The Communicator 

Spring 2012

Student and Faculty Awards

 

2012 Newman Civic Fellows

 

Nine Oklahoma students were named 2012 Newman Civic Fellows by Campus Compact. The nine students from Oklahoma join 162 students from 32 states in the program, and were nominated by their college or university president as inspiring college student leaders who have demonstrated an investment in finding solutions for challenges facing communities throughout the country. The Newman Civic Fellows Award is named for Dr. Frank Newman, one of the founders of Campus Compact, who dedicated his life to creating opportunities for student civic learning and engagement.

 

With the Newman Civic Fellows Awards, college and university presidents acknowledge students with the ability and motivation to create lasting change in our communities. Through service, research, and advocacy, these Newman Civic Fellows are making the most of their college experiences to better understand themselves, the root causes of social issues, and effective mechanisms for creating lasting change. The Fellows will be recognized by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education at their September, 2012 meeting, and working with Oklahoma Campus Compact to extend service leadership opportunities to other students. For more information about the Newman Civic Fellows, visit www.compact.org.

 

Sasha Stierwalt, Northern Oklahoma College

 

 Sasha Stierwalt, a sophomore nursing student at Northern Oklahoma College, volunteers with Hospice and many group projects, such as a two-day Oklahoma Blood Institute blood drive and Be the Match bone marrow registry drive. She also led the initiative to collect stockings with Christmas presents for young cancer and Cystic Fibrosis patients who were hospitalized over the holidays, and organized a fundraiser for a family of one Cystic Fibrosis patient in need.

 

Nathan Jones, Northwestern Oklahoma State University

 

 

Nathan Jones, a senior at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, from Beaver, Oklahoma, is a campus and community leader. Since his arrival on campus, Nate has been involved with the Baptist Student Union to assist community improvements. He is also a member of the Leviathan, which focuses its work on civic leadership through voter registration drives, candidate forums and constitution day awareness events. Nate was selected as Northwestern's first Civic Education Fellow in 2010. This fellowship allowed him to intern for State Senator Bryce Marlatt. For his capstone study at Northwestern, he is analyzing different approaches to curbing gang behavior in public schools.

 

 

Kenneth Meador, Oklahoma City Community College

 

 

Kenneth Meador, a second-year student at Oklahoma City Community College, is active in issues involving at-risk youth. In the past year, he completed over 75 hours of service with Infant Crisis Services, a nonprofit entity supplying formula, food, diapers, and clothing for babies/toddlers in times of crisis. In addition, he has served more than 25 hours with Whiz Kids, a nonprofit tutoring and mentoring program for at-risk children in Oklahoma City.

 

Mark Miller, Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology - Okmulgee

 

Mark Miller, a second year student at Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology, trains therapy dogs and uses the dogs in a program he created called, "Read to the Dog." He leads 4-H Dog Clubs in two counties to help children train dogs. He is also involved in delivering food, assisting with county cleanups, and developing presentations to help students at 50 Oklahoma high schools understand the consequences of texting and driving.

 

Jacob Daniel, Rogers State University

 

 

Jacob Daniel, a junior at Rogers State University, has served on public forums for KRSC-TV, volunteers at Rogers State's adopted elementary school, and helps with the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure events. He is a promiment member of the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Legislature team and participates in their statewide conferences.

 

 

Carrie Williamson, Southeastern Oklahoma State University

Carrie Williamson, a junior Occupational Safety and Health major at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, is an outstanding student, works fulltime, is a dedicated mother and grandmother, and constantly volunteers her time to serve others. She has been a 4-H leader, Relay for Life team captain, coach, volunteer at Families Feeding Families, and disaster relief worker. After graduation, Carrie plans to pursue a career in the safety field with a special focus on educating children.

 

Blaine Boyd, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

 

Blaine Boyd, a student at Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU), demonstrates the type of civic engagement that sets an example for others, shining a positive light in a time when negativity has dominated much national conversation. Blaine strives to engage his peers politically and to promote physical activity among youth in the fight against obesity. He's involved with a Let's Move Program in Weatherford, Oklahoma through SWOSU's Young Democrats Chapter. Blaine was after-school recreation director at a local church and volunteers to coach his local middle school basketball team. His also promotes the health of the young through the Blue Backpack Project to supply school lunch program students with food for the weekend. He also tutors students at East Elementary in reading. Blaine's goal is to pursue the study of law in order to become a public defender.

 

Susan Phares, University of Central Oklahoma

 

 

Susan Phares, a junior Nursing major at the University of Central Oklahoma, is highly concerned about the poor treatment and neglect that many senior citizens experience. Susan takes it upon herself to inform her fellow students of the needs of this often

 

forgotten generation, building student concern and interest in their needs. Susan takes groups of students from the Volunteer Activities Council to a local nursing home to help students grow beyond their comfort zones. Susan has also worked with senior citizens in Peru and Canada during international service trips.

 

Carrie Crafton, Western Oklahoma State College

 

Carrie Crafton, a second year student at Western Oklahoma State College (WOSC), took on the challenge of a yearlong commitment to complete 300 service learning hours through Students in Service of AmeriCorps. During the year, she worked with the WOSC Upward Bound program, the afterschool program ASPIRE, and first grade teachers at Washington Elementary school. Carrie is a leader with the Cub Scouts. She also tutored adults in English with the local Literacy Council. She has participated in the national Psi Beta research project, Altus Special Olympics, and the Altus reservoir clean-up.

 

 

Nominations for 2012 Oklahoma Campus Compact State Awards

 

Applications are now being accepted for the Oklahoma Campus Compact State Awards. The annual State Awards celebrate growth in different roles in the field of community engagement, and are intended to stimulate further thought and action for higher education as a public good. Awards for Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri Campus Compacts will be presented at the 2012 Campus Compact Heartland Conference October 11-12, 2012 in St. Louis. Please consider submitting an application to Oklahoma's state awards, which recognizes outstanding leadership and contributions by faculty, staff, and community partners.  Information and the nomination forms are available at

http://associations.missouristate.edu/heartland/113061.htm, and will also be disseminated directly to each campus.  Nominations are due September 7, 2012.  The three award categories are:

 

Community Engagement Professional of the Year

 

The Community Engagement Professional of the Year award recognizes one professional from a member campus who has: 1) worked toward the institutionalization of academic service-learning and/or service; 2) created and strived toward a vision of service for his/her campus; 3) promoted higher education as a public good; 4) provided exceptional support to faculty and students; and 5) been instrumental in forming innovative campus-community partnerships.

 

Outstanding Community & Campus Collaboration

 

The Outstanding Community & Campus Collaboration award recognizes a sustained campus-community partnership that demonstrates a true partnership as evidenced by: 1) community agency involvement in the development of the course goals and learning outcomes; 2) measurable impact (qualitative and quantitative) on students, faculty and institution; 3) measurable impact on the lives of those served by the community agency; and 4) commitment of community agency to student learning.

 

Excellence in Community-Based Teaching & Scholarship

 

The Excellence in Community-Based Teaching & Scholarship award recognizes one faculty member from a member campus who has: 1) successfully incorporated service-learning into at least one course with demonstrable outcomes; and 2) conducted outstanding research in the field of service-learning and engaged scholarship.

Professional Development  

  

Campus Compact Heartland Conference

OkCC Regional Conference Logo

Kansas * Missouri * Oklahoma

 

Make plans to join your colleagues from Kansas and Missouri in St. Louis October 11-12, 2012 for the Campus Compact Heartland Conference. The Heartland Conference will provide opportunities for faculty, professional staff, student and community leaders interested in higher education civic engagement activities to network and learn from one another while engaging in skill-building sessions as well as discussing challenging issues facing our communities and campuses. This work is critical to democracy.  In an era of deeply polarized and uncivil public discourse, high-quality community work and learning prepares students to listen and speak respectfully across differences.  Rather than resigning ourselves to the existence of major social problems, campuses can build partnerships that support student success and address specific community priorities. Watch this site for information on the twenty sessions: http://associations.missouristate.edu/heartland/

 

Date: October 11-12, 2012

Place: St. Louis Union Station Marriott, St. Louis, Missouri

Registration: http://associations.missouristate.edu/heartland/

Contact: Miranda Outon, Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, [email protected], 405-225-9150

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Ken Reardon, Professor and Director of the Graduate Division in City and Regional Planning, University of Memphis

 

 

Professor and Director of the Graduate Division in City and Regional Planning at the University of Memphis, Dr. Reardon is engaged in research, teaching and extension activities in the areas of neighborhood planning, community development, municipal government reform, and community/university development partnerships. Ken also co-directs, with Professor Katherine Lambert-Pennington of the Department of Anthropology, three resident-led planning efforts in the South Memphis and Vance Avenue neighborhoods of Memphis and in the nearby City of Brownsville, Tennessee.

 

Prior to joining the Memphis faculty, Ken served as an Associate Professor and Chairman of the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University. While in Ithaca, Ken established the Cornell Urban Scholars and Cornell Urban Mentors Programs that involved more than fifty undergraduate and graduate students in participatory action research projects in New York City. In 2005, he created the New Orleans Planning Initiative that involved more than ninety planning students from Cornell, Columbia, and the University of Illinois in the creation of a post-recovery plan for the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans.

 

Before joining the Cornell faculty, Ken served as an Assistant and Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he established the East St. Louis Action Research Project. This interdisciplinary community development assistant project has involved thousands of undergraduate and graduate architecture, landscape architecture, planning, law, history, sociology and engineering students in a wide range of collaborative research projects that have played a pivotal role in revitalizing several of East St. Louis' most economically-distressed neighborhoods.

 

Ken received his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1976, his Master of Regional Planning at Hunter College of the City of New York in 1984, and his Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning at Cornell University in 1990.

Following the completion of his Ph.D., Ken completed a Post-doctoral Research Fellowship in Social Justice and Minority Communities at the University of Minnesota.

 

Plan on joining your colleagues from Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri next fall in St. Louis, MO for the 2012 Heartland Conference. Share your successes in campus and community engagement, hear new ideas, and network with scholars and practitioners.

 

Campus Compact 2012 Presidents Leadership Summit

 

"Developing Vital, Vibrant & Healthy Communities through Democratic Partnerships and Civic Engagement"

 

October 15th and 16th Campus Compact Presidents Leadership Summit will convene presidents in Chattanooga, TN for a lively examination of the intersection between campus civic engagement and economic development efforts. Through research review and case study development, a white paper will offer a framework for understanding the role of colleges and universities in promoting innovative and economically vibrant communities.

The Summit provides a space for academic leaders to consider the strategic alignment of civic engagement and economic development efforts for the mutual benefit of communities and institutions of higher education. The Summit will highlight campuses that are succeeding in this work, inspire more campuses to do the same, and help build institutional capacity for engaging in community and economic development.

 

If your president may be interested in attending the Summit, contact Gina Wekke at (405) 225-9142, or [email protected].

 

Grant Writing

 

Dr. Linda Mason, Coordinator for Grants Writing at the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, offers the Grant Opportunities for Oklahoma Colleges and Universities web site at http://www.okhighered.org/grant-opps/. A Beginning Grant Writing workshop will be offered on June 29th, 2012 in Oklahoma City free of charge. For further information on this and access to other grant resources, contact Dr. Mason at (405) 225-9486 or [email protected].

 

2012 IARSLCE Annual Conference

 

Themed "Connected Knowing", the 2012 International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement will be hosted in Baltimore, MD on September 23-25, 2012 at the Marriott Baltimore Waterfront Hotel. Information on the conference and registration is available at http://www.researchslce.org/.

 

Continuums of Service Conference

 

The California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Oregon, Utah and Washington Campus Compacts will host the 16th annual Continuums of Service Conference. They invite you to join them April 24-26, 2013 at the Portland Downtown Marriott Waterfront Hotel in Portland, OR. The conference is designed to incorporate time to dialogue with colleagues on critical issues facing higher education and communities, and will include community site visits to showcase progressive campus/community collaborations. A Call for Proposals will be issued in early fall.

Civic Engagement

 

2012 Campus Vote Initiative

 

Civic engagement is about more than just registering to vote. This August OkCC will supply each of its member campuses with information to fully engage its students, faculty and staff in the fall national elections. Prior to this outreach, please review the information below and give some thought to your participation.

 

Constraints

 

The OkCC Campus Vote Advisory Committee met with the Secretary of the State Election Board a few months ago and gained insight on some crucial issues:

 

  • No polling site has been located on any college campus, nor is any likely to be. Polling sites are determined by county election boards. Unless voting by absentee ballot or early voting, voters must vote close to their place of residence, which is not often the campus.
  • Student identification cards do not meet the new voter identification requirement, as they do not have an expiration date (unless your campus procedure differs from the norm). But driver licenses do qualify, as well as the voter id card issued by the Election Board upon registration.
  • Federal and state laws place restrictions upon inducements to vote and to register to vote which campuses need to be aware of.

Elements of 2012 Campus Vote

 

Voter Registration Contest

Monday, Sept. 17 - Friday, Sept. 21

Institutions will receive information on participation, and guidance on use of incentives.

 

Voter Education

Campuses can play a meaningful role in making students aware of credible, nonpartisan analytical internet sites, such as matching one's views with candidate positions and political fact-checking. A list of such resources will be shared. Campuses will also be encouraged to host events like candidate forums.

 

Voting

Campuses can make the largest impact here, if they so choose, simply through utilization of their media outlets for:

  • Posting of sample ballots
  • Listing of local polling sites
  • Providing clear information and reminders on voting id requirement
  • Reminding for early voting option (place, dates, times)
  • Providing information/support for absentee voting - downloading application from State Election Board website, requirement for notary, deadline for mailing in, etc.
  • Most importantly, sending out reminders to vote

There are some things you can be thinking about in preparation for the 2012 Campus Vote information to be distributed in August: You may want to contact your student government, or groups such as Young Democrats and Young Republicans, and political science faculty, to begin planning for participation. The information you receive in August will also recommend that you meet with the secretary of your county election board to discuss procedures on voter registration and voting.

 

Civic Engagement Resources

 

  

A plethora of reports and recommendations have been published this spring on civic learning and democratic engagement. Here are the major ones:

 

A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy's Future - National Task Force, commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education and produced through the AAC&U. http://www.aacu.org/civic_learning/crucible/. Also see the link on this site to A Brief Review of the Evidence of Civic Learning in Higher Education.

 

Civic Learning and Democratic Engagements: A Review of the Literature on Civic Engagement in Post-Secondary Education - a summary literature review by Ashley Finley of AAC&U available athttp://www.civiclearning.org/Resources/Project-Resources.html

  

Advancing Civic Learning and Engagement in Democracy - Road Map and Call to Action - U.S. Department of Education.  http://www.ed.gov/civic-learning

  

 

Fault Lines in Our Democracy: Civic Knowledge, Voting Behavior, and Civic Engagement in the United States - ETS. http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/road-map-call-to-action.pdf 

 

Civic Health

 

The AASCU American Democracy Project is developing a toolkit that campuses will be able to use to assess the civic health of their institutions and communities. See the Campus Civic Health Initiative which will work to identify existing civic health assessment indicators and to develop new measures for assessing campus contributions to civic learning and health at http://www.aascu.org/programs/adp/civichealth/. The Campus & Community Civic Health Initiative is intended to engage American colleges and universities in two efforts:

 

1. To devise measures and metrics for assessing the civic health of their campus as well as their community.

 

2. To find a measure of civic health that needs improvement, and to devise a program to respond to that concern.

 

Civic Engagement Outcomes

 

In a first for student civic engagement, the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education has required the Department of Higher Education to develop a plan for incorporating a civic education and engagement key outcome into its tracking system. This data on students' civic engagement will be included in the portfolioof system-wide performance measurements, along with such commonly tracked statistics as graduation rates and performance on licensure exams.

 

Civic learning is one of five learning outcomes included in the Lumina Foundation's Degree Qualifications Profile, which aims to define common elements for degrees at the associate, bachelor's, and master's levels.  For further informaion see: http://luminafoundation.org/publications

Programs

 

Junior Achievement

 

As a national nonprofit organization, Junior Achievement is empowering young people to own their economic success.  In partnership with Oklahoma schools, Junior Achievement provides volunteer-delivered, K-12 programs focused on:

  • work-readiness
  • entrepreneurship
  • financial literacy, and JA uses experiential learning to inspire kids to dream big and reach their potential. 

Junior Achievement offers especially promising community engagement potential for business students and faculty.  Its offices are located in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.  Currently, 75% of JA programming is delivered to K-5 students and plans are in place to expand JA middle school programming.   Junior Achievement is seeking more college volunteers to work with elementary and middle school students.  To discuss opportunities for volunteers from your campus to work with K-12 students in this program, contact Belynda Clanton, Vice President of Programs in Tulsa at [email protected] or (918) 663-2159, or Amy Serrata, Regional Director of Programs in Oklahoma City at[email protected].  The Oklahoma Junior Achievement website is http://oklahoma.ja.org/.

 

Cameron University Alternative Spring Break

 

Steve Sassaman, Student Activities Specialist from Cameron University, led seven international students on an Alternative Spring Break trip to Joplin, MO in March. The trip consisted of seven days, with five days spent completing disaster recovery work totalling 360 hours of volunteer work. The students and Steve projects consisted primarily of debris removal from various sites around Joplin including the Elk's Lodge, one of the first places hit by the tornado. The volunteers also organized photo negatives at the Joplin Museum, spent time at the Joplin Humane Society, and assisted with the expansion efforts of the House of Hope, a teen counseling center.

 

Qualitative and quantitative research revealed that the participants were able to build meaningful relationships with their fellow participants, and with those who were directly impacted by their service. Though the students identified the work they performed as challenging, it was clear to them that their efforts were meaningful.   All of the students indicated that the experience raised their awareness of the impact made by disasters and were able to recognize a positive impact as a result of their actions. All of the students also mentioned having fun and experiencing joy throughout their time in Joplin.

 

Interested colleagues may reach Steve Sassaman at Cameron at (580) 591-8086, or [email protected]

 

Cameron students volunteering in Joplin, Missouri

















 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AmeriCorps VISTA Program

 

It is with great regret that Oklahoma Campus Compact announces the close of its participation in the AmeriCorps VISTA program with the end of the current grant term September 22, 2012. OkCC has decided not to apply to continue its current VISTA grant into its third year because of several significant challenges encountered in 2011 and 2012: 

  • Our campuses' difficulty in coping with changes in the federal program guidelines to building the capacities of communities, as opposed to the capacities of the campus to serve the community,
  • The prohibitive cost posed by the increasing cost-share requirement (matching funds), and
  • The loss of the state support grant to fund a program coordinator.

OkCC applied and was awarded VISTA member positions in 2007 to grow volunteer and service-learning programs on member campuses for the purpose of better serving underprivileged Oklahomans. In 2010, OkCC reapplied and was again awarded VISTA member positions to help campuses respond to local needs for financial literacy, community health, and college readiness.

 

Over the course of both service plans a total of 33 VISTAs have served either partial terms or full terms (1 year) with us. They recruited, trained, coordinated, or otherwise supported 12,000 volunteers who gave 28,000 hours of service to their communities. Our VISTAs have also raised $35,000 in cash and grants, and $83,000 in in-kind donations for their projects. With the expiration of the grant on Sept. 22, all VISTA member terms with the OkCC program will end.  Obviously, recruitment has been ended, with no more members to be enrolled.

 

Commensurate with this news is the sad reality that OkCC will be losing its AmeriCorps VISTA state program coordinator, Steve Godecke. If you have had the pleasure of working with and/or knowing Steve, you may wish to take the opportunity to bid him farewell before he leaves later this year.

 

All of the AmeriCorps VISTA and partial education award programs have provided many avenues for student service and campus service enhancement. Through OkCC and other state Campus Compact programs, Oklahoma campuses have participated not only in VISTA, but also in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service grants, and in the Washington Campus Compact Students in Service partial education award program. Through these programs OkCC and its member campuses have accessed useful resources and expertise, positively impacted community development, and advanced student civic responsibility and education funding. OkCC will continue to closely monitor relevant programs under the Corporation for National and Community Service for participation opportunities for our member campuses, particularly as the federal budget situation continues to evolve and affect programs.

Tools

  

Risk Management and Agency Involvement

Through Lyvier Conss, Executive Director of the Community College National Center for Community Engagement, the Maricopa Community College District in Arizona is sharing an Experiential Partnership Agreement form developed by their legal counsel. This form addressing risk management, and other related ones, such as the Understanding of Expectations, may be accessed at http://www.mesacc.edu/academics/servicelearning/signup.html to share with your institutional legal counsel. Lyvier Conss in Mesa, AZ may be reached through http://www.mesacc.edu/engagement.

 

Oklahoma Campus Compact Spring 2012 Workshop Recap

 

Oklahoma Campus Compact partnered with the Northeast Oklahoma Higher Education Forum to co-host the 2012 Annual Service Learning Coordinator / Community Service Director and Northeast Oklahoma Higher Education Forum Workshop. The agenda was centered onservice-learning throughout P-20, and the universal benefits and methods of evaluation for service-learning.

 

The workshop was presented by Dr. Jennifer Gilbride-Brown of The Ohio State University. Dr. Gilbride-Brown is on the faculty at Ohio State in the School of Educational Policy and Leadership, where she teaches the graduate course in service-learning administration, and is continuing her dissertation research on service-learning and underrepresented students.  She also serves as president on the board of a local community partner, and consults with colleges and universities on civic engagement and community-based teaching and learning. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Gilbride-Brown was the Senior Program Director for Faculty and Campus Development in the Ohio Campus Compact. Dr. Gilbride-Brown's presentations and related materials she referenced are available on the OkCC website under Past Conference/Workshop Info at: http://www.okhighered.org/okcampuscompact/conf-workshop-archives.shtml. 

 

OkCC Fed Logo

In This Issue
Professional Development Opportunities
Programs Update
Tools

www.okhighered.org/campus-com/

 

 If you have any

questions about items in

 this newsletter or need

assistance, please contact:  Ms. Gina Wekke, Executive Director

Oklahoma Campus Compact

Post Office Box 108850

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

73101

(405) 225-9150

[email protected]