NPR has recently featured a couple of service-learning related stories that our community of engaged faculty might be interested in.

Healthy Eaters, Strong Minds – about engaging students in community gardens to learn about healthy food.

The story of how Katrina shifted the faculty’s attention to service-learning at Tulane’s Architecture School.

Science for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER) and The National Center for Science and Civic Engagement (NCSCE) are great resources for STEM faculty interested in improving science education by focusing on real world problems.

Their annual meeting and symposium will be held September 27-29 at George Mason University.

More information, including the meeting agenda, is available here. You can register for the meeting here.

Welcome to the start of a new academic year! Here you will find links to important information, events, and resources for those who plan to make indirect or direct service to the community a part of their courses. We support faculty who are engaging students in real world learning through Academic Service-Learning, Community-Based Participatory Research, and those teaching Community Engagement oriented courses. Please contact Maurice Smith smithml@gwu.edu or Amy Cohen abcohen@gwu.edu with questions or concerns about improving or creating real world learning and service opportunities in the curriculum.

Please feel free to share this information with colleagues. To subscribe and receive e-newsletter briefs by email, send a request to gwsl@gwuedu.

Students serving with children or other vulnerable populations and in many nonprofit organizations must be screened and certified in order to be able to serve. Students can complete this screening right here on campus at the Community Partner Fair, Tuesday, September 8th, 3:00pm-5:00pm , Marvin Center, Grand Ballroom

Students should bring:

1. Original copies of their identification (driver’s license, passport, Soc Sec Card)
2. A copy of their TB test results.
3. A copy of most updated physical and immunization records.

Link here for helpful documents to share in your classroom or on your Blackboard sites. Included here are:

• The waiver forms that all students doing service-learning on-site should sign and return to you before service begins
• Risk management tips
• The Individual Placement Form to help you keep track of where students are serving
• A time sheet/evaluation form to collect when students’ service is complete

Please customize these forms as needed to make them a tool that works for your needs.

This year we will be working toward producing an annual magazine, to share the narratives about the work that our campus and community are doing. Our goal is to  deepen the discourse about public service, underscore our shared commitment to community engagement and share important stories from the campus and community.

Academic Community Engagement: A Year in Review willfeature the exemplars of curricular civic engagement—people and projects—as well as articles written by students about their experiences.

This magazine will be on a digital platform and we welcome contributions from faculty, students and community partners. Please keep this in mind as you make your assignments for this academic year and if you or your students would like to contribute, contact us at gwsl@gwu.edu.

Faculty Meet-ups
Every 3rd Thursday, Academic Service-Learning will host a space for faculty members across GW to gather and collaborate, bounce ideas around, talk about research agendas, and discuss community engagement through research and teaching. Below are the dates and tentative time frame. These are come and go events, so please join in when you can.

Thursday, September 17th, 3-5 pm
Friday, October 16th, 11 am – 2 pm
Thursday, November 19th, 3-5 pm
Friday, December 18th, 11 am – 2 pm

Faculty Brown Bag with Street Sense
Friday, September 4 (Time TBD), Marvin Center 5th Floor, Room 526
This community partner works with homeless individuals and on homelessness policy. Street Sense is interested in engaging faculty members in some research and program building opportunities.

Semester Brown Bag Lunch Discussions
October 14th, Marvin Center 5th Floor, Room 526 from 11:30am – 1pm
Each Semester the Center for Civic Engagement hosts a brown bag lunch discussion around a social change or justice issue. These discussions are open to faculty, staff, students and community partners and are lead by individuals with significant content knowledge. Please contact GWSL@gwu.edu if you have suggestions for speakers or topics.

Community Service Fair
September 8th, 3-4:30 pm in Kogan Plaza
This event will help students who are looking for their own community partner placements. Students can also be certified to serve at schools and other youth-serving organizations with finger printing and background checks done in one place.

Knapp Fellowship Application/Pitch
Oct 1st  
The 2016 Knapp Fellowship application and open pitch time frame will begin on Oct 1- Dec 12 for students interested in connecting social entrepreneurship opportunities with their research and scholarship. Students will be able to set up appointments to pitch their ideas and receive feedback. Students are required to have aFaculty Advisor to receive a Knapp Fellowship.

Academic Service-Learning Development Funds for Faculty Request for Proposals
Oct 1st
The RFP will be available on Oct 1 with a Deadline of Dec 11 at 5pm. Watch for more information here in the Faculty FOCI e-newsletter.

Service-Learning Symposium
December 9th, 10am-3pm, Marvin Center 3rd Floor
Faculty — please put this on your syllabus!  A call for those who wish to have their students participate in this culminating event for the fall will go out in Mid-October, but we encourage you to add this to your course plan now. Please let Maurice Smith at  gwsl@gwu.edu know of your plans to participate. Click here for more information about the Symposium.

A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, “A Year of Racial Tumult Brings Potent Lessons – and Risks – to the Classroom” has us all thinking reflectively about our teaching. Service-learning faculty in particular need to be skilled at facilitating challenging classroom discussions. The events of the past year should have us all engaging in as much critical reflection as we ask our students to do.  We look forward to sharing these reflections at upcoming Faculty Discussions.

A call for submissions has been released by the eJournal of Public Affairs for a special issue on Campus and Community Civic Health. Due date is August 31st. Contact Mark Potter (mpotte10@msudenver.edu) for more information or to discuss submission ideas.

Campus Compact is an organization that works to “advance the public purpose of colleges and universities by deepening their ability to improve community life and to educate students for civic and social responsibility.”  On their 30th anniversary, they are asking engaged faculty from across the country to share their stories, memories and photos of the last three decades of connecting higher education to the community.  Please submit your contributions to communications@compact.org with a description they can use on their online outlets.

President Obama appeared on John Stewart recently, where both discussed the expansion of national service.  Stewart suggested that college might shift to a three-year experience with one year of service.  Obama made the case for the need for pathways to service.

What role should/could higher education play in a move to make service a shared American experience? Link here to an article about these comments from The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Please see this potential outlet for your scholarship on the student learning outcomes of community engagement or community based research. Submission deadline is July 31st, 2015. Publication date is September 30, 2015.

www.jehdnet.com

In a new report, The Kresge Foundation is calling for the nonprofit sector to do more to leverage change through advocacy, policy-change and public awareness for civic action.  There are many implications here for the competencies needed from college graduates to address the needs in our communities: research skills, understanding of markets, ability to use technology to communicate and persuade, and understanding policy and how to influence political change.