WNCC 2010 Self-Study Report - Western Nebraska Community ...

8. Adopt-a-School
WNCC actively participates in the Scottsbluff/Gering United Chamber of Commerce Adopta-School
program. This involves adopting an area elementary, middle, or high school for
the academic year. WNCC and Geil Elementary, in Gering, won the Outstanding Partners
of the Year award in 2007.
9. Community Cinema
For the past two years, a faculty member has moderated the Community Cinema series at
the Midwest Theater in Scottsbluff, a free public screening of independent films followed by
a facilitated discussion. Usually, the films focus on issues like conservation, consumerism,
or racism. The series is one of only fifty in the nation, and the Midwest Theater is the lone
site for the series in Nebraska.
10. Board Service and Community Group Memberships
Many faculty and staff members are members of community organization and even serve
on the boards of agencies like United Way, Economic Development, Habitat for Humanity,
The Nebraska Center for the Book, The Wildcat Wildlands Project, the North Platte Valley
Historical Society, Panhandle Community Services, Legion Baseball, Boy Scouts, the
Midwest Theater, the Praise Team, Valley Voices, Kiwanis, Twin Cities Development, the
YMCA, the Chamber of Commerce, the Artists Guild, Elks Club, and Rotary International.
Annually, College employees and students engage in numerous community-service events carried
out through organized athletics, employee-based, and/or student-based projects, as shown in the
following examples.
Athletics
1. Within an academic year, student-athletes engage in a minimum of 40 different
community service projects.
2. Fifteen professional staff and 130 student-athletes participate at the request of area public
service agencies or service clubs. Annual projects include events like United Way’s “Day
of Caring,” The University of Nebraska Lincoln Extension Office’s “Food, Fun, and Fitness”
program, and the “National Night Out” educational programming.
3. Athletes read to elementary school children through the “Adopt-a-School” program each
semester, and they often feature skating parties for children at the local rink.
4. Over the past three years, there has been a 50% increase in the number of community
service projects performed by athletes, including events like “Fix-up, Clean-up Day,” when
athletes clean yards, paint houses, or help with maintenance projects for no charge.
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