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Note from Jenni
Summer is finally upon us and I hope you are finding many opportunities to renew and recharge over the next few months, before fall semester is upon us.
Here in the WI Campus Compact office, we have a variety of updates for you:
Staff Transitions: we are saying goodbye to a few staff who have made a tremendous impact within the office this past year. Thanks so much for your expertise, patience and devotion to your work:
Ashley Kuehl - Office Associate: after her 2010-11 VISTA Leader term, Ashley stayed on part-time in the WI Campus Compact office to provide continuity and assistance in keeping us operating smoothly.
2011-12 VISTA leaders Kelly Knox and Simone Mishler: Kelly and Simone have both been a tremendous asset in helping Stephanie Jung organize and advance our AmeriCorps VISTA program. Best of luck to all of you!
Grants Update:
AmeriCorps Midwest Citizen Scholars(M3C) Grant - we submitted grant applications to both the WI AmeriCorps office as well as the national office and, unfortunately, both applications were rejected. We still have one more current application pending with the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation. This is a very important project to both WI Campus Compact and your institutions and we will continue to seek funding to support this program.
Civic Engagement Election Project(CEEP): We are proud to announce that we have been selected to join the national Campus Election Engagement Project (CEEP) http://www.compact.org/initiatives/campus-vote-home/. The project seeks to increase the student vote in the upcoming fall 2012 elections by reaching out to our member colleges and universities and encouraging student-focused voter engagement projects. The project will assist your institution with increasing students' voter knowledge, campaign involvement, and overall turnout at the polls. Jaryd Spann, graduate student at UW-Madison, will serve as the Project Coordinator. Jaryd is eager and willing to assist your campus in engaging students civically and is presenting working on a comprehensive website. Any questions, concerns or inquiries as to how CEEP can initiate or complement any student-focused engagement projects should be directed to jaryd.spann@uwex.edu.
UW Extension Program Innovation Fund: We are proud to announce that we have been awarded a program innovation fund project through UW-Extension/Colleges. This project will provide us the opportunity to conduct service learning trainings for the new Professional Experience Coordinators and faculty involved in the UW Colleges Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences degree, as well as develop a web-based training model for students and a database for long-term tracking and assessment. The on-line training and database are resources that will be available to all WI Campus Compact member campuses. For more information, please contact Jacob Vennie-Vollrath at jacob.vennie-vollrath@uwex.edu |
AmeriCorps*VISTA
Alex Mazurek, an AmeriCorps VISTA serving at UW-Stout, reflects on his year of service for this month's VISTA section of the WiCC newsletter.
Before I started AmeriCorps*VISTA I had grandiose visions of the goals I would accomplish in my year of service; I had envisioned having a pinnacle accomplishment that I could write on a resume that would describe exactly how I made a difference in some generic headline like:
Local hero discovers answer to people's problem!
However, I soon realized that my role as a VISTA is best described as a collection of projects.When describing my VISTA position to friends, family, or professionals, I always seem to dive into this long-winded, ideological analysis of the core values of AmeriCorps*VISTA and how it trickles down into my seemingly independent projectsin order to parse together some sort of uniformity out of my project until no one knows what I am talking about.
I found myself jealous of other VISTA's that seemed as if they were "doing" something compared to me: teaching English to Latinos, inspiring students through an artisan center, giving technology to all who need it, etc. But, after working in the position for more than ten months, I have been able to take a step back and look at my projects as a collection of stepsdesigned to move a community in a common direction - that direction being to bring the benefits of a university education to underserved communitiesas a pathway out of poverty.
 One of my main tasks at the University of Wisconsin - Stout is to teach underserved, low-income, and first-generation students the power of post-secondary education and how they can achieve it. I host groups from all across Wisconsin and Minnesota and, in a very cathartic way, show them the mistakes I made as first-generation student and how they can avoid them. In the past year I had the pleasure of hosting over 40 groups amounting to over 1300 students. Along with that, I have hosted three family parent nights presented in Hmong, English and Spanish to inform parents of their children's options for higher education.
To read the rest of Alex's reflection please visit the WiCC website.
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| Learn & Serve STEM
Service-Learning After Learn and Serve America: How Five States Are Moving Forward
Molly Ryan of the Education Commission of the States has published a report which examines themes, outcomes and state policies surrounding service-learning. The report presents a set of case studies highlighting policy and practice in several states where service-learning experts are designing and implementing agendas to maintain and advance statewide service-learning initiatives with no federal aid and no new state aid.
In Wisconsin, the elimination of Learn and Serve America funding meant the elimination the only state-level service-learning position at the Department of Public Instruction and the elimination of service-learning professional development offered at the state level. These eliminations have made state infrastructure even more essential and compels advocates to regroup and reframe service-learning at the state level.
For the entire report visit:
http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/01/02/87/10287.pdf
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Campus Election Engagement Project Seeks to Increase Student Election Involvement
 Wisconsin Campus Compact has recently joined a nation-wide effort to increase student involvement in the November 2012 state and national elections. The Campus Election Engagement Project (CEEP) is a non-partisan endeavor to increase the student vote in the upcoming fall 2012 elections by reaching out to our member colleges and universities and encouraging student-focused voter engagement projects. The student vote will undoubtedly be a deciding factor in many of the races this fall. By encouraging students to inform their peers on the candidates and issues, volunteer in the campaigns, and aid in voter registration, CEEP will strengthen the student voice throughout Wisconsin and across the country.
CEEP was founded in 2008 by award-winning author of Soul of a Citizen, Paul Loeb. By utilizing the campus affiliations developed by WiCC, the project will assist member institutions with increasing their students' voter knowledge, campaign involvement, and overall turnout at the polls. A number of mini-grants (approximately $250) will be made available through WiCC to help fund student-focused voter-engagement projects. A Request for Proposals will be distributed to member campuses in the coming weeks. The RFP will include details and requirements for mini-grant funds.
Jaryd Spann will serve as the Project Coordinator. Any inquiries as to how CEEP can initiate or complement student-focused engagement projects on campus should be directed to jaryd.spann@uwex.edu.
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| Professional Opportunities: |
Professional DevelopmentEmbedding Service Engagement into Your Institutional Culture, August 7, Madison, WI
Wisconsin Campus Compact is inviting your campus to participate in an opportunity to reflect upon where your campus is in institutionalizing service engagement and to start planning where you would like to be in two years and in five years. Through this process we hope to help campuses with self-assessment and potential strategic planning in the area of service engagement. More information.
13th Annual Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching, September 20-23, Traverse City, MI
The 13th Annual Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching will be held in Traverse City, Michigan at the Park Place Hotel, September 20 - 23.The overall conference theme is Evidence Based Teaching and Learning, and includes four sub-themes: Engaged Learning; Promoting Social Responsibility; E-Learning; and Creating Communities of Learners. More information. Becoming an Engaged Campus, October 12, 2012
Inver Hills Community College
Leaders from Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin colleges and universities are invited to participate in a one-day gathering at Inver Hills Community College on October 12, 2012. This full-day event is designed to: support campuses' self-assessment and strategic planning to deepen the integration, impact, and/or assessment of civic and community engagement efforts; identify priorities for further development; and help interested campuses begin documenting their engagement work for the 2015 Carnegie community engagement classification and other recognitions or accreditation. For more information click here.
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Funding Available
Plum Creek Foundation
The Plum Creek Foundation provides support for community-based nonprofit organizations that work to improve the general welfare and quality of life in the communities that Plum Creek serves. Grants are up to $10,000, most are around $5,000 - small projects/programs (Deadline: July 30th and October 31st) More information.
Union Pacific Foundation: Community-Based Grant Program
The Union Pacific Foundation's mission is to improve the quality of life in the served by Union Pacific Railroad, primarily in the midwestern and western United States. Through the Community-Based Grant Program, the Foundation gives priority to requests that address the following categories: Community and Civic, and Health and Human Services. (Deadline: August 14th) More information.
Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation
The Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation is given each fall to three nonprofit organizations in recognition of existing programs that have made a difference in the lives of the people they serve. The award has been given annually since 1991 and is accompanied by a first-place prize of $100,000 and two runners-up prizes of $7,500 and $5,000. More information.
Do Something Seed Grants
Are you working to start a community action project or program? Do you need money to put your ideas into action? If you answered, "YES!", you are eligible to apply for a Do Something Seed Grant. (Deadline: Weekly) More Information.
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Open Positions
- Community Health Case Worker, Church World Service - Harrisonburg, VA
- Executive Director, Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service Georgetown University - Washington, D.C.
- Assistant Director of Service-Learning, Purdue University - West Lafayette, IN
- Director of Development & Communications, Project on Civic Reflection - Chicago, Illinois
- Service-Learning Director, Appalachian State University - Boone, NC
- Director for the Center for Cross Cultural Engagement, Biola University - La Mirada, CA
- Director, The Bentley Service-Learning Center, Bentley University - Waltham, MA
- Leadership Development Program Director, Temple University - Philadelphia, PA
- Executive Director, Vermont Campus Compact, Colchester, VT
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Calls for Papers/Presentations/Awards
Student Success and The Quality Agenda conference in Miami, FL will examine the most important but least discussed component of the completion agenda-quality in student learning. Visit the Call for Proposals to find out how to submit a proposal to share your work at this conference. (Deadline: July 18, 2012)
Call for Papers and Products on "Maximizing Community Contributions, Benefits, and Outcomes in Clinical & Translational Research." Progress in Community Health Partnerships, CES4Health.info, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine have released a themed call for papers and products to "understand the accomplishments, best practices and challenges that community partners have experienced in their engagements with Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs) and other research institutions." (Deadline: August 6, 2012) More information.
The K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award recognizes graduate students who show exemplary promise as future leaders of higher education; whose work reflects a strong emphasis on teaching and learning; and who demonstrate a commitment to developing academic and civic responsibility in themselves and others. (Deadline: October 1, 2012) More information.
The Read.Write.Act 2012 Virtual Conference is quickly approaching. The Student Coalition for Action in Literacy Education (SCALE) is currently seeking proposals for presentations and virtual posters from interested parties. In honor of an election year, this year the theme is Literacy as a National Priority. For more information go to their website. Proposals due September 7th.The conference runs November 1-3, 2012.
Daily Point of Light Award
The Daily Point of Light Award honors individuals and groups creating meaningful change in communities across America. Each weekday, one volunteer or volunteer effort is recognized with the Daily Point of Light Award. (Deadline: Daily)
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WiCC Civic Engagement Recognition
Amy Lilienfeld
Amy Lilienfeld has taken her interests in drinking water protection and infused it into her Geography & Geology classrooms at UW-Barron County. Amy has been developing a place-based teaching module since first being hired as an Assistant Professor at UW-Fox Valley in the fall of 2009. The module is focused on providing opportunities for her students to have an impact in their local communities in the area of source water protection using source water assessments. For more information on the project & teaching module please see her article on the WiCC Website here.
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Nominate Someone
Is there someone (faculty, students, or community partners) you would like to recognize in our monthly newsletter? Please submit your nomination by filling out this form.
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Upcoming WiCC Events
If you'd like to promote your campus event, please send event information to Stephanie Jung
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What We Are Talking About
New Poll Data: 3 out of 4 Americans Feel Higher Education Should Be a Right.
According to the Carnegie poll of 1,000 Americans, three out of four Americans (76 percent) believe access to higher education should be a right with nearly half (46 percent) of Americans responding that they feel this way strongly.
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2011 National Campus Compact Annual Membership Survey
 The 2011 annual survey shows a deepening of engagement work on campuses. The survey also indicates gaps in campuses' ability to assess the impact of engaged work on the community and on student learning. |
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Civic Data Challenge
The first-ever Civic Data Challenge has recently launched! The Challenge is a project of NCoC (the National Conference on Citizenship) and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
The Challenge will turn the raw data of "civic health" into beautiful, useful applications and visualizations, enabling communities to be better understood and made to thrive. NCoC is providing its civic health data, as well as other data on the important topics of health, safety, education, and the economy. Designers, data scientists, researchers, and app developers are especially encouraged to join the challenge. And ... there will be prizes!
The Challenge is open through July 29th, and winners will be announced at the 67th Annual National Conference on Citizenship on September 14th in Philadelphia. We hope you'll get involved and help spread the word to colleagues, students and faculty to let them know about this exciting opportunity!
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We want to hear from you!
If you have any ideas, suggestions or resources to share, let us know!
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