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Service learning awarded $10,000 grant 3:51 p.m., Dec. 7, 2004--Students who live on central campus will have broader opportunities to meet others and do volunteer work during fall semester 2005. Residence Life has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Bringing Theory to Practice Project to expand service opportunities for residential students. The Bringing Theory to Practice Project is a partnership with the Association of American Colleges and Universities funded by the Charles Engelhard Foundation. The plan is to connect the faculty’s service-learning efforts with Residence Life’s efforts to provide a supportive community for resident students and curb binge drinking. The Residence Life staff plans to use the money to transport students to volunteer sites, to hire service fellows who will coordinate the projects in the residence halls and to connect the service with learning through service-learning graduate mentors and a course that will help students reflect on community needs. “Our hope is kind of twofold,’’ James Tweedy, associate director of residence life, said. “From a community development standpoint, we want to have the students who are living on central campus have an opportunity to meet other people of a like mind and to do good in the community, but also for them to be able to reflect on the service they do and connect that to their goals as students and to some of their long-term goals, too.” Tweedy said he is not certain which three or four central campus residence halls will be selected for the projects, but the goal is to engage every student in the selected halls in a short- or long-term service project. Tweedy said the grant maker wants the volunteer opportunity to help address alcohol-abuse issues on campus. The grant proposal from UD stressed current initiatives aimed at reducing binge drinking and stated that true changes in the student binge-drinking behavior must be addressed by stimulating positive, healthy opportunities for students to interact. Drinking norms will be assessed before and after the volunteer program. Tweedy said Residence Life is working with the new Office of Service Learning to develop the program. The money also might be used to bring down the cost of Winter Session and summer session volunteer trips, which Tweedy said have ranged around $500-$700 out-of-pocket for international trips. “If we did service projects within the U.S. we might be able to make it possible for students to participate with minimal expense, maybe just be responsible for some of their food,’’ Tweedy said. “We’d also like to make scholarship money available for the student who may want to go on a trip like this but can’t afford it.’’ Article by Kathy Canavan To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here. |
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