A: What is the process of partner acquisition?
C: It’s been a little bit difficult and part of the reason that I love working with WWF so much is that it’s a really respected organization within the conservation space and also within the education space – kids sort of grow up looking at the Panda calendars. It’s a really good networking device to use, which is why I’ve enjoyed working with them.
Typically, I’ll reach out to them and say, “Hi, my name is Chloe and I’m from the WWF Food Waste Team; this a project that we’re working on, how can we help you?” Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is to give schools the resources to pursue this and have it be as simple as possible for them to take on. Initially, I thought that I would just reach out to a principal and they would be interested and that would be it, but it’s been way more complicated than that.
It’s mostly been about getting a really interested parent or teacher that are already engaged in stuff like this. A lot of the schools I’ve already talked to have school gardens or have been doing an environmental curriculum previously. In terms of reaching out to the local government, that’s been fairly easy because there’s been a lot of initiatives in DC in regards to food waste.
Councilman Mary Shay, for Ward 3, has been really big into food waste initiatives, so she’s been helping us with networking and getting approval because we can’t just walk into a public school and start something. That’s also been a big barrier that I hadn’t quite been aware of; we’ve had to get approval from all these different agencies before we could even begin any curriculum work. But, we’ve gotten all the approval we need and have sort of sent out information and have set a soft deadline of November 1st.
A: How has the Knapp Fellowship aided with your project?
C: The WWF does have a lot of resources, but at the same time, it is a large organization. Having a certain amount of money that I can use separate from WWF that I can really use to fulfill a need is really nice. Transportation costs become really expensive, since I’m taking the metro back and forth between sites, so it’s also helped with that.
I’m ideally hoping to use the money to hire other students that have interest in this. I gave a presentation on food waste in my climate change and policy class and asked everyone at the end that if they’re interested or know how to do audits, then I could pay them or give them a $50 gift card for doing it and a lot of people were interested in doing it. I have a good friend who interned for the WWF’s Food Waste Team this past summer, so I’m going to try to have her help me as well. That’s all what I’m probably going to use the money for.
Also, if schools need any materials, such as buckets, scales, sorting materials, I could buy them those supplies. It’s just nice to know that I have this funding available to actually pursue the project, because if I was just doing it on my own, it would be really difficult.
A: How has your project personally impacted you?
C: I’ve always been interested in the food system and how it’s worked – I’ve been a vegetarian since I was ten – but I never understood how big of an issue food waste was until I started working at WWF. I think that itself has been a really big learning experience for me, kind of learning about the other side of the food system. I think the biggest impact is going to be seeing children learn; I cannot tell you how many hours I’ve spent developing this lesson plan, and it’s going to be so nice to see it out there and to see students learn it as well as getting that immediate feedback from teachers.
A: What advice would you give to someone who’s unsure about applying for the Knapp Fellowship or is unsure if their idea is developed enough to apply for the Fellowship?
C: I think I myself applied to it literally a week before the deadline. I was thinking more and more about it and realized that it would be so helpful in aiding what I wanted to do. Even at that point, I didn’t really have much of a concrete project, but it was really helpful that I had interned at WWF before and knew it was something that I wanted to go back to. So, I would recommend for anyone who wants to apply for the Fellowship to have an organization in mind. In my experience so far with developing this project, having the resources, people, and team at the WWF that I can talk to about this has been critical to this project. Even if you don’t have a direct connection to an organization, try to foster a relationship with them. All these organizations are trying to do the same thing, and you have the unique opportunity to be the one who unites them all towards a single project, which I think it really cool to do with a student.
The Knapp Fellowship for Entrepreneurial Service-Learning makes it possible for exceptional GW students to combine scholarship with action and change the world. Prizes of up to $10,000 will be given out to student-led service projects.
Don't miss your chance to apply! The 2018 application is live now and is due by January 12, 2018. For questions about the Knapp Fellowship or for mentorship with your idea contact Wendy Wagner at wagnerw@gwu.edu
GW Nashman Center Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Lee
The Nashman Center is committed to highlighting the faculty that give back to the community and GW students through service-learning projects. Aleena Khan spoke to Dr. Lee of SEAS about his ongoing work with students in his capstone engineering course and their work. Yuval Lev also spoke to several students in his capstone course working on a project building wheelchairs for people in Belize.
The Nashman Faculty Update will continue shining a spotlight on community-engaged faculty and students, so watch this space for more to come. If you want to get more involved with community-engaged scholarship, follow us on Twitter @NashmanFaculty and save the date for The Nashman Center symposium on Friday, December 8th, where all students are welcome to present their community-engaged scholarship!
Nashman Center: Could you start by giving me an overview of your service-learning course?
Dr. Lee: The one that’s the most relevant is the capstone design, the senior-level design course that every engineer has to take some version of. With ours, in biomedical engineering, it’s pretty easy to incorporate some kind of community engagement aspect. So, we have 11 teams of four or five students working on 11 different projects this year. One is monitoring respiration and other clinical information in patients who are ventilated, the idea being to improve the way that ventilation is managed.
"We're basically trying to build a cheap, off-roading wheelchair for people in Belize. There's one specific lab we're working with."
Nashman Center: That’s really cool! Is it something that they work on for all four years/whenever they declare their major or do they begin these projects their senior year?
Dr. Lee: Right now, it’s starting senior year. The goal is to have some design experience through all four years – at least through the last three – and possibly having some longer-term projects, or projects that are on the larger size, involve students from throughout the curriculum. We’re a new department, so this is a new way of doing senior design. It’s a long-term aspiration.
Nashman Center: Is this the first year that you’re doing more of a community engagement project?
Dr. Lee: This is my third year here and last year, we started by getting projects from clinicians and researchers. We’ve got three projects for two physical therapists, we have three different projects from clinicians at the GW Hospital, one from the FDA, one from a researcher, and one from a company in Columbus, OH.
Nashman Center: That’s amazing. How do you think this kind of course, going out into the community, getting projects from clinicians, the physical therapists, challenges the students in a way a traditional course would not?
Dr. Lee: In a traditional course, in engineering, students will often be presented with problems that have a solution. The capstone projects are much more open-ended, much more real-world. We know that nobody’s made one of these before, so if you ask me how to make it, I’m going to tell you, “I don’t know.”
The Team
"They get a lot of wheelchairs that are normal in Belize...They rust... We don't just want to create a wheelchair, we want to create a manual for repairs."
Nashman Center: What’s your favorite student story from the course? Favorite story, favorite project?
Dr. Lee: From GW, last year was the first year they came out of the clinics and they weren’t just student projects. One of the teams ended up making a device that was good enough that hospital engineering approved it for use in the hospital to collect data that physicians could use – and again, this is related to ventilation – so this year, the project is related to that, but it’s not so much an improvement of the device but more so of what the next step is. That team got second prize in the Pelton Award Contest in the School of Engineering.
Nashman Center: Do you have any recommendations on how we would provide an indicator for the impact of your course?
Dr. Lee: That’s something that Dr. Wentzel and I are working on this year, is trying to figure out how to assess what’s working and use that to figure out what modifications for what we’re doing and make the program sustainable.
Nashman Center: Are you guys the creators of this program? Or was the idea already there and you guys helped develop it?
Dr. Lee: A mix. So, I came from Ohio State and at Ohio State, there was a Capstone Design Project class. So, some of the things I’m trying to do here worked there; working with Dr. Wentzell is part of the idea of getting more direct input from the clinicians and more interaction between the students and the clinicians. This summer, she came into a class of high school students where I’d had them work on a mock-up product of an active ankle prosthetic and she gave them feedback on their designs. That worked well enough that we adopted it for our senior portion as a little mini project to get them started and in the mentality that they’re going to have to try something out, not give them the idea that every little thing will stay in place. She’s going to come in with some physical therapy students next week, and the students will present their ideas to physical therapists and get feedback on what does and doesn’t work, as well as what’s missing.
Nashman Center: That’s an invaluable experience.
Dr. Lee: I think so!
Nashman Center: What would you say to a student who is unsure about taking a service-learning course?
Dr. Lee: What I’d say to the students just in general is that you’re here to explore and learn and find out about the world. Service Learning is something that’s going to help you get outside of your comfort zone and learning about something that you’ll never see otherwise. So, go do it!
GW’s Morrison and Wagner Publish Research on Community-Engaged Faculty
The Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning recently published a study by Drs Morrison and Wagner. The study explored the perspectives of community-engaged faculty on their work and professional identity and revealed five distinct approaches.
From the abstract:
Data analysis using Q Methodology and focus groups of faculty who self-identified as being engaged in the community revealed a Community-Engaged Faculty Typology, with five distinct types. Each type is described in detail, followed by a discussion of the emergent typology, its limitations, and its implications for research, theory, and practice. Specifically, the findings from this study suggest that all five approaches to CES should be considered when training, developing programs, supporting, and reviewing the contributions of community-engaged faculty.
GW Researchers Publish Work on Community-Engaged Faculty
Congratulations to Emily Morrison, director of GW’s Human Services and Social Justice program, and Wendy Wagner, Senior Associate for Academic Service-Learning for the Nashman Center, on their recently released research article. With this piece, they identify a new approach to understanding the diversity of experiences of community-engaged faculty.
The article is available through the Michigan Journal for Community Service-Learning (link here). The study findings, a typology of community engaged faculty aimed at fostering greater understanding of and support for engaged scholars will be published in Spring of 2017.
Students in GW’s Interior Architecture and Design program redesign space for local nonprofit
This is a great example of community engaged scholarship, from GW's Interior Architecture and Design program (Columbian College). Nancy Evans and Erica Riggio engaged their students in a redesign of the space for the Homeless Children's Playtime Project headquarters. In addition to applying their design skills, the students collected a stunning $40,000 worth of furniture donations to support the project. Congratulations to faculty and students involved in the project!
The project has been featured in both the GW Hatchet and in The Dupont Current (page 13)
GW’s Emily Morrison receives the MDDCCC Early Career Engaged Scholarship Award
Service-Learning Professor, Tara Scully featured in Saving the Bay
Service-learning colleague, Tara Scully was featured for her work to protect the Chesapeake Bay Oyster population and in turn, the entire aquatic ecosystem with her work to collect oyster shells. Her course Understanding Organism Through Service works to maintain this and other programs to protect the environment.
You can read more about her work in the class here.
GW Faculty Present Research at IARSLCE
This week, Dr. Emily Morrison and Dr. Wendy Wagner presented the findings of their research on the perspectives of community-engaged faculty at the annual International Association for Research in Service Learning and Community Engagement conference. Both a symposium session on the implications of the findings for practice and a poster presentation on the research study itself were well received. Stay tuned for a presentation on the findings here at GW as well as an article currently in press.
Lisa Benton-Short’s Scholarship Featured in Time Mag
Be sure to check out the terrific attention on Lisa Benton-Short’s research here in DC, including this piece in Time Magazine: http://time.com/4482672/public-space-after-september-11/).
We are all excited about the release of her new book: The National Mall: No Ordinary Public Space. https://www.amazon.com/National-Mall-Ordinary-Public-Space/dp/1442630558/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr.
