Carolina Center for Public Service annual report

              2011-2012 ANNUAL REPORTour mission The Carolina Center for Public Service engages and supports the faculty, students
and staff of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in meeting the needs of
North Carolina and beyond. The Center strengthens the University’s public service
commitment by promoting scholarship and service that are responsive to the
concerns of the state and contribute to the common good.
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Over the course of an academic year, the Carolina Center for Public Service provides opportunities to connect Carolina and communities through a wide variety of efforts including the APPLES Service-Learning, Buckley Public Service Scholars and Faculty Engaged Scholars programs. This annual report provides selected insights into the reach, range and impact of our work. We hope you will enjoy learning more about the work of the Center and some of our accomplishments as you peruse this special calendar of the past year.
While it is impossible to list all those who made this work possible, it is important to note that it would not happen without untold support from Carolina faculty, staff, students and administrators; innumerable community partners and hundreds of dedicated donors. We are grateful for each and every individual connected to our efforts.
Connections – they are at the heart of all we do.
Hark the sound,
Lynn W. Blanchard, M.P.H., Ph.D.
Director
from the directorJuly 2011
North Carolina Outward Bound
Through an 11-year partnership
with the North Carolina Outward
Bound School, the Carolina Center
for Public Service has awarded 68
scholarships to Carolina students
in the Buckley Public Service
Scholars program, Carolina
Leadership Development and NC
Teaching Fellows. Beginning in
2012, the scholarships have been
supported through the Center’s
Thomas James Outward Bound
Scholarship endowment.
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I learned that people are just people and making deep, meaningful connections requires courage to not only expose my vulnerability, but also trust that the other person will be compassionate enough to understand.”
Luis Rios, Outward Bound scholarship recipient
Not many people would choose to spend 28 days of their summer in the wilderness of North Carolina, but Luis Rios ’14 is not like everyone else. With the support of the Thomas James Outward Bound Scholarship Endowment, Rios and 12 other North Carolina Outward Bound Scholarship recipients were able to do exactly that and learned important lessons about themselves and service in the process.
“My Outward Bound experience has been one of the most meaningful and challenging experiences of my life thus far,” Rios said. By his own admission, the experience came at a crucial point in his college career, forcing him to bring balance to his outlook on how to move forward as a student and to challenge his own physical and emotional abilities. As a result, Rios says the program’s four pillars of physical fitness, craftsmanship, self-reliance and compassion hold greater meaning and are now incorporated into his service philosophy. Considering the impact on Rios and the other recipients, the Center’s scholarships result in enhanced leadership and service during their time at Carolina and far beyond. The APPLES Service-
Learning Initiative provides
a unique opportunity
for incoming first-year
Carolina students to immerse
themselves in service with
local organizations. Each year,
over a three-day period prior
to fall classes, up to 50 students
are introduced to an array of
local service opportunities.
Sustained partnerships have
been built with a number of
organizations since SLI began
in 2003; five of which have
partnered with SLI for more
than five years.
Service-Learning Initiative
August 2011
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My favorite part about working with APPLES Service-Learning Initiative was being able to take a leadership role in planning the fall break experience and developing a close relationship with my co-leader. I like that I can give back to an organization that has helped me gain a better footing on UNC’s large campus.”
Rani Reddy, Service-Learning Initiative site leader
The initial few days on campus for first-year students can be overwhelming, making it difficult to connect to the larger university community. Immersing students in public service to ease that transition is what the Service-Learning Initiative (SLI) is all about. Rani Reddy ‘15 says that participating in SLI helped her find her way and become more involved with service at Carolina.
“[SLI] was meaningful to me because I appreciated being with a group of incoming first-year students who were as interested in service as I was,” said Reddy. Meeting new friends and making community connections was so important to Reddy that the following year she took her involvement a step further, becoming an SLI site-leader and serving as a co-leader for SLI’s alternative fall break experience.
Reddy’s work with SLI allowed her to expand her leadership skills and led her to better understand the importance of UNC’s connection with the local nonprofit community. Learning that early was key, allowing her to give back to the community and helping her get the most out of her UNC experience. Established in 2007, the Faculty Engaged
Scholars program recognizes and rewards
faculty involved with engaged scholarship,
building and sustaining a network of
engaged scholars from diverse disciplines.
To date, 32 Faculty Engaged Scholars,
representing 21 academic departments,
have participated in the rigorous, two-year
competency-based curriculum.
Faculty Engaged Scholars
September 2011
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Through my work with the Faculty Engaged Scholars program, I learned that there is this great need. These kids are coming from so little with so little and there really is no way to know what they need until they get here. Anything we can do to help teachers integrate the children is important.”
Patricia Garrett-Peters, Faculty Engaged Scholar
With a passion for helping a vulnerable refugee population, Faculty Engaged Scholar Dr. Patricia Garrett-Peters, a research assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and scientist with the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, has connected with the community in a very specific way. After researching the needs of Karen refugee children from Burma who are entering the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School System and the teachers who serve them, she began to work toward providing a solution.
“There were lots of great conversations with teachers about academic acculturation that helped us identify two major areas of need,” Garrett-Peters said. “Teachers needed knowledge about Karen cultural norms so they could successfully integrate the children into the school environment, and the children needed a working knowledge of what western schooling was like.”
The result was teachers and researchers coming together to develop a standard set of procedures that help refugee students successfully integrate into the classroom. Ultimately, Garrett-Peters hopes to share the curriculum with other school systems across the country who are working with refugee populations. By connecting her research on the roles of poverty and chaos in the lives of children to success in the classroom, Garrett-Peters has brought the concept of engaged scholarship full circle.Started in the fall of 2010, SMART Mentoring
is an undergraduate service-learning program
that includes two sociology courses that provide
a foundation for rich learning inside and
outside of the classroom. During the 2011-
2012 academic year, SMART matched 30
mentor-mentee pairs who engaged in a wide
variety of activities throughout the year.
SMART Mentoring
October 2011
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My involvement with SMART has hands-down been one of the most rewarding and exciting experiences of my time at UNC. My favorite part is being able to witness firsthand how these mentor-mentee relationships grow and to know that we helped facilitate that. These kids are being exposed to the life and culture of this university in a unique and wonderful way, and I feel so lucky to be a part of that connection.”
Lindsey Miller ‘13, SMART co-chair
Ask Susan Worley about some of her most engaging and
collaborative work in the community and she’ll tell you about SMART Mentoring. SMART, a program developed by Volunteers for Youth, a local community organization, and the Carolina Center for Public Service, is designed to foster meaningful mentoring relationships between UNC students and middle school students. “Mentoring is one of the most effective tools to make a difference in a child’s life,” said Worley, director of Volunteers for Youth. Add to that the collaboration with UNC’s department of sociology, and the result is a unique effort that offers an engaging service-learning experience for Carolina students and structured mentoring activities for middle school students. Now in its third year, SMART Mentoring exhibits the value of academic and community partnerships and has made a lasting impact on the lives of middle school and college students alike. APPLES courses integrate
community-based experiences
into the curriculum with the goal
of enhancing student learning
through connecting academic
content to service. Applying
theories and concepts learned in
the classroom, students put these
ideas into practice at partner sites.
APPLES is currently affiliated
with more than 100 Triangle-area
community organizations
where students meet a wide
variety of volunteer needs.
During the 2011-2012 year,
more than 2,600 students were
enrolled in 104 service-learning
courses dealing with a myriad of
issues affecting North Carolina
including education, hunger and
economic development.
Service-Learning Courses
November 2011
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Through this work, my students and I are learning some important lessons; namely that service-learning happens in all directions--not just from the university to the community. These partnerships demonstrate that university researchers and student service-learners have much to gain from people in social settings with fewer material resources but with a wealth of knowledge about creating a more just and humane society. I believe this experience primes students for continued years of service and engagement during their time at Carolina and beyond.”
Patricia Parker, Service-Learning Course instructor
Connecting classroom learning with community-based service is what makes APPLES service-learning courses so effective and what makes Dr. Patricia Parker’s course stand out. An associate professor of communication studies, Parker believes what is learned in the classroom shouldn’t stay in the classroom. Each year she offers a service-learning course that builds youth leadership skills to bring that connection to life. “In 2009 I created a First-Year Seminar, Models of Collective Leadership for Community Change, designed to support the community-based research project I launched in 2007 to engage youth as leaders in two local public housing neighborhoods,” Parker said. In this service-learning course, students participate in community engagement through their work with nonprofit leaders. The result: students learn how to collaboratively organize and implement community-engaged projects.As part of the Buckley Public
Service Scholars (BPSS) program,
skills training facilitators offer
sessions to BPSS participants. In its
inaugural year, the Skills Training
Facilitators program brought
together 10 graduate students who
taught 20 skills trainings on topics
like ethics in public service and
grassroots organizing. Through this
new structure, students had access
to a wider selection of quality skills
trainings. Because the trainings
were led by graduate students from
different programs, they brought
an interdisciplinary perspective to
the BPSS program and provided
undergraduates with direct
connections to possible graduate
programs of interest.
Skills Training Facilitators
December 2011
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The most rewarding experience for me working as a skills training facilitator was seeing the students really connect to the information we shared during the workshops. They wanted to know more and learn more. This made me vow to continue supporting those who have chosen to serve the community, whenever I have an opportunity.”
Jason Mose, skills training facilitator
Faculty members and community agencies are often involved in the public service of undergraduate students, but the Buckley Public Service Scholars program has developed a distinctive way to connect graduate students in undergraduates’ efforts. Jason Mose, a Ph.D. student in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, and nine other graduate students served as skills training facilitators, providing a variety of trainings to Buckley Public Service Scholar participants. “It was refreshing to interact with a group of dynamic student leaders who have the potential to literally change the world,” Mose said. He added that while his job might have been to offer trainings to participants, he, too, took something away from the experience. “The students ended up inspiring me to look at the big picture of issues, to find my niche and fill that gap and to be a role model to others.” Through this interaction, both undergraduate and graduate students are able to strengthen their commitment to service and make an impact.The Robert E. Bryan Social Innovation Fellowship is designed
for aspiring social change-makers who are interested in providing
a significant contribution locally, nationally or internationally
through the creation of an entrepreneurial project that addresses
a community issue or need. Through connections with nonprofit
organizations, 2012 fellows have implemented four projects,
ranging from a microfinance initiative in Central America to
digital literacy community workshops in Chapel Hill that impact
the local and global community.
Bryan Social Innovation Fellowships
January 2012
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Many of our girls have never set foot on a college campus and at an age of 8 or 15 years old, we’re allowing girls to actualize going to college, exposing them to athletes and speakers that will help them learn about sports, nutrition and even build self-confidence. We are making a lasting impact in this community and we are trying to help solve a national obesity problem that is affecting our healthcare system and economy. If we can inspire these girls to play sports, do well in school, create noble relationships and eat right, then we’re successful.”
Camille McGirt, Bryan fellow
For Robert E. Bryan Social Innovation Fellow Camille McGirt ’13, engaging young girls in a healthy lifestyle is second nature. So it is no surprise that her Healthy Girls Save the World (HGSW) program aims to impact young girls to incorporate wholesome habits into their lives. Inspired by First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, McGirt created HGSW to address childhood obesity. HGSW provides the tools and knowledge for young girls to create and sustain a healthy and well-rounded lifestyle by collaborating with several partners, including Girls on the Run and UNC’s women’s field hockey, basketball and soccer teams.
Together, HGSW and these organizations work with girls ages 8 to 15 in communities throughout Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Durham to offer them free events that focus on the importance of healthy eating habits, regular exercise and chronic obesity-related illness prevention. Established in 2000, the Office of the Provost
Engaged Scholarship Awards recognize faculty
members and university units for extraordinary
public service and engaged scholarship at UNC
on behalf of the state of North Carolina; the
Robert E. Bryan Public Service Award honors
students, staff and student organizations for
a specific effort of exemplary engagement and
service and the Ned Brooks Award for Public
Service honors a staff or faculty member for
career contributions to the larger community.
Public Service Awards
February 2012
As the nation’s first public university, Carolina
has a long tradition of service to the state of North Carolina. Through the Robert E. Bryan Public Service Award, the Ned Brooks Award for Public Service and the Office of the Provost Engaged Scholarship Award, the University proudly recognizes outstanding engaged service and scholarship.
In 2012, the Center established an additional Office of the Provost Award to recognize an outstanding university-community partnership. The inaugural award honored the work of the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention’s Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Core for focusing on problem solving through model collaborative relationships.
Melvin Jackson, program director with Strengthening The Black Family, Inc. said, “In the last decade, UNC has been at the forefront in providing growing support for community-based organizations and leaders who have skills, knowledge and training to be equitable partners in community engagement.”
Alexandra Lightfoot, director of the CBPR Core added that CBPR Core’s project Community Engagement Consulting Models: Taking Them to Scale is a perfect example of responsiveness to community concerns and the development of strong community partnerships within its governance, community and intra-university units. “This award not only recognizes the value of engaged research; it also promotes the expertise of community partners in advancing the work of community-academic partnerships through community-based participatory research.”
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Our academies and communities have mutual visions, values and interests that are better served when we are working together, combining our resources and talents to improve our action and learning as we create a healthier, more just and caring North Carolina.”
Mac Legerton, executive director, Center for Community Action APPLES alternative breaks
offer an engaging way for
students to learn about
important social concerns and
work with community partners
to address those issues through
service across North Carolina,
the Southeast and the Mid-
Atlantic. During 2011-2012,
148 students connected with
more than 52 community
organizations during the 14
experiences over fall, winter and
spring breaks, providing 6,224
hours of service.
Alternative Spring Break
March 2012
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Nine days, 21 community partners, 58 students, 2,616 miles traveled and 3,191 service hours can lead to meaningful experiences with important impacts. For Jacob Frumkin ‘13 , who participated in an APPLES alternative spring break (ASB), the experience was more rewarding than he could have imagined. Along with the associated service-learning course offered through the Gillings School of Global Public Health, APPLES alternative breaks connect students directly with communities for meaningful service work.
During spring break 2012, five APPLES ASB experiences were in communities in three Southeastern states. Students worked with community organizations on the pressing social concerns of urban and rural poverty, civil rights, disaster relief and Latino immigrant issues. Following their time with these organizations, students returned with a deeper understanding of how their work made a difference in the communities they served as well as how the experience changed their own perspectives.
The service that I was fortunate to be a part of through my participation in alternative spring break helped me realize the need for meaningful service and the existence of impactful leaders who are devoted to serving their communities.”
Jacob Frumkin, Alternative Spring Break participantAPPLES service-learning
internships provide opportunities
for students to gain academic credit
as they work together in service
with community organizations.
In 2011-2012, 43 undergraduates
interned with 29 North Carolina
nonprofits, completing 10,360 hours
of service. Students worked on a
variety of projects including teaching
at Student U in Durham, N.C. and
event planning with the City of
Asheville’s Parks, Recreation and
Cultural Arts Department.
Service-Learning Internships
April 2012
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My experience with APPLES has definitely been
the kind of experience I was looking for in a service-learning
internship. I got the opportunity to build a
relationship with an established community partner
and I [received] hands-on classroom management
experience which was incredibly valuable to me as
someone very interested in the field of education.”
Aja Kennedy, Service-Learning intern
Connecting with community partners is a key to success for
APPLES service-learning internships. When Aja Kennedy ‘12
began her spring internship with the North Carolina Botanical
Garden (NCBG), she already knew she was going to have a
meaningful experience. What she did not expect was how much she
would impact her community partner. Through her work developing
and implementing lesson plans on environmental education for
fifth-grade students, Kennedy reinvigorated the Garden’s partnership
with local schools and worked to expand the curriculum. “Aja’s work
allowed the Botanical Garden to reach an additional 700 elementary
school students last spring, providing them with an engaging and
unique educational experience while also helping teachers achieve
their curriculum goals,” said Grant Parkins, natural science educator
at the Garden. “Her work was invaluable in helping NCBG live out
its education mission.”
By building long-standing relationships with partners like NCBG
and providing an accompanying course through the School of Social
Work, APPLES is able to offer service-learning internships that have
an impact on student learning and enable students to contribute to an
organization’s mission of service to the community.
In 2011-2012, more than
1,700 students participated
in the Buckley Public Service
Scholars program, representing
over 90 percent of the majors
across campus, with participants
from 89 of 100 North Carolina
counties, 41 states and the District
of Columbia, and 24 other
countries. These students connected
with various communities
locally and globally, working
with more than 1,000 different
organizations. Since the program’s
inception in 2003, more than
4,300 students have participated
in BPSS, contributing 743,875
hours of service. The program is
supported by the William White
Buckley Jr. Endowment.
Buckley Public Service Scholars
MAy 2012
Supporting students as they explore service beyond the scope of traditional volunteerism is a core component of the Buckley Public Service Scholars (BPSS) program, which provides a framework for undergraduates to maintain and strengthen their commitment to service. Buckley Scholar Wes Wollard ’12 used his time in the program to work with a variety of organizations, immersing himself in Carolina’s culture of service, giving back to the community and connecting those efforts to his academic experience. “My service work transformed from sporadic volunteerism to a deeper engagement that sought to have a sustained positive impact on the lives of others. I’m indebted to BPSS for the encouragement to break out of my comfort zone and [for helping me] better understand the adversity and hardships others face,” Wollard said. This type of engagement represents the distinctive nature of the BPSS program: challenging students to deepen their understanding of social issues and providing unique opportunities such as the Philanthropy as a Tool for Social Change and SMART courses and scholarships to North Carolina Outward Bound. As they graduate, Buckley Public Service Scholars prepare a portfolio project that synthesizes how their experiences and connections with organizations in the local community, across North Carolina, throughout the United States and around the world have had a lasting impact on their time at Carolina as well as their future endeavors.
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Joining the BPSS program was one of the best decisions I made in my time at Carolina. I’m grateful for the holistic approach to service that was encouraged and taught through the program. The combination of volunteer work, classroom learning and trainings not only transformed my understanding of service but also drove the growth in my passion for it. Ultimately, my experiences through BPSS inspired my decision to work for the government following graduation.”
Wes Wollard, Buckley Public Service ScholarThe Community Engagement Fellowship (CEF) awards
fellowships to graduate students to develop and implement
academically connected engagement projects that employ
innovative, sustainable approaches to complex social needs.
Faculty advisors work with fellows to strengthen the
academic component of their work. In partnership with
community organizations, 2012 fellows tackled issues ranging
from supporting refugee students in the public schools to
understanding and supporting the roles and responsibilities of
Latino men in regard to sexual and reproductive health.
Community Engagement Fellowships
June 2012
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We worked with long-time garden managers to develop the curriculum for food safety in community and school gardens; we’ve been able to address a need that they indicated was important, all while incorporating academic research and making sure everything was actually feasible. The curriculum we created is targeted for smaller spaces so they can grow the safest food possible.”
Ashley Chaifetz, Community Engagement fellow
Engaging in service tied to an academic discipline is an effective way for graduate students to connect their research with community-based issues. The experience for Community Engagement Fellows Ashley Chaifetz, a doctoral student in public policy, and Kristina Alnajjar, a master’s student in nutrition is no exception. Their dedication to Growing Safer Gardens, a project focused on providing school and community gardens with information to develop and maintain safe gardens, has translated into a curriculum for food safety that can be accessed online. The materials they developed provide practical agricultural strategies that are tailored to the specific gardening needs of community gardens. Working with various community partners, they reached out to garden managers in five North Carolina counties to share their safe gardening resources. The project runs through the fall of 2012 with Chaifetz and Alnajjar revisiting the gardens to evaluate the changes resulting from the curriculum.
To view the curriculum, visit: growingsafergardens.comCampus Box 3142
Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599
919.843.7568
unc.edu/ccps