Beacons of Vision, Hope, and Action

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COMMUNITY COLLEGE NATIONAL CENTER FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Lyvier Conss, Executive Director

BEACONS OF VISION, HOPE, AND ACTION—INTRODUCTION

It seems like only yesterday, rather than 22 years ago, that I sat across the table from Dr. Paul Elsner discussing the establishment of the Community College National Center for Community Engagement (CCNCCE). Through his vision, guidance, and financing, CCNCCE opened its doors in 1990 to assist community colleges across the U.S. to instill the ethic of service within the academic life of community college students. In his parting words at our first meeting, Dr. Elsner reminded me that, in order for a vision and dream to become a reality, it was important to surround myself with people who believed in the vision and mission and who would “light the path” as I moved forward. And so my journey began to seek out those people who would “light my path,” provide me with guidance, and nurture the relationships to ensure CCNCCE became and maintained its vision and mission then, now, and forever. Throughout my journey for the last 22 years I have been blessed to meet thousands of individuals who each and every day teach me through their modeling of making a difference in the lives of our students, institutions of education, private and public workforce, and communities. Their commitments have helped me and CCNCCE to stay on course to our original vision and mission and develop services to support those efforts especially for the community college sector. I want to give a very special thank you to the following individuals who have been instrumental in the success of CCNCCE: Dr. Paul Elsner, former chancellor for the Maricopa County Community College District—for his lifetime commitment to service, leadership, and financing of CCNCCE; Dr. Larry Christiansen, former president of Mesa Community College—for his leadership and support to CCNCCE for over 15 years; Dr. Shouan Pan, president of Mesa Community College—for

continuing to support CCNCCE as its host institution and for his leadership; Mr. Calvin Dawson, Program Officer for Learn and Serve America at the Corporation for National and Community Service—for his understanding and support of community colleges and underrepresented populations; and to the thousands of students who inspired me not only to talk and teach about service-learning and civic engagement but for me personally to do service-learning. So whether side by side with students or on my own with medical colleagues, I too give back to global communities as a Spanish/English medical interpreter.

In celebration and commemoration of our 20th annual national conference we highlight 20 individuals from around the country who have not only touched the lives of all of us at CCNCCE but have been the Beacons of Vision, Hope, and Action to thousand of us in the service-learning and civic engagement world. Each and every one of these individuals brings a different perspective on engagement yet their hearts, souls,

and work are intertwined as one.

It is with great honor that we publish the words of 20 individuals whom we at CCNCCE value and love—we hope we will all continue to be touched by their knowledge and wisdom, now and in the future.

LEADERS ARE BORN EVERY DAY – IT IS UP

TO ALL OF US TO INSPIRE THEM TO BECOME

“GREAT LEADERS” FOR THE BETTERMENT

OF AN EDUCATED SOCIETY AND HOW BEST

TO DO THIS THEN THROUGH SERVICE

LEARNING AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT.

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ABOUT LYVIER CONSS

Lyvier Conss has over 27 years of experience in administration, grants development and management, and public and private fundraising with emphasis in higher education. She is the founding executive director of the Community College National Center for Community Engagement, which was established in 1990.

Through her leadership, the Center has developed services and leveraged funding to support the pedagogy of service-learning and civic engagement at community, tribal, two-year, and technical colleges throughout the contiguous U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. Territories, and abroad. The focus of the services have been on increasing college access, retention, and completion; academic achievement; critical and reflective thinking; civic responsibility; community involvement; faculty and curriculum development; strategic planning for the implementation and sustainability of service-learning programs; and fund development and management. Conss is a member of the professional associations Council on Resource Development, Alliance of Arizona Non-profits, and Planned Giving Round Table of Arizona. On May 26, 2005, under the Bush Administration, Conss received the Lifetime President's Call to Service Award for her volunteer work within her community, and as an English/Spanish interpreter with medical humanitarian groups providing free surgical, medical and dental assistance in Mexico, Central, and South America (Medical Hands for Healing; Sustainable Outreach Solutions (S.O.S.); Flying Samaritans; and Parkland Community College Dental Mission). She has also served as an English/Spanish interpreter with The Village Empowerment Project to bring solar energy and community health education to remote villages in Peru. Conss served as a Director-at-Large for the National Wildlife Federation for three terms (nine years). She enjoys her humanitarian efforts as well as fresh and salt-water fly-fishing, cooking, hiking, and traveling.

LEADER ANNUAL CONFERENCE THEME AND YEAR

Paul Elsner Raising Hopes for the Future—1991 1

Roger Henry Partnerships—1993 3

Ira Harkavy Imagine a Bridge that Can Span the Hopes and Ambitions of a Community and a Campus, a Bridge Made of Work and Care—1994

5

Donna Duffy Senses of Discovery—1995 7

Mark Milliron Visions of Leadership—1996 9

Andy Furco Assessing the Accomplishments of Today for the Needs of Tomorrow—1997 11

Gail Robinson A Gathering of the Minds for a Civil Society—1998 13

Rufus Glasper Change and Diversity in a Civil Society—1999 15

Rudy Garcia Celebrating a Decade of Success in a Civil Society—2000 17

Duane Oakes Reflections of Our Past for Charting Our Future—2001 19

Lori Moog Service-Learning and Civic Engagement: The Keys to Unity—2002 21

Robert Franco Reaching the Summit for Civic Commitment—2003 23

Joseph Swaba Adapting to the Paths of Change: Service-Learning and Civic Engagement—2004 25

Karen Solomon Community Dialogue and Engagement: Valuing Our Partners—2005 27

Pamela Edington Enlightenment: The Evolution of Change—2006 29

Dino Paul Meeting the Challenges of Sustainability for the 21st Century—2007 31

Jennifer Hine Recipes for Student Retention through Service-Learning and Civic Engagement—2008 33

Harry Boyte Unraveling the Mysteries behind Thriving Partnerships in Service-Learning & Community Engagement—2009

35

Sarena Seifer Formulas 4 Success in Service-Learning and Civic Engagement—2010 37

Shela Hidalgo Hand in Hand: Service-Learning and College Completion—2011 39

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OVERALL INSPIRATION AND LEADERSHIP

Paul Elsner, Paul Elsner and Associates

A Leader in the Service-Learning Movement—

Dr. Paul Elsner is truly a leader for educational reform and his vision has had a global impact. While Chancellor of the Maricopa Community Colleges, Elsner understood the transformational potential of service-learning and knew that community colleges—with “community” in their missions—needed the support and guidance to realize the full potential of service-learning and civic engagement activities. Elsner was an active participant in the founding of Campus Compact, and his support translated into establishing what was then called the Campus Compact Center for Community Engagement. He eloquently summarized some of this history in an article that he wrote for the Journal of Civic Commitment, Reaffirming the Value of Civic Engagement on Community College Campuses (Spring 2005). The following is an excerpt from this article.

The Campus Compact initiative was initially driven by the four-year college and university sector, but rested mainly with the more prestigious public and private independent research universities… Initially, one shortcoming of Campus Compact was that it did not include many of the largest providers of higher education. Among those initially overlooked were community colleges, which now account for close to half of all undergraduate students enrolled in higher education. Even many large state colleges were not involved until the State Compacts were formed. For community colleges that later came into the Campus Compact movement, the development of a national center to train students and faculty to set up volunteer programs was obviously needed. The opening of such a center at Mesa Community College in the Maricopa

Community College District in the Phoenix area marked a critically important milestone in the evolution of national student volunteerism in higher education. Its Executive Director, Lyvier Conss, ably led one of the most comprehensive and wide-reaching training structures for community college personnel in both the United States and abroad. The Community College National Center has now moved out from under the Campus Compact sponsorship from Brown University to its own Community College National Center for Community Engagement.

Those faculty members who have worked and given leadership to service-learning and volunteerism projects communicate a clear message: Service-learning should be anchored in the curriculum. The best programs grow out of the integration of subject matter disciplines and

volunteer service. Subject disciplines come alive when students see the implications of what they have been studying in volunteer settings. For example, working in a nursery crisis center where children and babies are brought after being abused can open whole new horizons for

students to explore. Questions such as "What child protection policies exist in our state?" "What is the reason a baby could ever be battered?" "What services protect children and how are they funded?" “What is 'good' children’s policy?" and others are raised. Thus, Sociology, Child Development, Psychology, Family Living are changed from a burden of study to a living subject matter.

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ABOUT PAUL ELSNER Dr. Paul Elsner presided over the largest system of community colleges in the United States as a 23-year tenured Chancellor of the Maricopa Community Colleges system, which enrolls over 260,000 credit students in university transfer, technical occupations, and fast-track workforce strategies. In addition, Elsner has served in numerous board and leadership capacities. His wide experience includes chairman of the Board of Trustees of Educational Testing Service (ETS) in Princeton, New Jersey, and American College Testing (ACT), two of the largest assessment and testing operations in the world. His other leadership capacities include past president of the League for Innovation, president of the Urban Commission, and board member of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). Elsner also founded RC2000, an international consortium of the world’s 30 largest technical community colleges and further education systems.

Elsner is a trustee for the SIAS International University in Zhengzhou, China, and has advised the University on strategic direction in areas of international recruitment, faculty and staff development, and fundraising. Elsner’s long history spanning a 12-year service arrangement with the Chengdu policy leaders and the larger Chengdu outlying region provided core teaching capacity for the Chengdu Foreign Affairs and Economic Development offices in course and training institutes ranging from meeting international accounting standards; world safety and environmental standards; chemical washes and industrial solvent safety and hazards; large scale retail; judiciary referral and human service support for young offenders; and consumer and identity fraud.

Elsner serves on a 26-member Washington-based commission that addresses workforce skills needed in competing and sustaining world capacity in the new global economy. The commission is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Casey Foundation, and the Hewlett and Lumina Foundations. The Commission is staffed by the National Center on the Economy and Education (NCEE) and is chaired by Charles Knapp, formerly president of the Aspen Institute and the University of Georgia. Marc Tucker leads the staff and is the principal investigator for the Commission along with several former cabinet members, past governors, members of congress, and policy experts that round out the commission’s membership.

Elsner has also been named in numerous commissions and studies, including being one of Education’s Most Influential Policy Leaders (Change Magazine); Most Innovative College and University President (Chronicle of Higher Education); and recipient of numerous prizes and citations including the McGraw-Hill Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education and the Anderson Medal, the latter issued by the prestigious American Council On Education’s Business Higher Education Forum. Elsner completed his Doctorate at Stanford University and is a graduate of Harvard’s Institute for Educational Management (IEM).

Elsner speaks and consults worldwide, including the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Jamaica, Ireland, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and extensively in China.

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PIONEERING INFLUENCE TO THE FIELD

Roger Henry, Brevard Community College (Retired)

What role have you played in supporting, advocating, or developing service-learning or civic engagement programs? Roger Henry was an influential voice in the early days of service-learning, an important voice as one of the early pioneers of service-learning from the community college environment. His insights and passion for this new pedagogy, his willingness to advocate for community college engagement, were both an inspiration and an important influence in the early days of the CCNCCE.

In an article written exclusively for the Community College National Center for Community Engagement in 1997, Henry provided the following insights.

Service-learning offers an impressive array of benefits for its major constituents: students, college, and community.

For students, service-learning can enrich and enhance academic learning; document and codify experience; develop problem-solving and other critical-thinking skills; improve self-esteem; contribute to civic literacy and responsibility; enhance career or occupational development; broaden horizons; assist with the application of classroom knowledge; improve communication, writing, and life skills; instill a sense of commitment to human

service; lead to an understanding and appreciation of cultural, ethnic, and social similarities and differences; and help students grow affectively.

For the higher education institution, service-learning can improve public service delivery and commitment; broaden the conceptualization of the education role; increase learning opportunities; check the relevance of learning; improve the motivational base of instruction and learning; improve linkages with the community; reorient the educative process to meet

human needs; improve student satisfaction and retention; improve community/college relations; and better prepare students for the world of work and citizenship.

For the community, service-learning can augment service delivery; increase

human resources for problem solving; lead to better career choices for students; increase access to college resources; improve college/community relations; increase ability to hire effective students; increase future citizen support and commitment; and expand roles for student supervisors.

Although the above is not an exhaustive list of the mutual benefits for service-learning constituents, an awareness and appreciation of the powerful and reciprocal impacts of good service-learning courses and program

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can focus and energize partners to make service-learning collaboration a priority for the benefit of all.

A link to the full article, Service-Learning: Campus and Community Collaboration: From Shibboleth to Reality, is available at:

http://www.mesacc.edu/ other/engagement/

RHenryOP.shtml Henry has also served in a mentoring role for numerous service-learning practitioners, specifically at community colleges. His active involvement in promoting the ideals of service-learning and civic engagement will truly be missed and we wish him a much deserved and active retirement. Do you have any final thoughts on how to support service-learning initiatives?

An abundance of publications and resources are available to help service-learning practitioners in developing the frameworks and methods for effective collaboration.

Because of the changes in society, especially cutbacks in many resources to address societal needs, colleges and universities need to take a more active role in community mobilization and social transformation. Stepping up to the challenge is not an option; it is a requirement for everyone to become involved and take action. The well-being and health of our society depends on it.

Effective community relations are vitally needed for

successfully meeting real community needs through service-learning initiatives. To be "community citizens," colleges and universities must do more than just talk about the importance of collaboration; they must provide the infrastructure and frameworks to be partners in community.

ABOUT ROGER HENRY Roger Henry, retired Brevard Community College Service-Learning Director and Adjunct Instructor, created and developed one of the most recognized, respected, and replicated comprehensive community service-learning programs in the United States. BCC's program is a leader nationally on several initiatives including linking academic study and volunteer work. Henry actively participates in various leadership capacities with local, statewide, and national organizations: Florida Campus Compact, Community College National Center for Community Engagement, Campus Compact, and the Gulf-South Summit on Service-Learning and Civic Engagement.

AN AWARENESS AND APPRECIATION OF THE

POWERFUL AND RECIPROCAL IMPACTS OF

GOOD SERVICE-LEARNING COURSES AND

PROGRAMS CAN FOCUS AND ENERGIZE

PARTNERS TO MAKE SERVICE-LEARNING

COLLABORATION A PRIORITY FOR THE BENEFIT

OF ALL.

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COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

Ira Harkavy, University of Pennsylvania

What role have you played in supporting, advocating, or developing service-learning or civic engagement programs?

Since the late 1980s, I have helped to develop service-learning courses as well as participatory action research projects that involve creating university-assisted community schools in Penn's local community of West Philadelphia.

I have written and lectured widely on the history and current practice of urban university-community-school partnerships, service-learning, civic engagement, and strategies for integrating higher education’s missions of teaching, research, and service. Most of my publications, including four books, have focused on service-learning and civic engagement.

I have also served as consultant to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help create its Office of University Partnerships and helped draft the higher education section on service-learning for the initial legislation to create the Corporation for National and Community Service. I also serve or have served in leadership capacities for organizations that work to advance service-learning, including the Coalition for Community Schools, Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development, Campus Compact, Imagining America, and Youth Service America.

What is it about service-learning or civic engagement that encourages you the most?

The extent to which these movements have made a difference and influenced higher education is one of the most hopeful aspects of the work. Civic engagement and service-learning have also helped

fulfill the democratic promise of America’s community colleges, colleges, and universities in particular and the democratic promise of American society in general. They have served as the driving force and center of an intellectual movement to create democratic schooling from pre-K through higher education. They have been the leading edge of an academic “glasnost” to create democratic, engaged, civic universities, colleges, and community colleges after nearly a century (to mix metaphors) of the narrowing and hardening of academic arteries. The civic engagement and service-learning movements will, I believe, contribute significantly to developing and sustaining democratic schools,

"higher eds," communities, and societies. These movements will, I believe, powerfully help American higher education in particular, and American

schooling in general, return to their core mission—educating students for a democratic society.

What have you found to be the major challenges that advocates for service-learning or civic engagement have faced?

Managing a successful service-learning program is a complex task because it involves multiple constituents (internal and external) with distinctive roles, functions, and assets. Planning and coordination are essential to create good matches between students and community partners. This necessitates creating a shared vision with tangible benefits, receiving important background information about community partners, developing appropriate descriptions of activities, and making a commitment to providing proper supervision and guidance throughout the course of a placement. A well-managed and funded service-learning office can provide the right assistance to create collaborative partnerships and serve as the liaison between its college and its community. However,

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when many colleges begin service-learning programs, the lack of a centralized office to manage the process becomes one of the major difficulties in program development. The issues range from student and faculty recruitment, to identifying and qualifying academically appropriate placements, to sustaining and advancing the program through alignment with institutional values and goals.

Moving forward, what do you see in the future for service-learning or civic engagement?

I think that creating effective, democratic, mutually beneficial, mutually respectful higher education-school-community partnerships will be a primary agenda for civic engagement and service-learning movements.

“It is not possible to run a course aright when the goal itself is not rightly placed,” wrote Francis Bacon in 1620. The “rightly placed goal” for the civic

engagement and service-learning movements is helping to create a truly democratic society. For that to occur, universities, colleges, and community colleges will need to focus their attention on

improving democracy and the quality of life in their local communities. These movements will, in effect, work to realize one of John Dewey's central and most significant propositions: “Democracy must begin at home, and its home is the neighborly community.” Democracy, Dewey emphasized, has to be built on face-to-face interactions in which human beings work together cooperatively to solve the ongoing problems of life. The service-learning and civic engagement movements will realize Dewey's goal by updating his proposition and putting it in practice: "Democracy must begin at home, and its home is the

engaged, democratic, neighborly higher educational institution and its local school and community partner."

ABOUT IRA HARKAVY

Dr. Ira Harkavy is Associate Vice President and founding Director of the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships, University of Pennsylvania. An historian with extensive experience building university-community-school partnerships, Harkavy teaches in the departments of history, urban studies, Africana studies, and city and regional planning. As Director of the Netter Center since 1992, Harkavy has helped to develop service-learning courses as well as participatory action research projects that involve creating university-assisted community schools in Penn's local community of West Philadelphia. Executive Editor of Universities and Community Schools, Harkavy has written and lectured widely on the history and current practice of urban university-community-school partnerships and strategies for integrating the university missions of teaching, research, and service. His recent publications include: Dewey's Dream: Universities and Democracies in an Age of Education Reform (Temple Press, 2007), which he co-authored with Lee Benson and John Puckett, and The Obesity Culture: Strategies for Change - Public Health and University-Community Partnerships (Smith-Gordon, 2009), co-authored with Francis E. Johnston.

I THINK THAT CREATING EFFECTIVE, DEMOCRATIC, MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL, MUTUALLY RESPECTFUL HIGHER

EDUCATION-SCHOOL-COMMUNITY

PARTNERSHIPS WILL BE A PRIMARY

AGENDA FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AND

SERVICE-LEARNING MOVEMENTS.

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SERVICE-LEARNING AND DISCIPLINE ADVOCACY

Donna Duffy, Middlesex Community College


My initial work in expanding service-learning began in 1995 with a grant from CCNCCE and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) entitled, "The Faculty Role: From the Margin to the Mainstream.” During the years since then, I have tried to move service-learning from the margins to the mainstream in a number of different ways. Bob Bringle and I edited the monograph, With Service in Mind: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Psychology, in 1998. I participated as a Carnegie scholar in 1998 and linked service-learning, resilience, and community for a project in the scholarship of teaching and learning. The project was highlighted in the Carnegie publication, Opening Lines, and led to several presentations about the value of service-learning as an effective pedagogy at other institutions and at the American Psychological Association. In 2003 I participated in the Indicators of Engagement Project with Campus Compact; this work helped to show how community colleges can be leaders in the work of community engagement across the country.


As a teacher I am most encouraged when I observe the excitement and understanding that unfolds in students as they are engaged in work in the community. From the first service-learning

projects in 1992 to ongoing projects today, I continue to appreciate how the ambiguity of authentic settings challenges students to really understand concepts and to see ways that they can make a difference in the world. Students become intrinsically motivated to learn more so they can apply that knowledge to solve problems. The writer Nikos Kazantzakis suggests that teachers can “use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their own.” It seems

to me that service-learning provides an ideal way for students to learn to create their own bridges.


In an article in the 1997 CCNCCE monograph

Tensions Inherent in Service-Learning: Achieving Balance, Joan Kleinman and I created the case study of Professor Jordy, a faculty member using service-learning who was overwhelmed by demands to incorporate more accountability, innovative pedagogies, and online connections into her courses. The expansion of the classroom that began in 1997 has led to new requirements for evidence of student learning, more focus on high-impact practices, and an array of social networking possibilities. The Professor Jordy of today may be facing even more demands with fewer resources, yet the biggest challenge still involves achieving a balance among many tensions. Service-learning practitioners have

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gained important perspective-taking skills through collaborating with the community; these skills can help in finding new opportunities for integrating ideas across the various sectors in academic settings. The more we can work together as a community to leverage resources, the more we can reduce tensions and support the common good of engaged and committed citizens.


The work in service-learning aligns well with recent educational findings that support the importance of having multiple contexts for optimal learning, the value of reflection for establishing deep understanding, and the inclusion of student voice to discover the types of settings that engender significant learning experiences. These alignments and the listing of service-learning as a high-impact practice bode well for the future. In this time of limited resources it is important to emphasize the unique value of service-learning. It not only provides an effective approach to

engaged learning, but it also creates a way to help students discover their own path for becoming committed citizens and members of their local communities. Students are now

adapting social networking and games as ways to solve community problems; these new types of student-created “bridges” may serve as important walkways for the rest of us as we move into the future.

Are there any other comments you would like to make?

I would like to thank Lyvier for the outstanding support the CCNCCE has provided to me since 1995. Through interacting

with others at grant meetings and conferences, I have been able to expand my understanding of this work and have been most grateful for opportunities to try out ideas and obtain valuable feedback from colleagues in the field. It has been exciting to be a part of a group that has helped to move service-learning from the margins to the mainstream, but none of my journey would have been possible without the funding and vision provided by Lyvier in the initial grant.

ABOUT DONNA DUFFY

Dr. Donna Killian Duffy is professor of psychology and coordinator of the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at Middlesex Community College, Bedford and Lowell, Massachusetts. She is the coauthor, with Janet Wright Jones, of Teaching Within the Rhythms of the Semester, and the coeditor, with Robert Bringle, of With Service in Mind, a monograph on service-learning and psychology. Duffy received the Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service-Learning in 1999 for her work connecting service in the community to student learning in classrooms. She has worked as an Engaged Scholar with Campus Compact and is one of the authors of The Community’s College: Indicators of Engagement at Two-Year Institutions published in 2004 and Service-Learning Course Design for Community Colleges published in 2007.

THE MORE WE CAN WORK TOGETHER AS

A COMMUNITY TO LEVERAGE

RESOURCES, THE MORE WE CAN REDUCE

TENSIONS AND SUPPORT THE COMMON

GOOD OF ENGAGED AND COMMITTED

CITIZENS.

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COMMUNITY COLLEGE LEADERSHIP AND PHILANTHROPY

Mark Milliron, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

What role have you played in supporting, advocating, or developing service-learning or civic engagement programs? In my various positions as a college, association, and foundation leader, I have long championed the good work of service-learning and civic engagement. Whether it has been helping build beginning programs, convene key conversations, write articles, showcase model programs nationally, or fund key initiatives, it has been an honor to promote this catalytic work. What is it about service-learning or civic engagement that encourages you the most? I'm especially supportive of this work precisely because it is catalytic. We've all seen it change the lives of students, teachers, support staff, community members, even the culture of an entire college. There is something about moving beyond self, beyond self interest in particular, that is a game changer. It not only improves learning, it helps everyone involved see the power of learning to make change. What have you found to be the major challenges that advocates for service-learning or civic engagement have faced?

The models of service-learning and civic engagement take time to explain and often require key champions to implement effectively. Even more difficult, they are often cumbersome to scale. But as with most things, the effort is worth it for all involved. A related key challenge has been the willingness to embrace technology in this work. That's slowly changing, but it was a key barrier early on. It's such human-intensive work, many didn't see the connection. But as the realities of our

"digital democracy" take shape, it's not hard to make the technology involvement case anymore. Moving forward, what do you see in the future for service-learning or civic engagement? We're best served by both leveraging enabling technologies (e.g., social networking and communications technology) and strongly syncing this work with the rising tide of contextualized learning.

Service-learning and civic engagement is at its core contextualized learning—it needs to claim that banner and link its efforts to improved learning and completion gains. What's interesting is that more and more colleges are finding that a student embracing a purpose is the spark that lights their way to credential completion. Service-learning and civic engagement can help in that meaning making, that finding of purpose.

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How do you think your work has influenced community colleges in their involvement with service-learning and civic engagement? There are far better and more impactful champions than me. I do enjoy being a loud part of the chorus, however!

Are there any other comments you would like to make? As said earlier, strongly linking these programs to learning and student success—at the core of quality completion pathways—will be key to bringing the value of these programs to millions more students in the years to come. The need has never been greater for these programs and their champions!

ABOUT MARK MILLIRON Dr. Mark David Milliron serves as the Deputy Director for Postsecondary Improvement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, leading efforts to increase student success in the U.S. postsecondary education sector. He is an award-winning leader, author, speaker, and consultant well known for exploring leadership development, future trends, learning strategies, and the human side of technology change. Milliron works with universities, community colleges, K-12 schools, corporations, associations, and government agencies across the country and around the world. In addition, he serves on numerous other corporate, nonprofit, and education boards and advisory groups; guest lectures for educational institutions nationally and internationally; and authors and moderates the Catalytic Conversations Blog. Milliron brings broad experience to this work. He founded and served as CEO for the private consulting and service group, Catalyze Learning International (CLI). In addition, he previously served as an Endowed Fellow, Senior Lecturer, and Director of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development in the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin; Vice President for Education and Medical Practice with SAS, the world's largest private software company; and President and CEO of the League for Innovation in the Community College. While teaching at Arizona State University, Milliron received the International Communication Association's Teaching Excellence Award. More recently, the University of Texas at Austin's College of Education honored Milliron as a Distinguished Graduate for his service to the education field. In 2005, PBS named Milliron the recipient of its annual O'Banion Prize for transformational work in support of teaching and learning. And in 2007, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) presented Milliron with its National Leadership Award for his outstanding accomplishments, contributions, and leadership. Regardless of all of these activities and accomplishments, he will quickly tell you that the most important job and the greatest blessing in his life is serving as Julia's husband, and as father to Alexandra, Richard, Marcus, and Max.

THE NEED HAS NEVER BEEN GREATER

FOR THESE PROGRAMS AND THEIR

CHAMPIONS!

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SERVICE LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT

Andrew Furco, University of Minnesota


Over the last 20 years, I have had the privilege of serving in a variety of roles to support the advancement of service-learning in both K-12 and higher education. For 14 years, I served as the founding director of UC Berkeley’s Service-Learning Research and Development Center. Along with working to further the development of service-learning at the University, the Center facilitated the completion of more than 30 research studies that examined various issues regarding the impacts and institutionalization of service-learning. In an effort to learn about the latest research on service-learning, I hosted the first conference on service-learning research in 2001, which is now an annual conference hosted and facilitated by the recently established International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE). Today, as Associate Vice President for Public Engagement at the University of Minnesota, I work to further the institutionalization of various community engagement efforts across the five campuses of the University.


I greatly appreciate the universality of service-learning. Service-learning is one of the few educational practices that can be applied to any discipline, be conducted in any community, and

engage any student regardless of age, ability, or ambition. Rather than competing against each other for grades or an instructor’s attention, students in service-learning are encouraged to work together, in partnership, toward a common goal. In this regard, service-learning is a great unifier and equalizer in that everyone who participates is given the opportunity to contribute

something unique and important.


Since the beginning, service-learning advocates have had to defend the merits of service-learning. And even today, despite the fact that there are more than 500 published studies on service-learning, skeptics continue to push proponents to produce evidence that service-learning indeed works

and is worth the time and effort it takes to do it well. Making the case for service-learning and civic engagement in K-12 and higher education continues to be an uphill battle.


Many countries across the globe have adopted service-learning as an educational strategy for advancing the development of students. I think that we in the U.S. have much to learn from how other countries have gone about adopting service-learning practice, especially regarding the ways in which they empower their students to make substantial contributions that truly transform communities in positive ways.

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Are there any other comments you would like to make? When I began my journey in service-learning in 1991, service-learning was not well-known or understood. In the early days, many discouraged me from focusing my work and dedicating my energies on service-learning. The reasons were many. There were no books on the subject. There was very little published research. Service-learning was just a fad and no one would remember it in five years. When I proposed a research study on service-learning and expressed my deep interest in service-learning, one of my graduate school professors told me that if I pursued a career focused on service-learning, I would ruin my career and would never get a job as faculty member or researcher. He tried to convince me to

study school vouchers, which he said would be the next big major reform in Education. I remember

feeling very conflicted on how I should proceed. Ultimately, I decided that I would rather work in a field to which I felt a genuine affinity rather than work in a field of study for which I had no interest, even if it meant my career may not be as successful. Thanks to other more supportive professors, I was able to pursue my interests. Needless to say, my decision to immerse myself in the

study and practice of service-learning was the right decision for me. That experience with my first professor has shaped how I work with my graduate students in that I encourage them to pursue their interests to the fullest extent possible. Ultimately, it is one’s genuine interest in the work that nourishes and sustains a career as a scholar and educator.

ABOUT ANDREW FURCO

Dr. Andrew Furco is Associate Vice President for Public Engagement at the University of Minnesota, where he also serves as an associate professor in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development, and Director of the University’s International Center for Research on Community Engagement. Prior to arriving in Minnesota, he spent 17 years working at UC Berkeley, where he served as the founding director of the Service-Learning Research and Development Center and as a faculty member in the Graduate School of Education. Furco conducted his first research study on service-learning in 1993 and since then has led more than 30 investigations on a variety of service-learning and community engagement issues. His publications include two co-edited books and more than 50 journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports pertaining to the study and practice of service-learning and community engagement in both K-12 and higher education. He developed the Self-Assessment Rubric for Institutionalizing Service-Learning in Higher Education, which has been used by more than 300 colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad. His publications have been translated into various languages including Spanish, German, Catalan, Russian, and Chinese. Furco is the recipient of several service-learning awards including the Distinguished Research Award (2003) presented by the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE) and Researcher of the Year Award (2006) presented by the National Society for Experiential Education. He currently serves on the board of the International Center for Service-Learning and Teacher Education (ICSLTE) and is a member of the Council on Engagement and Outreach for the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU).

SINCE THE BEGINNING, SERVICE-LEARNING

ADVOCATES HAVE HAD TO DEFEND THE MERITS

OF SERVICE-LEARNING.

Page 13

SERVICE-LEARNING AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL

Gail Robinson, American Association of Community Colleges

What role have you played in supporting, advocating, or developing service-learning or civic engagement programs? I have managed the American Association of Community Colleges’ (AACC’s) national service-learning initiatives since 1994. Our most established program, Community Colleges Broadening Horizons through Service-Learning, pairs colleges in mentoring relationships that result in stronger service-learning and community engagement across the curriculum. The Horizons project has built a family of practitioners who continue to share and learn from each other, even years after their grants have ended. One of my favorite projects was collaborating with some grantees to create A Practical Guide for Integrating Civic Responsibility into the Curriculum. We have provided training to hundreds of community college faculty and staff using the guide, culminating in our soon-to-be-released online civic responsibility training modules. I helped design national surveys for AACC to establish baseline service-learning data and document its progress, and I oversee our research on service-learning’s impact on long-term civic engagement, student learning outcomes, community partnerships, and retention and persistence. I work with Learn and Serve America, CCNCCE, national and state

Campus Compacts, and other higher education associations to promote the work of community colleges in the service-learning/community engagement field. What is it about service-learning or civic engagement that encourages you the most?

The impact on students and partners. It’s the one-on-one contact that comes from focus groups or site visits, when I see a student’s excitement about learning how he can make a difference in his community, or how she has a better shot at a good job because of her service-learning experience. Community partners tell me that their nonprofit organizations simply could not function without service learners, particularly in the current economy. Our work

matters—every single day. What have you found to be the major challenges that advocates for service-learning or civic engagement have faced? A lack of time and funding continue to be the challenges I hear from college faculty and staff. The time issue can be overcome as faculty see the value of service-learning—the outcomes are worth the up-front effort to revise syllabi or adapt curriculum. Funding is more difficult as federal and state dollars dry up. AACC has been extremely fortunate to receive Learn and Serve America funding continuously since 1994, but

Page 14

we can help only so many colleges each year. Local, regional, and statewide coalitions and collaborations may be the best approach to establish and maintain service-learning and civic engagement programs to benefit local communities and the students themselves. My mantra is that you don’t need money to do service-learning. You just need one student, one instructor, and one community partner, and you can build from there. Moving forward, what do you see in the future for service-learning or civic engagement? Despite the somewhat bleak federal picture, the future of service-learning and community engagement is bright because students and

partners want these programs. As long as students keep demanding to learn experientially and get connected with local

schools and community organizations, faculty and administrators have to listen! So many community college folks say, “Community is our middle name”—well, service-learning is the way to prove it. Meeting community needs is the mission of our institutions. Why wouldn’t you do it? Are there any other comments you would like to make? At the end of the day, it’s

about students. It’s about community. It’s about democracy. It’s about social justice.

ABOUT GAIL ROBINSON

Gail Robinson is Director of Service-Learning for the American Association of Community Colleges in Washington, DC. She has managed AACC’s national service-learning initiatives since 1994, including grants from Learn and Serve America and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. Robinson works with faculty and staff at colleges across the country to develop service-learning and community engagement programs, and oversees AACC’s national data collection, evaluation, and research on community college service-learning initiatives. She served as co-editor of AACC’s best-selling book, A Practical Guide for Integrating Civic Responsibility into the Curriculum, and is the author of numerous AACC reports and monographs. She is a member of the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification national review panel, served on the board of directors of the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement, and was a founding member of the Higher Education Network for Community Engagement.

AT THE END OF THE DAY, IT’S ABOUT

STUDENTS. IT’S ABOUT COMMUNITY. IT’S ABOUT DEMOCRACY. IT’S ABOUT

SOCIAL JUSTICE.

Page 15

SERVICE-LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP

Rufus Glasper, Maricopa Community Colleges


I think my role has transitioned over the years. Prior to my role as Chancellor, I was on the finance side of the house. My initial role in terms of trying to support service-learning and civic engagement programs was through finding and allocating district resources to support our efforts. Back then, some of this support came in the form of finding some matching funds and some of it came through the creation of new offices. It was also through helping to pay sponsorship for a lecture or bringing in different speakers. Fortunately, it’s been a passion of a couple of our board members.

One was Linda Rosenthal. She felt passionately that everyone had a civic responsibility to kind of give back to their communities. She had a deep commitment and understood what civic engagement and service-learning could bring to our communities. She was a champion of what it meant to be a full citizen and modeled her commitment in terms of both time and effort. When I became the chancellor, I continued my support by developing a richer understanding of the relationships between the types of curriculum and the types of interfaces that service-learning and civic engagement can have with our students. For example, I got immediately immersed in the projects around our Student Public Policy Forum. The Student Public Policy Forum gave me a direct insight into our students’ understanding and learning about the political environment in the state of Arizona and nationally. In this context, I had the opportunity to travel with our students to Washington, D.C., on a number of occasions. Watching them prepare for advocacy and then seeing them better understand the political process—such as engagement in the community as it relates to civic engagement—was

truly inspirational. I was also able to go out to each of our colleges on occasion and listen to them talk about the service-learning experiences—how they are connected within each of their own individual communities –they balance picking projects that are important to the community as well as projects that are important to them as individuals.


What excites me is the connection to the community and to the partners we have. We are a community college and we have been involved as an educational entity that is connected by geographical areas. As we see the types of needs that our communities have, we can have a better connection as to what we can do—in support of their mission—whether they are working at the level of cities and towns, local school districts, community-based agencies, and so forth. The service-learning projects really connect our students to supporting the community and in many cases, the community supporting us.

So I think that there’s a direct connection. Unless you have an activity that allows a student to get engaged during the community college experience, in many cases they will not build the foundation for civic commitment moving into four-year institutions or into the workplace.


I think one of the largest challenges that I have seen is that we need to do a better job of connecting service-learning as part of our mission. We make the opportunities available and we make those connections. And if they want to continue them afterwards, which we encourage, we would like that

Page 16

to happen. But it’s not something we force. Without us having this vehicle available, I think that fewer individuals would be as engaged as they are after they come through our programs. And, it also engages students in activities outside of the classroom as a collective body. So you get to see students other than sitting in front of an instructor—you get to see them in a service-learning environment, a connected environment.


Moving forward at the Maricopa Community Colleges, I would hope that it remains a strong part of our mission and that it is allocated the adequate resources to give our students options. By connecting it both to an infusion of the curriculum that they are engaged in and also the community in which they live, it becomes more central to our mission rather than tangential to the mission. Because I also believe that such engagement

makes you a better citizen and makes you more engaged within your own neighborhoods—it also allows us to be role models for our own students.

ABOUT RUFUS GLASPER Dr. Rufus Glasper, a leader in Arizona higher education, is Chancellor of the Maricopa Community Colleges, one of the nation’s largest multi-college community college systems. He has served in that role since 2003 and previously held District leadership positions for more than two decades. As Chancellor, Glasper is the Chief Executive Officer of the 10-college District, known commonly as The Maricopa Community Colleges, overseeing all educational and administrative operations. He also provides leadership in matters of system-wide strategic planning, bringing all ten colleges and many learning centers into alignment with common goals and methodologies. A staunch advocate for educational access and opportunity, Glasper has clearly established “inclusiveness, engagement, and respect” as the guiding principles of his administration. He currently serves as the committee co-chair, with Fred Duval, Vice Chair of the Arizona Board of Regents, on the Lumina Foundation on Education “Getting AHEAD” initiative. It aims to be a comprehensive and collaborative initiative by Arizona’s universities, community colleges, K-12 sector, business community, and legislative and executive branches of government to reshape Arizona’s postsecondary education system and enable more residents to successfully obtain a college degree. An adjunct professor at Arizona State University, Glasper shapes future educational leaders through his graduate course in higher education finance and budget. Glasper is an active community member, serving on the boards of the Greater Phoenix Leadership, Greater Phoenix Economic Council, the Valley of the Sun United Way, and the Scottsdale Healthcare Board of Directors. He is a long-standing member of the Greater Phoenix Urban League and the chairperson of the board for Black Family Child Services. Among his many honors, in 2010, Glasper was recognized by the Phoenix Business Journal as one of the 25 Most Admired CEOs and Top Level Executives in Arizona. In the same year, he received the Glendale Chamber Foundation and the City of Glendale Cesar Chavez Diversity Award for contributing significantly to creating a diverse and inclusive community. In 2009, Glasper received the Arizona Public Service, Center for Culture and Understanding at Valle del Sol, Peacemaker Award for fostering and strengthening civic engagement by promoting greater understanding of inter-group relations within Arizona and the National Council on Black American Affairs 2009 Leadership Award. Glasper received the Martin Luther King, Jr., Living the Dream Award from the Phoenix Human Relation Commission in 2008 for championing student success as part of his commitment to human relations and social justice. Rufus Glasper earned a Bachelor’s degree in business administration from Luther College (Decorah, Iowa), and a Master’s and advanced degrees in school business administration from Northern Illinois University. He received his Doctorate of Philosophy degree in higher education finance from the University of Arizona. In May of 2005 he was the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate in Political Science from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix.

I THINK ONE OF THE LARGEST

CHALLENGES THAT I HAVE SEEN IS

THAT WE NEED TO DO A BETTER JOB

OF CONNECTING SERVICE-LEARNING

AS PART OF OUR MISSION.

Page 17

SERVICE-LEARNING AND TRAINING

Rudy Garcia, Central New Mexico Community College


I became actively engaged with service-learning in 1995 through a small grant from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). Prior to that I was doing service-learning in the management and leadership course I was teaching—I just was not aware it was service-learning. I quickly developed the program at CNM and went on to work with CNCS, CCNCCE, and AACC as a grantee, mentor, and consultant. I came into higher education after having worked the corporate, government, and non-profit sectors. I also had my own business. It was during the time that I was working with students as interns that I realized that a large percentage of them did not have strong soft skills or a sense of civic involvement. When I was hired at CNM I made it a priority that we had to somehow teach the values that service-learning and civic engagement develops in students. The earthquake and tsunami disasters in Japan have shown how their own people have been civil during the course of trying to survive. We need to have this in the U.S.


That we can develop a whole new generation of students who care more about others than themselves. A core of individuals who believe that working to solve community issues is far greater than focusing on oneself and “what’s in it for me.” Service-learning and civic engagement can create an ethic of caring and hope to work together to solve

common community problems. They both can create an ethic of civility resulting in classrooms where teachers and students work together to learn and grow. Service-learning can be the vehicle that improves classroom civility through the process of civic engagement.


The major challenge that advocates for service-learning face is funding issues. The budgets for higher education across America are becoming tighter and tighter. As colleges and universities make cuts, often they result in reductions to areas such as service-learning. We also face the challenge of lack of research in the community college arena. Community

Page 18

colleges are doing phenomenal work with service-learning but we are not researching or publishing that work.


The future for service-learning and civic engagement is interesting. Most of the research and interest in this field was between 1995 and 2001. There has been a lull since then. I believe colleges and universities are still involved with it but not to the extent I saw it from 1995 to 2000. I do believe that we need to start focusing on how service-learning improves student civility in the classroom. We live in a world today where incivility is the norm and we expect rude behavior. Service-learning has

proven that it improves upon incivility by providing students with the skills to be civil.

Are there any other comments that you would like to make?

Our future appears to be one of a digital world; a world in which personal interactions will be nothing more than text on a screen. We as educators need to ensure that students understand the human element of their education. We need to provide them with avenues to interact with others and see the emotions that only we as humans can show. I am not saying to discard the

digital world and technology it provides I am only saying let us use it side by side with service-learning and civic engagement to improve civility in the world.

ABOUT RUDY GARCIA

Dr. Rudy M. Garcia is the Dean of Students at Central New Mexico Community College. Central New Mexico Community College has five campuses and an enrollment of 28,000 credit students and 8,000 non-credit students. Garcia is responsible for various components of college safety and investigates on the average over 400 cases a year involving student code of conduct violations. His philosophy focuses on changing negative behavior into positive behavior by respecting and identifying with the needs students bring to his office. Garcia holds a Bachelor of University Studies degree and a Master of Arts in Management degree from Tulane University, Webster University, and University of New Mexico. He earned his doctorate degree from New Mexico State University in Community College Leadership. In addition to his current duties, he also is an adjunct professor at New Mexico State University where he teaches leadership and civic engagement courses.

WE AS EDUCATORS NEED TO ENSURE THAT

STUDENTS UNDERSTAND THE HUMAN

ELEMENT OF THEIR EDUCATION. WE NEED

TO PROVIDE THEM WITH AVENUES TO

INTERACT WITH OTHERS AND SEE THE

EMOTIONS THAT WE AS HUMANS CAN

ONLY SHOW.

Page 19


Duane Oakes, Mesa Community College


As a student in the early 1980s I learned the value of service and leadership and developed a commitment and saw the value and importance of teaching service to students, helping them learn to be better citizens and helping them engage in our community. One model that has stuck with me for the last twenty years on the importance of education is “Enter to Learn–Go Forth to Serve.” Community service has always been a strong value. In 1991, through a small grant funded by the Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL)–myself, Maria Hesse (former President of Chandler-Gilbert Community College), Rose Edwards (former student at CGCC), and Judy Bordhoff (community member) were privileged to attend a national training in Minnesota to learn about community service and helped develop the first discussions on service-learning at Chandler Gilbert Community College. This training proved to be one of the most important starts in my career in service-learning as we were continually challenged to see how we could incorporate service into the classroom. Thanks to the insight, hard work, and willingness to try new things, Mary Beth Mason, English faculty at CGCC, helped incorporate the first service-learning class there in the fall of 1992. Since that time, my involvement in service-learning has allowed me to help support student and faculty development in service-learning. Thousands of students and hundreds of faculty at CGCC have participated and reaped the benefits of service-learning. I was privileged to be part of the

team that won the Maricopa Community Colleges’ 1994 Innovation of the Year Award for service-learning. Another significant contribution to my involvement and success in service-learning came at the mentoring of Roger Henry from Brevard Community College. Roger’s willingness to share, guide, and encourage me and many others in the early stages of service-learning to this day serves as a foundation of much of

our processes. Early in my career I also had the privilege of being asked to serve as a service-learning mentor for the American Association of Community Colleges. Since 1995 I have worked closely with Gail Robinson and the AACC while working with colleges all over the country, teaching faculty and students the value of service-learning and civic responsibility. With Gail and a select few faculty, we have presented workshops and trainings in almost every state in the country.


The most important outcome of service-learning is the power to make a difference in our community. Over the last twenty years I have found the most exciting aspect of my job is when a student experiences the opportunity to grow, to learn, and to serve. That “aha” moment of each student over the past twenty years has made my journey worth every step.

Page 20

What have you found to be the major challenges that advocates for service-learning or civic engagement have faced? Over the twenty years of my involvement in service, I have seen many challenges and successes. The successes are many and the challenges are really just a few. I have had the privilege of working at institutions that see service as part of their missions and goals. They fund these initiatives with hard funding, space and staffing. The challenges ironically are as similar as the successes. There is never enough funding to take care of the many community needs and there is never enough money for the staff needed to support the ever growing community problems. Over the years another challenge has been to continually find and train new and innovative faculty to incorporate service-learning into their classroom. As faculty are ever changing, this also

creates the need to continually build a pipeline of faculty engaged in service-learning.


For the last ten years with the support of the AACC, we have done presentations throughout the country on the need for higher education to resume their role in preparing students to become better citizens. I believe many colleges have seen this issue as part of their mission and we will continue to see service-learning

and civic engagement become a concern and/or need of our institutions. Unfortunately our communities are struggling and the need to solve and fix community problems is ever increasing, which basically validates why we as community colleges need to continue our commitment in preparing students to be better citizens through service and civic engagement and understanding their role in society.

ABOUT DUANE OAKES

Duane Oakes currently serves as the Faculty Director for the Center for Service-Learning at Mesa Community College, where he also serves as the Chapter Advisor of Phi Theta Kappa International. In 1994, he and his colleagues at Chandler-Gilbert Community College were recognized with the “Innovation of the Year” Award for the service-learning program he helped develop for the college.

Oakes has worked in the higher education field since 1990, helping students to become better citizens through service and leadership. He is also a service-learning and civic responsibility trainer for the American Association of Community Colleges. Oakes received his AA degree from Mesa Community College in 1986, his BS in 1989, and his MA in 1990 from Brigham Young University.

THE MOST IMPORTANT OUTCOME OF

SERVICE-LEARNING IS THE POWER TO

MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN OUR COMMUNITY.

Page 21


Lori Moog, Raritan Valley Community College


For the past 15 years, I have had the great opportunity of developing and managing Raritan Valley Community College’s service-learning program. While I have myriad tasks, I always try to cultivate a climate whereby both the campus and community value service-learning and civic engagement initiatives. Balancing the needs of all three important constituents—students, faculty, and community partners—is essential.

My strategies include collaborating with faculty and community partners to ensure that activities are pertinent to curricula and course objectives; helping students identify placements that meet their educational and career goals; working with key administrators to align service-learning with the college mission, strategic plan, and accreditation goals; networking with state, regional, and national organizations for program advancement; assessing outcomes for continuous improvement; and celebrating successes. From innovative course design, to building sustainable partnerships—these strategies have helped RVCC’s service-learning program become a workable model that has received many national and local honors.


There are numerous rewards gained from service-learning experiences, but learning how it

has impacted students academically, personally, and career-wise is certainly one of my favorites. Service-learning is an important teaching and learning tool that enables students to see how their studies apply directly to various situations outside of the classroom environment. In the process, students enhance their understanding of institutions, human relationships, and important social issues. Working in the community allows students to grow and develop foundations that become the basis for the development of their

personal futures. While participating in service-learning and civic engagement, students learn new skills and gain leadership experience that helps to prepare them for future careers. Discovering the needs of other citizens often presents a very significant period of critical reflection for students. They gain insight into current events while learning how they, as individuals, can affect

the lives of many disadvantaged populations. Students also increase their formal and informal networks for careers, improve their communication skills and just have fun.


Managing a successful service-learning program is a complex task because it involves multiple constituents (internal and external) with distinctive roles, functions, and assets. Planning and coordination are essential to create good matches between students and community partners. This necessitates creating a shared vision with tangible benefits, receiving important

Page 22

background information about community partners, developing appropriate descriptions of activities, and making a commitment to providing proper supervision and guidance throughout the course of a placement. A well-managed and funded service-learning office can provide the right assistance to create collaborative partnerships and serve as the liaison between its college and its community. However, when many colleges begin service-learning programs, the lack of a centralized office to manage the process becomes one of the major difficulties in program development. The issues range from student and faculty recruitment, to identifying and qualifying academically appropriate placements, to sustaining and advancing the program through alignment with institutional values and goals.


As a strong advocate for service-learning, I think the program will grow in depth and breadth.

Student participation in service-learning and civic engagement programs will likely increase as more and more higher education institutions and K-12 schools value, support and institutionalize these

experiences. The national tragedies of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina also have contributed to growing campus support for service-learning. Student interest in service-learning also will be heightened as our graduates enter the competitive job market, needing the skills and experiences that participation in service-learning can provide. With citizens’ rising awareness of important community issues, colleges and universities are well-positioned to develop

educational programs that promote civic responsibility while engaging and retaining students. Moreover, enthusiasm for service expressed by many college students can have long-lasting societal benefits. Today’s service-learner will be tomorrow’s leader who knows how to create environments where others will seek to solve problems in an informed and compassionate way.

ABOUT LORI MOOG

Ms. Lori Moog is the Director of Service-Learning and Community Outreach at Raritan Valley Community College. She has coordinated the college’s premier service-learning program for the past fifteen years, a program that earned several national and local awards.

Moog has extensive experience in developing and coordinating campus/community programs. She has provided leadership for the development of service-learning initiatives with local K-12 schools and has offered more than 30 professional development workshops to community college faculty and administrators on developing service-learning programs, nationally and regionally. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Secondary Education from the City University of New York and a Masters of Arts in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix.

TODAY’S SERVICE-LEARNER WILL BE

TOMORROW’S LEADER WHO KNOWS

HOW TO CREATE ENVIRONMENTS

WHERE OTHERS WILL SEEK TO SOLVE

PROBLEMS IN AN INFORMED AND

COMPASSIONATE WAY.

Page 23

SERVICE-LEARNING AND FACULTY TRAINING

Robert Franco, Kapi'olani Community College


My work is to institutionalize service-learning at Kapi’olani Community College, University of Hawaii, to formatively evaluate this institutionalization, and develop a set of ongoing improvements. Major developments in recent years include six service-learning pathways wherein students can serve across multiple semesters to degree completion, transfer, and careers. Each of these pathways is directed by a paid student leader. Overall coordination is led by a full-time, college-funded outreach coordinator. Our most recent innovation is aligning service-learning with STEM undergraduate research in the life sciences. This campus-based work serves as the basis of my national training in 36 states over 15 years. What is it about service-learning or civic engagement that encourages you the most? I am most inspired by the commitment, intellect, and work that hundreds of our students, younger and older, direct at making Honolulu a better place to live. At Kapi’olani Community College we’ll

celebrate our 10,000th service-learner in 2011! What have you found to be the major challenges that advocates for service-learning or civic engagement have faced?

The major challenge is the non-alignment of service-learning with institutional reward structures for both faculty and staff.


I think service-learning’s future is bright as campuses sharpen their focus on motivating students to complete degrees. For students to value a degree, they need to understand why learning matters. Communities are a rich, infinite resource for both meaning and learning, and

service-learning is the best way to tap this resource and, reciprocally, to sustainably develop the communities in which we serve.

Dr. Franco has written numerous articles and has been a prolific trainer, pushing community colleges across the nation towards embracing the pedagogy of service-learning. This passion is captured in an article he wrote for the Journal of Public Affairs entitled The Civic Role of Community Colleges: Preparing Students For The Work Of Democracy(2002). In it he writes…

Page 24

Today, America’s 1,166 community colleges now serve increasingly diverse populations. Community college leaders need to recommit to three essential missions: developing strong transfer programs that provide students with equal educational opportunities; preparing students for twenty-first century careers; and preparing students for the work of democracy in the world’s dominant democracy. Service-learning is the leading pedagogy that community colleges can employ to achieve these missions and truly become civically engaged campuses in the communities they serve.

ABOUT ROBERT FRANCO Dr. Robert Franco is a recognized expert on contemporary Samoan, Polynesian, and Pacific Islander demographic, ecological, health, and cultural issues. He has published scholarly research on contemporary Samoan political and cultural change, traditional Hawaiian water management systems, and socio-cultural factors affecting pelagic fisheries in Polynesia and Micronesia. His current national research and training focuses on service-learning, reducing the minority academic achievement gap, and strengthening the liberal arts, workforce development and civic missions of community colleges. In 2008, Franco was selected as NSF-SENCER Leadership Fellow, and advisor to SENCER Center for Innovation (SCI) Western Region. He also is Kapi’olani Community College’s EPSCoR Coordinator and LSAMP Co-Principal Investigator, and a Senior Faculty Fellow for Community Colleges at Campus Compact. Franco currently serves as the college’s accreditation liaison to the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACJC/WASC), American Council on Education, Community College Survey of Student Engagement, Carnegie Foundation, and Campus Compact. He conducts training, technical assistance, and research dissemination at community colleges, universities, and other conference audiences in five states per year (35 states total) with research-based training designed to improve retention, degree completion, and transfer rates through service-learning, community-based research, and authentic partnerships. An advocate of international education, Franco serves as a board member of the American Council on Education, International Collaborative, and was selected by the East-West Center to present at the International Forum on Education for the Year 2020.

I THINK SERVICE-LEARNING’S FUTURE IS

BRIGHT AS CAMPUSES SHARPEN THEIR

FOCUS ON MOTIVATING STUDENTS TO

COMPLETE DEGREES.

Page 25

SERVICE-LEARNING AND RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

Joseph Swaba, Maricopa Community Colleges


I was first introduced to the concept of service-learning during a fellowship with an organization called the Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL). This was right around the time that the Community College National Center for Community Engagement was being established. I worked for the center during its early years and have fond memories of presenting the concept of service-learning to faculty members who were excited to think about the possibility of extending the classroom learning experience into the community.

While at COOL, I realized that community colleges were being left out of many of the discussions regarding service-learning, yet the word “community” was contained right in our missions. In many ways I fit right in with advocates for both community colleges and service-learning. CCNCCE’s early vision and philosophy was that if service-learning was to be anything more than just a fad, it needed to be deeply rooted in the “learning” side of service-learning, it needed to be deeply rooted in the culture of faculty, the culture of engagement.


I have always believed that developing strong ties to one’s community is the key to success. For many community college students, we are now learning, service-learning may also hold the key to retention and successful completion.

Whenever students can have a meaningful service experience, one that is connected rigorously to their academic learning, it truly has the ability to transform their whole educational experience—their whole lives. I have certainly seen service-learning transform the dialogue and energy levels in my classroom and that is what makes service-learning such an exciting pedagogy.

What have you found to be the major challenges that advocates for service-

learning or civic engagement have faced?

As an advocate for civic engagement for over two decades, I have been pleased to see service-learning take root at the core of many community college educational missions. Of course, my background in resource development

has also provided the insights that service-learning is now a well-understood pedagogy that has made its way into the funding streams of many federal agencies and foundations.

There was a time when you could develop a competitive application for funding without describing the use of service-learning—those times have changed. It is now often understood that, when used strategically, service-learning reaps rewards that include increased persistence, improved learning, and a greater sense of community. Organizations like the Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCSSE) and many others have done a great job promoting the value of engaging active-learning strategies.

Page 26

At times like these when resources are scarce and significant cuts are occurring, with more looming on the horizon, I think advocates for service-learning need to be sure to let their voices be heard.


Of course, in higher education, it seems that resources will always remain a challenge. As the national agenda shifts from mere access to college completion, there are wonderful opportunities to further embed service-learning and civic engagement in the fabric of higher education. I think as long as practitioners of service-learning remember that service-learning is an effective instructional pedagogy—that the reward of students developing an increased sense of civic

responsibility is only one of many outcomes—service-learning will continue to flourish.

I recall early in my resource development career, developing a competitive grant application that incorporated the pedagogy of service-learning was a challenge. You had to define service-learning, provide rich examples, illustrate the connection to the curriculum, and describe methods for assessing the learning. Now, service-learning can be found as a prescribed

methodology within the language of many federal and non-federal grant competitions. The question no longer is can you write a competitive grant to fund service-learning—the reality now is how can you write a competitive grant without using a strategy such as service-learning?

ABOUT JOSEPH SWABA Dr. Joseph Swaba serves as an Associate Director of the District Grants Development and Management Department for the Maricopa Community Colleges. He has more than 20 years of experience in higher education including alumni relations, student activities, program development, fundraising, teaching, grant writing, and student training. He has extensive experience coordinating special events and programs at both local and national levels. He is a highly effective speaker and writer, is an experienced grant writer and fundraiser, and holds the Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) credential. Swaba serves on the board of directors for the Arizona Museum for Youth, Mesa Community College Alumni Association, and the American Communication Association, on the Research Advisory Committee of the Council for Resource Development, and on the Editorial Board of the Journal for Civic Commitment. He has taught as an adjunct professor of communication at GateWay Community College for the past 10 years. Swaba served his country as a soldier in the United States Army, and then returned to Mesa to finish his first college degree at Mesa Community College. In addition to an Associate of Arts, he has earned a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Communication from Metropolitan State University in Minnesota, a Master of Arts in Educational Technology from the University of Phoenix, a Graduate Certificate in Professional Writing from Northern Arizona University, an Academic Certificate in Storytelling from South Mountain Community College, and a Master of Arts in English from Northern Arizona University. His academic career culminated with the completion of his Doctorate in Education from Northern Arizona University in May 2011.

WHENEVER STUDENTS CAN HAVE A

MEANINGFUL SERVICE EXPERIENCE, ONE

THAT IS CONNECTED RIGOROUSLY TO

THEIR ACADEMIC LEARNING, IT TRULY HAS

THE ABILITY TO TRANSFORM THEIR

WHOLE EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE—THEIR WHOLE LIVES.

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ACCREDITATION—MISSION AND INTEGRITY

Karen Solomon, Higher Learning Commission


More than 20 years ago, as a student affairs administrator, I led a team that built service-learning courses involving general education faculty and student affairs professionals to bring students back to the institution’s “roots” for in-depth community engagement. At the same time, I was involved in a statewide effort, involving the Governor’s office along with corporate and higher education partners, to build momentum around leadership in volunteerism. New national service programs were launched while I served as founding director for Illinois Campus Compact. My role in developing workshops, creating resources, and supporting initial phases of curriculum development was supported by a wide range of local and federal resources. Many of the projects laid the foundation for building today’s guidelines for best practice. These days, in my work with regional accreditation, I am involved with institutions that are committed to outlining and measuring students’ learning with many working to understand evidence that documents engagement and service.


It is exciting to see institutions building

curriculum to support a key foundation of a healthy democracy—forming active, engaged citizens. As I work with hundreds of institutions that have clearly identified outcomes related to “participation in community,” it is evident that service-learning encourages enhanced academic rigor as students gain critical thinking and problem solving in an active learning environment. Faculty roles shift from lecturer to facilitator. Collaboration between faculty and student affairs has created sustainable

connections and demonstrates a shifting paradigm of intentional curricular and co-curricular learning. It is exciting to witness this as a culture shift, not just a brief project. As institutions work to internationalize their curricula, I continue to see more evidence that this emphasis on service and engagement is embedded within evolving general education and degree programs.


Few institutions recognize the work of faculty engaged in service-learning within the framework of the current academic culture. The shifting faculty role is not readily recognized in reward systems, scholarship, and professional service expectations. For some, evaluation guidelines actually discourage participation in building robust service-learning curriculum within courses and co-curricular activities. The challenge is not only in

Page 28

evaluating professionals but also in finding ways to provide evidence students actually have internalized and understand the importance of engagement and service within society. Our institutions are still working to create workable, reasonable assessment systems to measure the learning. Beyond gathering information, folks are challenged to find the time to talk about the evidence and then to use the evidence to improve curriculum and student experiences.


Our best work is ahead of us. Higher education is in the midst of a revolution and institutions will need to reconsider missions, programs, and

strategic visions. I think we have created a critical mass of people within institutions that

understand that melding service and engagement into programs of study is important, whether a student is studying a humanities or a technical degree. Though resources will be tight at all of our institutions now and in the near future, there is a deep commitment to preparing students to live, give, and thrive in a global environment.

This type of engagement provides a conduit to bring the academy and

community together to focus on supporting the common good. This activity will be vital as higher education is being redefined by many external forces.

ABOUT KAREN SOLOMON

Dr. Karen Solomon’s commitment to higher education has been focused on creating pathways of increased engagement and accountability by institutions across the country. Since 2003, Solomon has served as a Commission liaison to more than 185 institutions. She is a co-leader and presenter of HLC and national workshops on assessment of student learning, distance education, partnering, service-learning, and web-based services. Solomon has served as a paid consultant on a range of issues including adult education programs, assessment of student learning, and development of international accreditation agencies.

She has a unique perspective on issues of higher education after spending almost twenty years working with multiple groups of institutions, systems, corporations, and state agencies in a range of roles. Dr. Solomon previously served as the Coordinator of Research and Evaluation in Adult Continuing Education at Northern Illinois University. Prior to joining NIU in 1998, she served as Education Associate in Outcomes Assessment for ACT, Inc. (formerly American College Testing); founding Executive Director for Illinois Campus Compact; and Associate Dean of Student Development at Benedictine University. She has served on an accreditation team for the Saudi Arabia National Commission for Academic Accreditation & Assessment and currently serves on the Steering Committee for the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) Cooperative for Educational Technologies.

Dr. Solomon has an Ed.D. in Adult and Continuing Education from Northern Illinois University, a MBA from Benedictine University, and a B.A. in Business from North Central College. Her scholarly work focused on early research regarding learner motivation for distance education involvement.

OUR BEST WORK IS AHEAD OF US. HIGHER

EDUCATION IS IN THE MIDST OF A

REVOLUTION AND INSTITUTIONS WILL

NEED TO RECONSIDER MISSIONS, PROGRAMS, AND STRATEGIC VISIONS.

Page 29

SERVICE-LEARNING LEADERSHIP

Pamela Edington, Norwalk Community College


I was introduced to service-learning through a keynote speech by Parker Palmer in the early 1990s. Inspired by the idea of integrating community service into the academic curriculum, I used my position as a division chair to develop and teach the first service-learning course on hunger and homelessness at my community college. The successful launch, combined with a small but powerful grant from the Community College National Center for Community Engagement (CCNCCE), helped to entice faculty to include service into their courses. With the assistance of a VISTA volunteer, the service-learning program grew into a national model. Over a ten-year period, we succeeded in securing over $500,000 in funding to provide staffing, professional development, and outreach. While building our institutional commitment, I helped to develop the Massachusetts Campus Compact and also consulted with numerous emerging service-learning programs from Maine to Minnesota. In 2005, as a chief academic officer, I initiated a service-learning program in Connecticut and now serve on the Connecticut Campus Compact board.


As a community college educator, I am convinced that service-learning and civic engagement are the best means of accomplishing our mission to serve our local community. Through service-learning, students and the community work in a reciprocal relationship to both teach and learn

from each other. Prevailing community needs are met while powerful lessons are learned, including the role that individuals and institutions can play in making a difference in the world. I am encouraged by the fact that service learning attracts people from across the political spectrum and therefore helps to forge common ground.

Having personally observed students who are transformed by their service, I am excited by the belief that untold numbers of community college students continue to volunteer in their communities because they had the opportunity to serve in their local community college.


In my experience, the major challenge in establishing

sustainable service-learning programs in community colleges is the identification of resources to support a staff position responsible for coordinating meaningful and lasting community relationships. While a staff position is a financial decision, ultimately it entails convincing our institutional leaders that service-learning is central to our mission and rises to the level of a priority. A secondary challenge is supporting service-learning faculty whose workloads invariably increase as state budgets decrease. Faculty committed to service-learning can feel the strain of doing more with less and may retreat to traditional instructional models to conserve energy. Even in lean times, it is essential that faculty and staff have opportunities for professional development, recognition, and renewal.

Page 30


My sincere hope is that service-learning and civic engagement will be more fully integrated and aligned with the national student success agenda. Service-learning and civic engagement are high-impact educational practices with strong research findings demonstrating their effectiveness for increasing student retention and persistence. I envision a growing synergy between service-learning and national efforts to shorten remediation and to improve graduation rates. While there is no one single strategy that will result in a doubling of the graduation rate in the United States, I have no doubt that by expanding service-learning in higher education there would be a dramatic increase in student success that would significantly improve our national outcomes.

How do you think your work has influenced community colleges in their involvement with service-learning and civic engagement?

In my twenty-plus years of working in community colleges, I am especially grateful for the opportunities I have had to introduce and support service-learning and civic engagement. When I

teach, I incorporate service-learning, and as an administrator, I work to organize institutional support to enable faculty to augment their instruction with authentic relationships in the community. It has been a privilege to build service-learning programs in two community colleges and to work at both the state and national levels to support the development and sustaining of service-learning in higher education. I am currently working to heighten awareness of service-learning and civic

engagement in the influential Achieving the Dream (ATD) and the Developmental Education Initiative (DEI). The national profile of community colleges has never been higher than it is with the Obama administration. To the best of my professional ability, I am working to leverage my institution’s involvement with ATD and DEI to bolster the visibility of service-learning at the national level.

ABOUT PAMELA EDINGTON Dr. Pamela Edington has spent the majority of her professional career in community colleges as both a faculty member and an administrator. Currently the chief academic officer at Norwalk Community College (NCC) in Connecticut, she is working on closing the achievement gap as an Achieving the Dream Leader College and participant in the Developmental Education Initiative. She is also at the forefront of NCC’s development of civic and community engagement initiatives, including a thriving service-learning program. She spearheaded the application that earned NCC the Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement in 2010. In her prior position as Dean of Social Science and Human Services at Middlesex Community College, Massachusetts, she was instrumental in establishing the service-learning program at the college, as well as the development of the Massachusetts Campus Compact. Edington has served as both a regional and national consultant on service-learning since the 1990s and has helped to grow programs at institutions from Maine to Minnesota. Edington is serving on the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Campus Compact and the Women’s Business Development Center. She has a B.A. in Sociology from the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University, a M.A. in Sociology from the University of Notre Dame, and a Doctor of Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the proud mother of two twenty-something daughters.

SERVICE-LEARNING AND CIVIC

ENGAGEMENT ARE HIGH IMPACT

EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES WITH STRONG

RESEARCH FINDINGS DEMONSTRATING

THEIR EFFECTIVENESS FOR INCREASING

STUDENT RETENTION AND PERSISTENCE.

Page 31

MARKETING AND PUBLIC IMAGE

Dino Paul, Dino Designs

What role have you played with the Community College National Center for Community Engagement?

I have had the great opportunity to be involved with the service-learning program and the marketing for the Community College National Center for Community Engagement for the past 16 years. I have developed various creative concepts, themes, logos, and a variety of collateral marketing materials for the national conference in Arizona and other promotional materials. It has been an interesting and very educational road for my firm and me. We have had the opportunity to create a variety of looks, feels, and approaches to marketing service-learning.

What role has your firm played in creating awareness of the issues that nonprofit/social service agencies play? My firm has also been a large supporter of other nonprofit organizations that play an integral role in benefiting the community at large by generating award winning creative work. Including the Our clients have included Arizona Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, American Heart Association, Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center, Autism

Speaks, The Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix Children’s Hospital Foundation, and others.

Are there common challenges that you have seen such agencies face and how can they address them? I think one of the biggest obstacles when marketing and promoting service-learning events or topics is creating intriguing yet

clear messages. Service-learning is such a broad topic within the realm of any institution and how they approach their outreach to the community and constituents. The topic alone touches so many avenues, topics, and age groups of community service as well as the educational institution. Because of these factors the messaging is not only specific topic-based but also needs to educate the

community to what service-learning is. Not uncommon to a lot of nonprofits, branding the organization as well as the event or task at hand becomes a multi-dimensional process.

Page 32

Are there communication or marketing concepts that are important for agencies to be aware of?

The key is to create interesting memorable themes and graphic approaches that can also educate and strengthen the brand, no matter what the medium used to deliver the message. I have always found that solid creative approaches embodied within interesting execution can accomplish those goals. Design and marketing have absolutely no value if they do not create interest for the audience while defining the main message. Too often marketers get hung up on the facts, ignoring the idea that there have to be some elements that will captivate the audience. Good marketing materials should inspire emotionally and inspirationally and/or challenge the reader to think and engage.

ABOUT DINO PAUL

Dino Paul is a graduate of California State University, Chico in 1983 with a BA degree in Visual Communications and a BS in Business Administration. Dino founded Dino Design in 1994. He is responsible for maintaining the high level of creativity and quality work produced by Dino Design. He instills his philosophy of doing good work and providing excellent service to their clients. He works closely with each account and takes personal responsibility for the firm. Dino’s work has garnered numerous local and national awards, and his projects have been featured in a variety of trade publications such as How magazine, Communication Arts magazine, Graphis, and Step by Step Graphics. In addition, his work has been published and featured in design hardbound books such as Graphis Logo 2, Typography 14, Art Directors Annual, The Workbook AR 100 Annuals, and the Logo Lounge Master Library series. Dino has been an active member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) for the past 18 years as well as the Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD) for the past ten years.

I THINK ONE OF THE BIGGEST OBSTACLES

WHEN MARKETING AND PROMOTING

SERVICE-LEARNING EVENTS OR TOPICS IS

CREATING INTRIGUING YET CLEAR

MESSAGES.

Page 33

STUDENT RETENTION AND AMERICORPS

Jennifer Hine, Washington Campus Compact


I have served as the executive director for Washington Campus Compact since 1995. In that role, I have developed, implemented, and sustained multiple state, regional, and national programs/initiatives that support college student civic engagement. We have been successful in procuring public and private grants—while leveraging local resources—to implement sustainable civic engagement programs and initiatives that engage college students in service while helping to strengthen communities. Since 2002, we have procured over $38 million in grants and educational scholarships to support college student civic engagement.

Washington Campus Compact is known for its entrepreneurial vision and leadership in the service-learning/civic engagement field. Through up-front strategic planning; strong partnership building and consistent communication practices with grantees and stakeholders; thorough program record keeping and monitoring; sound fiscal oversight; and a strong commitment to assessment and meeting program objectives, WACC has a stellar track record as a grant manager. Our leadership in program and grant management is widely recognized. WACC is often requested to facilitate local, state, regional, and national trainings on many topics related to program and grant management in the service-learning and civic engagement fields.


I am most excited about the transformational impact service can have on college students. Often students attend college to get an education so that they can get a job and “start their life.” They

sometimes don’t think that they have much to offer others until after their education is complete. When they participate in service, they are able to learn more about who they are in this world and that they can make a significant difference in the lives of other people. They find their passions, begin to see themselves as change agents, and gain a better understanding of how their education can help them make that change happen.

What have you found to be the major challenges that advocates for service-

learning or civic engagement have faced?

One of the key challenges facing the service-learning and civic engagement field is “getting the word out” about the impact the service is having on the students and the communities. The departments are often so busy doing the work, they do not have time to tell stakeholders about the impact. On the campus, the senior administrators and spokespeople for the college do not know about the incredible service that is being done by their students. They don’t have the data and they don’t have the stories. Externally, policy decision-makers do not know how the college is serving a leadership role in addressing key social problems in local communities. They make funding decisions

Page 34

without fully understanding the significant public role colleges are serving.

Another key challenge is in the area of assessment. It is very challenging to isolate the factors that contribute to the student learning and the full impact the service has on a community. Assessment is sometimes an afterthought when designing service programs when, in fact, it should be one of the first issues to be address when attempting to develop successful service programs or service-learning courses.


I think the future of service-learning and civic engagement is that we will overcome some of the

barriers described in the previous question and service will be seen more as an effective strategy to be used to address educational and community issues. We will improve our assessment of our

work, demonstrate important impacts, increase student learning, and become better partners with communities to address critical social issues. My vision for this field is that every campus has an endowed center to support student civic engagement and that service-learning is integrated strategically into every discipline on a campus. Civic engagement is paramount to higher education

fulfilling its public purpose, and stakeholders—both on and off the campus—understand and value the role colleges play in cultivating the future leaders of our democracy and being partners in solving critical community issues.

ABOUT JENNIFER HINE

Jennifer Hine has served as the Executive Director of Washington Campus Compact since 1995. Washington Campus Compact is a coalition of college and university presidents who have committed their institutions to helping students become engaged citizens; advancing the civic and public purposes of education; and strengthening communities. Under the leadership of Hine, Washington Campus Compact has developed and administered multiple programs in the areas of college access and success; service-learning; environmental sustainability; and student civic leadership. She works with member campuses to support strategic planning for advancing civic engagement on their campuses. Hine has been instrumental in developing regional and national networks collaborating with other state Campus Compact offices to offer training and program opportunities across state lines.

Hine’s strengths lie in her ability to strategically develop and sustain campus-based programs that mobilize college students to address some of today’s most critical challenges. Prior to joining Washington Campus Compact, she had extensive experience consulting with businesses to strengthen management and organizational structures. Hine has served on numerous boards at the national, state, and local levels and has been recognized for her work as one of the top "150 Victories for Humanity" by Antioch University in Seattle. This list recognizes the amazing and selfless accomplishments of Pacific Northwest residents who, through their work or volunteerism, have made a difference in the lives of others. She has a BA degree in Psychology from the University of Washington and a MA in Psychology from Antioch University Seattle.

MY VISION FOR THIS FIELD IS THAT EVERY

CAMPUS HAS AN ENDOWED CENTER TO

SUPPORT STUDENT CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

AND THAT SERVICE-LEARNING IS

INTEGRATED STRATEGICALLY INTO EVERY

DISCIPLINE ON A CAMPUS.

Page 35

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AND CITIZEN POLITICS

Harry Boyte, Center for Democracy and Citizenship, Augsburg College


We think about ourselves in the CDC as helping to organize a movement for the cultural transformation of higher education—to reconnect higher education with a deep sense of its public purpose and democracy mission. That involves two things. Conceptually it involves shifting from thinking about specific projects, centers, and activities, which are important but are scattered and fragmented, to identity. So the question is, “How can these add up to much more than scattered activities? How can we develop institutions with a strong sense of public identity?”

So the shift is from activities to identity. The second element involves using what we call an organizing approach to liberate the public possibilities of people’s work in many different ways—as teachers, as researchers, as staff people, as a community of students. It involves breaking down the silo cultures of higher education—opening up the boxes so that people act with new energies and public possibilities. In Jane Addams’s terms, it’s freeing the powers of the people.


In the civic engagement movement there are multiple stories of everyday work through which people develop a sense that they can be agents of their own lives and agents of change in the world. These create the foundations for a larger

democracy movement. I saw a similar process in the South in the 1960s, when I worked in the Freedom Movement as a young adult. People who felt invisible and marginal developed the confidence and skills to shape their lives and their communities. Then secondly, this is a critical moment in our history, in which higher education has a central strategic role to play in the larger process of democratic change, probably for the first time in human history, indeed at the center of democratization. This possibility and challenge

needs to engage us all. Everyone can see the democratic energies spreading around the world, from the Middle East to Latin America. The strategic imperative to give such stirrings of civic agency depth and lasting foundations is for higher education to step up to the plate.

What have you found to be the major challenges

that advocates for service-learning or civic engagement have faced?

There are several challenges. First of all, faculty members and the staff just never developed the skills to be very effective change agents. They didn’t have that course in graduate school! Many don’t even have a course in teaching in their graduate training. So many feel really lost when it comes to making larger change, especially staff and faculty—they haven’t had opportunities to develop the political and relational skills of making change. That’s one challenge. Often people don’t try or know how to try—and organizing for change is learned through action. They don’t have much belief in change. Faculty and staff often feel pretty hopeless. They think they can do little things around the edges and

Page 36

maybe those changes will do nice things in the world, but they just don’t feel connected. Thirdly, the conceptual frameworks that people are working from are too small. Here I would say that while service-learning is not wrong, it includes vital civic values and democratic ideals, it’s just too small. It often separates the civic from self-interests, hides questions of power (including the politics of knowledge endemic to higher education, which devalues the talents and intelligence of those without formal credentials), and separates citizenship from work. The theoretical framework is too small and too apolitical. Here the public work frame is a much stronger and more robust in theoretical and practical terms. It gives people the sense that their work has untold civic possibilities.


There will be a growing cohort of institutions that are the Birminghams, Little Rocks, and

Montgomerys of our movement, to use the Freedom Movement parallel. The Montgomery Bus Boycott with Rosa Parks, down in Alabama in 1955 sparked many people’s hope. She didn’t just decide to refuse going to the back of the bus on the spur of the moment. There was a long background in organizing.

In our time the key movement centers will be different; it’s not

the same movement, though we draw on the Freedom Movement heritage. There will be centers in higher education—community colleges, privates, state colleges, and universities—connected to community change. Not just by themselves, not isolated, but vital to democratizing the politics of knowledge and generating civic agency. These will be connected, interactive, and drive change. And people will develop a sense that they can change their lives and the larger society through and around higher education.

ABOUT HARRY BOYTE

Dr. Harry Boyte is founder and director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship based at Augsburg College, as well as a senior fellow and member of the graduate school faculty at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute. From 1993 to 1995 Boyte was national coordinator for the New Citizenship, a cross-partisan confederation of higher education, philanthropic, and civic groups that worked with the White House Domestic Policy Council to analyze the gap between citizens and government and to propose solutions. He has served on the boards of many groups concerned with citizenship and democracy.

Boyte is an architect of the Center’s public work framework. Public work, a conception of citizenship, is based on the idea of the citizen, not markets or states, at the center of democracy and citizenship as productive work done in public ways for public purposes. The key to sustained civic renewal in this approach is the creation and revitalization of civically empowering cultures in communities and institutions, which sustain powerful action to build a democratic way of life across partisan and other differences. Public work has gained international recognition for its theoretical and practical innovations. Boyte’s “Constructive Politics as Public Work: Organizing the Literature,” in the October, 2011, issue of Political Theory, compares and contrasts public work to other concepts of citizenship and approaches to participatory democracy. Boyte is also the founder of Public Achievement, an international civic and political education initiative for young people now in hundreds of communities in more than a dozen countries. In the 1960s, Boyte was a field secretary for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization directed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and he did community and labor organizing in the South. His Ph.D. is in social and political thought from the Union Institute.

PEOPLE WILL DEVELOP A SENSE THAT THEY CAN

CHANGE THEIR LIVES AND THE LARGER SOCIETY

THROUGH AND AROUND HIGHER EDUCATION.

Page 37

SERVICE-LEARNING AND COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

Sarena Seifer, Community-Campus Partnerships for Health


I have helped to nurture service-learning in a number of tangible ways. As a medical student in the late 1980s, I facilitated extracurricular service-learning opportunities for students in free clinics at a time when the required coursework was entirely classroom and hospital based. As legislative affairs director for the American Medical Student Association in the early 1990s, I lobbied Congress for funding for the National Health Service Corps and ran a summer service-learning program in which medical students were based in public health agencies. As program director for a regional association of community health centers, I helped to negotiate service-learning partnerships between medical schools and residency programs. As director of the Health Professions Schools in Service to the Nation Program in the mid-90s, I led a national demonstration service-learning program that led to widely cited definitions and evaluation findings, service-learning programs at 17 schools, and new accreditation standards in medicine and pharmacy. As executive director of Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH) since 1996, I have led a series of national initiatives that have incorporated service-learning into health professions education, developed community-based

participatory research partnerships, convened community partners for peer support and advocacy, prepared faculty for community-engaged careers in the academy, aligned faculty promotion and tenure policies with community engagement, and created mechanisms for peer-reviewed publication of diverse products of community-engaged scholarship.

What is it about service-learning or civic engagement that encourages you the

most?

What encourages me the most is the passion, creativity, and commitment of the people who are working in this field day-to-day. This isn’t “just a job” but a calling to contribute to a world that is just, in which everyone can prosper. I am also encouraged that community members are asserting their rights

and responsibilities in partnerships with academic institutions. As shared governance models, community benefits, and community impacts become more central to service-learning, we will be better able to address the root causes of problems, build capacity, and create sustainable change.


The major challenges faced by advocates of service-learning and civic engagement are

Page 38

those that arise in any effort to “change the system,” whether that means moving education from the classroom and hospital into the community; recognizing and rewarding faculty for community-engaged forms of scholarship; compensating community partners for their time and expertise in supervising, teaching, and mentoring students; or using research findings to advocate for policy change. The lack of sustained support for the infrastructure needed to effectively engage in sustained community-academic partnerships is a significant problem. There is always a concern that unless service-learning and civic engagement are deeply embedded into the culture of communities and institutions, they are at risk.


I believe that colleges and universities will increasingly be compelled to make meaningful contributions to solving the many serious

issues confronting communities, and will be increasingly expected to do so. I don’t believe we have seen the worst of the economic downturn and disparities in health, wealth and

happiness. Organizations, including higher educational institutions, cannot afford not to collaborate to devise creative solutions, even if the underlying motivation is enlightened self-interest.

How do you think your work has influenced community colleges in their involvement with service learning and civic engagement?

My greatest contribution to community colleges has been

their involvement with health-related service-learning through my role at CCPH. I directed the Partners in Caring and Community: Service-Learning in Nursing Education Program, which provided funding, training, and technical assistance and led to diverse models of service-learning in associate degree nursing programs. I also served as an advisor to the American Association of Community Colleges’ health programs, which made significant contributions to college student health and HIV/AIDS prevention through service-learning.

ABOUT SARENA SEIFER

Sarena Seifer, MD, is Founding Executive Director of Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH). Established in 1996, CCPH promotes health in its broadest sense through partnerships between communities and higher educational institutions. Seifer is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Guelph in Canada and a Visiting Professor at La Trobe University in Australia. She completed her undergraduate degree at Washington University in St. Louis, her graduate degrees at Georgetown University, and a health policy fellowship at the University of California-San Francisco. She resides in Toronto, where she is active in the Toronto Community-Based Research Network and the Toronto Public Space Committee.

I BELIEVE THAT COLLEGES AND

UNIVERSITIES WILL INCREASINGLY BE

COMPELLED TO MAKE MEANINGFUL

CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOLVING THE

MANY SERIOUS ISSUES CONFRONTING

COMMUNITIES, AND WILL BE

INCREASINGLY EXPECTED TO DO SO.

Page 39

SERVICE-LEARNING AND STUDENT VOICE

Shela Hidalgo, Mesa Community College

Briefly describe your service-learning or civic engagement experience while in college. What were the highlights of these experiences? While attending college I had a wide array of experiences in service-learning and civic engagement. I first was introduced while doing service-learning for a class at Sunshine Acres Children’s Home. My time spent there as a classroom tutor was so rewarding that I decided to join AmeriCorps and complete a 300-hour term there. It was through service-learning that I became a service-learning assistant, which allowed me to discover AmeriCorps. While I served at Sunshine Acres I joined a service-learning group called Mesa Community College Allies. As an Ally it was my responsibility to provide awareness to the community about the needs at Sunshine Acres, promote any activities or fundraisers the site was having, as well as recruit volunteers to serve. Through AmeriCorps I became a LeaderCorps member. A LeaderCorps member is a member from any AmeriCorps program that is selected to plan and host the Arizona Governor’s Annual Nation Service Conference. Through all of these programs I have acquired invaluable knowledge and the chance to serve my community. I have been able to take what I have learned and implement it into my school, service site, and other aspect of my community.

How have they shaped your future academic or career goals? While my experiences with service did not influence my decision to stay in school and complete my education, it did serve as a starting point for my long-term life plan. I hope to one day open a nonprofit center for teenagers who are homeless. My goal is to provide teenagers

with the opportunity to become involved in service at an early age. Gaining the skills and knowledge about service, about nonprofit agencies and how they function—as well as the needs in my community—have really given me a jumpstart on my lifelong

plan. How do you think you help influence other students to get involved in service-learning and civic education, especially to help them stay in

school and complete their education? As a Phi Theta Kappa officer I was able to be an honors peer mentor for Mesa Community College’s Honors Peer Mentor Program. I mentored about fifteen incoming honors freshman to help them become engaged on campus and in the community and to complete their education. I did this by staying current with the latest scholarships available to the students, informing them of service opportunities as well as any leadership programs that were available. By encouraging them to become active I hoped to foster the passion to stay in school.

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Why do you think it is important for students to engage in service-learning experiences?

I think it is important for students to experience service-learning for several reasons, the first being the hands-on experience. A nursing student can engage in service-learning at a hospital and thus determine if nursing is the correct path for his/her goals. It also provides unique skills. When I was a service-learning student I learned how to sew, to laminate; I even had to brush up on my decimal conversions. While these are simple things, had I not done service-learning I probably wouldn’t have gained these skills. Also, service-learning provides distinctive experiences to the students. Students have to learn to become better multi-taskers, maybe they learn to better communicate with peers and supervisors. Service-learning allows the student to walk away with tools to become a better student and member of the community. Most importantly, the community and the student are impacted by service-learning. The

impact that is made hopefully makes the student want to serve more and in return the community benefits from service-learning. What are your hopes or insights for service-learning and civic engagement in the future?

I sincerely hope that more teachers see the benefits of service-learning in terms of helping students grow and thus implement service-learning into their curriculum. I hope that there are no more budget cuts in reference to AmeriCorps and other programs such as Learn and Serve. The more that is taken away from our students, the less opportunity they have to become engaged in their community. Ideally I hope that every student is able to

participate in some form of service-learning or civic engagement. I also want to see more of our retired citizens take a more active role in our community and become involved in civic engagement. Overall, everyone should have some form of civic engagement before graduating from college.

ABOUT SHELA HIDALGO

Shela Hidalgo was an All-Arizona Academic Team Scholar who is attending Arizona State University in the fall of 2011 as a Barrett Honors Scholar, studying Speech Language Pathology with an emphasis in Non-Profit Management. She graduated from Mesa Community College in May 2011 where she was an active student leader. Shela is a former Vice President of Hallmarks for Phi Theta Kappa's Omicron Beta Chapter. She led in the planning and implementation of the Honors in Action Project, Project HOPE, where she taught peers and community members about safe sex and preventing unplanned pregnancies. She presented on Project HOPE at the Arizona Summit in Service-Learning and Volunteerism. She also helped implement the college’s Honors Peer Mentor Program, a project dedicated to support incoming freshmen in the honors program to succeed and complete by serving as mentors.

Shela is a former AmeriCorps member, serving her term at Sunshine Acres Children's Home, where she tutored young students. She is also a LeaderCorps alumnus, and hosted the Governor’s Conference on National and Community Service in the summer of 2010. She also served two terms for the Mayor’s Youth Committee (serving as President in 2009) with current mayor Scott Smith and former mayor Keno Hawker.

IDEALLY I HOPE THAT EVERY STUDENT IS

ABLE TO PARTICIPATE IN SOME FORM OF

SERVICE LEARNING OR CIVIC

ENGAGEMENT.

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