First-Year Civic Engagement: Sound Foundations for College ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

CASE STUDYMARS HILL COLLEGELifeWorks Civic Engagement Certificate ProgramStan Dotson, Dean of LifeWorksThe LifeWorks Civic Engagement Certificate Program, firstoffered at Mars Hill College in 2002, is a four-year curricularand co-curricular program with goals for building a knowledgebase, cultivating a skill set, and generating dispositions for civicleadership across the majors. Knowledge goals include deepeningunderstanding of self, the surrounding community, interest grouppolitics, and career opportunities that serve the common good.Skills goals focus on active listening, group facilitation, civil discourse,conflict management, and resource development. Dispositionsgoals include demonstrating imagination, courage, respect,integrity, and inspiration in one’s civic engagement work.The Certificate is coordinated through LifeWorks at MarsHill, which houses service-learning, internships, leadership, andcareer development. LifeWorks has four full-time staff membersand a full-time VISTA worker.LifeWorks and First-Year Honors ScholarsThe LifeWorks program was originally designed for the BonnerScholars, a group of 60 service-learning scholars (15 per class),who each participate in close to 2,000 hours of civic engagementactivities over the course of four years (including summers). It wasexpanded to include all of our Honors Scholars students, who engagein 280 hours of service over four years. Our first-year Scholars(approximately 50 students) all participate in the program as arequirement of their scholarship. (Participation is voluntary afterthe first year.) They are oriented to the Civic Engagement Certificateprogram during a pre-semester, three-day service-learningretreat. Each week of the first semester they explore different serviceopportunities through weekly group projects, including projectsfocusing on literacy in the schools, hunger relief, affordablehousing, environmental protection, domestic violence prevention,and health care. These exploration activities help the Scholarschoose an ongoing service activity for their second semester, onethat could last all four years, enabling the Scholars to increasetheir responsibility and leadership at the sites.The Scholars connect their experiences in and out of the classroomthrough a weekly LifeWorks Civic Engagement seminar.Each semester, the seminar devotes five weeks each to addressinga knowledge goal, a skills goal, and a dispositions goal. Theco-curricular themes are intentionally connected to the curricularthemes in the college’s general education core, called the Commons.We hold workshops with our community partners to makethem aware of the civic engagement learning goals for the Commonsand to reinforce the concept that their roles are more thansimple site supervisors: they are field-based co-educators.Building on First-Year ChallengesThe sequential Commons themes begin with a first-year seminarcalled “Challenges” and continue with courses in Character,Civic Life, Faith and Reason, and Creativity. Weekly serviceactivities and co-curricular Civic Engagement seminars addressspecific goals through the readings assigned in the Commons.For example, in the Character course, students read Plato’s “Ringof Gyges,” a story about what it would be like to have a ring thatmakes one invisible. The community partner from the domesticabuse agency helps students explore this story by critically examiningwhat people are capable of doing when they think no one islooking (abuse) and how the agency’s safe house works to try tohelp the victims become “invisible” to their abusers. In the CivicLife course, students read founding documents of our nation’shistory and critically analyze the civic tensions between equalityand freedom that they see in their service sites. A particular focusis on what the founding documents offer as we work to close theachievement gap in public schools. A third example: When thestudents are in the Faith and Reason class, they examine someintractable controversies that emerge from the tensions betweenthe role of science and religion in public life. In the co-curricularseminar that coincides with that course, we look at how some ofthose controversies and policy debates relate to their service. Theyread editorials from local and national newspapers to analyze thepresuppositions behind various advocacy statements related tothe service issues in their work, such as mental health, poverty,women’s rights, and environmental stewardship. College administratorswho are also public officials address issues in which thestudents are engaged. For example, the Dean of Students is a localSchool Board member, and the head of our adult education programis a state Legislator.
AssessmentMars Hill measures qualitative progress on the stated goals forknowledge development (related to knowledge of self, community,controversy, and career paths), skills development (relatedto active listening, civil discourse, group facilitation, and resourcedevelopment), and dispositions development (related to imagination,courage, integrity, respect, and inspiration). In our communitylearning agreement (CLA), the students collaborate withcommunity partners to articulate both activities descriptions andlearning goals for each semester. The evaluations given by communitypartners are tied to these CLAs. The students documenttheir work in three reflection essays, assessing over the semestertheir progress in meeting the knowledge, skills, and dispositionsgoals. We also document the number of hours students spend incommunity engagement activities.We track the retention rates for our Bonner Scholars and havefound that even though these students have retention risk factors(i.e., high financial need, first-generation status), their graduationrate is 75%, almost 30 percentage points higher than the that ofthe college as a whole.Our Civic Engagement Scholars also report that their involvementin the program has helped them understand and engagein the core curriculum at a deeper level. The program includesstudents from diverse backgrounds, and we have found that participationin the program leads to a greater respect across lines ofdiversity.Our assessments also shape our program. Students’ essaysconnecting their classroom learning with their work in the communityare, with the students’ permission, shared with facultymembers. The students’ evaluations affirm their learning andelicit from faculty a high level of support and respect for the workthe students are doing in the co-curricular Civic EngagementCertificate program.I. Contributor’s Name and Contact InformationStan DotsonDean of LifeWorksMars Hill CollegeP.O. Box 6677Mars Hill, NC 28754Phone: 828-689-1161Fax: 828-689-1583Email: sdotson@mhc.eduII. Institutional Descriptiona. Mars Hill College, Mars Hill, NCb. Four-yearc. Private liberal arts colleged. Residentiale. 960 FTE undergraduates;258 FTE first year studentsf. 726 residential students; 242 commuter students;210 first-year residential students;48 first-year commuter students.Supplemental MaterialsFor more information about the LifeWorks Civic EngagementProgram, go to http://lifeworks.mhc.edu/
Page 1:
First-Year Civic Engagement:Sound F
Page 5 and 6:
CONTENTSivPrefaceMartha J. LaBare,
Page 7:
Zlotkowski, Edward, ed. (2002). Ser
Page 10 and 11:
we had the “great flood” of the
Page 12 and 13:
Requiring civic engagement demonstr
Page 14 and 15:
The preparation of citizens was one
Page 16 and 17:
preparation. At its heart, this wor
Page 18 and 19:
in it of particular interest to tho
Page 20 and 21:
often in tension. Political partici
Page 22 and 23:
educating students for active citiz
Page 24 and 25:
CHAPTER 4Civic Learning: Aligning P
Page 26 and 27:
Faces/Phases of CitizenshipFace/Pha
Page 28 and 29: ecome more informed and participate
Page 30 and 31: ReferencesAstin, A.W., Vogelgesang,
Page 32 and 33: photography techniques to inmates a
Page 34 and 35: CHAPTER 8Action Steps to Move theFi
Page 36 and 37: ConclusionI wish to be very clear t
Page 38 and 39: CASE STUDYALLEGHENY COLLEGECivic En
Page 40 and 41: CASE STUDYANTIOCH COLLEGECivic Enga
Page 42 and 43: CASE STUDYCALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSI
Page 44 and 45: CASE STUDYCALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSI
Page 46 and 47: CASE STUDYCHANDLER-GILBERT COMMUNIT
Page 48 and 49: CGCC Global Engagement:http://www.c
Page 50 and 51: student blog in which students are
Page 52 and 53: CASE STUDYTHE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY
Page 54 and 55: I. Contributors’ Names and Contac
Page 56 and 57: opportunities of CSU students and C
Page 58 and 59: needs, and expectations of the serv
Page 60 and 61: Although Times Talk began in Septem
Page 62 and 63: CASE STUDYFRANKLIN PIERCE UNIVERSIT
Page 64 and 65: We now have a comprehensive assessm
Page 66 and 67: Another major assignment for this c
Page 68 and 69: CASE STUDYHAMPDEN-SYDNEY COLLEGELiv
Page 72 and 73: Qualitative assessment begins with
Page 74 and 75: 3. Lessons in Democracy. The IUPUI
Page 76 and 77: CASE STUDYLEHIGH UNIVERSITYJudging
Page 80 and 81: CASE STUDYMERCER UNIVERSITYInterdis
Page 82 and 83: CASE STUDYMICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Page 84 and 85: CASE STUDYPACE UNIVERSITYCivic Enga
Page 86 and 87: Susan-Feather GannonProfessor, Tech
Page 88 and 89: AssessmentData were gathered from s
Page 90 and 91: CASE STUDYPITZER COLLEGEThe Communi
Page 92 and 93: from people different from themselv
Page 94 and 95: Table 1Summary of the Major Outcome
Page 96 and 97: engaged stewards of the environment
Page 98 and 99: HIV-positive individuals. They also
Page 100 and 101: Students were then equipped to eval
Page 102 and 103: the World Affairs Council (WAC), in
Page 104 and 105: CASE STUDYTRINITY UNIVERSITYCivic E
Page 108 and 109: in the organization of health care
Page 110 and 111: study and a series of retreats as p
Page 112 and 113: ing based opportunities. Both semes
Page 114 and 115: engaging first-year students and st
Page 116 and 117: CASE STUDYWEBER STATE UNIVERSITY CO
show all

First-Year Civic Engagement: Sound Foundations for College ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?