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

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Table 1Summary of the Major Outcomes and the Assessment Methods Used to Evaluate ThemOutcomeCategorize individual identities as politicallyengaged citizens.Demonstrate knowledge of basic foundationalaspects of democracy and knowledge ofcurrent events.Demonstrate relevant skills for civic participation,especially those relating to influenceand action.Become involved in relevant communitiesin informed and responsible ways.Express an appreciation of the globaldimensions of many issues.EvidenceWeekly reflection papers on articles posted on the WebCT discussion board helpstudents understand various perspectives and make value judgments based onwhat they see as the strengths of the arguments presented in different articles.The Constitution group exercise and the ensuing discussion after watching thedocumentary in which Justices O’Connor and Breyer discuss the Constitution withPA high school students. Review of assigned readings from The “issue brief” assignment and the discussions that follow it. Mock municipalcouncil meetings and in-class debates.Review attendance and participation records at various civic engagement events,track new memberships in civic organizations within and beyond campus. Studentsregister and get ULTRA/Student Life credits at these events.The term papers emphasize reflection on issues covered throughout the semester,analyzing coursework for connections with other issues.Supplemental Materials:Course Web site (http://www.stockton.edu/~earth/)National Resource Center(http://www.evergreen.edu/washcenter/project.asp?pid=73 )New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com ).Justice talking (http://www.justicetalking.org )Justice Learning (http://www.justicelearning.org )National Issues Forum (http://www.nifi.org/ )Global Issues on the UN agenda (http://www.un.org/issues )I. Contributors’ Names and Contact InformationTait ChirenjeAssistant Professor of Environmental StudiesPhone: 609-652-4588Fax: 609-626-5515Email: tait.chirenje@stockton.eduPatrick HossayAssociate Professor of Political SciencePhone: 609-652-4303Fax: 609-626-5515Email: patrick.hossay@stockton.eduRodger JacksonAssociate Professor of PhilosophyPhone: 609-652-6016Email: rodger.jackson@stockton.eduEkaterina SediaAssociate Professor of BiologyPhone: 609-652-4547Fax: 609-626-5515Email: kathy.sedia@stockton.eduLinda SmithAssociate Professor of BiologyPhone: 609-652-4547Fax: 609-626-5515Email: linda.smith@stockton.eduRichard Stockton CollegeB108 NAMSPO Box 195Pomona, NJ 08240II. Institutional Descriptiona. The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Pomona, NJb. Four-year liberal artsc. Publicd. Residential campuse. 6,571 undergraduate FTE ; 1,536 first-time freshmenf. 2,080 residential (891 first-year) and 4,491 commuter(645 first-year) students
CASE STUDYROBERT MORRIS COLLEGEEden Place Nature Center: A Lesson in Civic EngagementBeth L. Gainer, English Instructor and Senior Fellow for Academic PracticeDr. Virginia Pezalla, Instructor and Science ChairEden Place Nature Center, a three-acre community garden andnature center in the impoverished Fuller Park area on Chicago’ssouth side, has been the site of civic engagement for Robert MorrisCollege students at all levels — from first-year students toseniors. Eden Place was once an illegal dumpsite that Fuller Parkresident Michael Howard and his community have transformedinto a natural area. Their goals are to re-create Eden by restoringits natural beauty and to provide the community with a valuableeducational resource by creating small-scale versions of the majorecosystems of Illinois: prairies, woods, and wetlands. Even in itsinitial stages, Eden Place has an impressive amount of wildlife ineach habitat, including many species of butterflies, dragonflies,birds — and even one endangered species, the peregrine falcon.Coursework in English 325 (formerly 310) involves studentswriting a variety of business correspondence on behalf of nonprofitorganizations. Since summer 2005, on Robert MorrisCollege’s Chicago Campus, we extended this delivery model toEnvironmental Science 112 (mainly comprised of first-year studentsand sophomores) to create a pilot service-learning community tohelp Eden Place Nature Center. This co-curricular collaborationhas shown students that what they do actually matters. Moreover,it was a revelation for our students, themselves residents of a bigcity, to see how quickly it is possible to bring nature back to aheavily polluted area. Eden Place is also a lesson in environmentalactivism and community stewardship. Students saw how it is possiblefor a small group of determined people to transform theirneighborhood.LogisticsStudents in Environmental Science 112 and English 325 formeda learning community, requiring the classes to be scheduled on thesame days and times. Instructors of the linked courses began theco-curricular planning approximately five weeks before the coursescommenced. During this period, we visited Mr. Howard at EdenPlace to identify his needs. His priorities included building a barnand creating a stream that would flow into a small wetland. Giventhe constraints of a 10-week quarter, we chose a tangible goal thatwould fit the curricula of both our courses: creating the stream.We then carefully planned the collaborative activities – field trips,as well as group work on the Chicago Campus. This involvedcompromise and adjusting our course schedules to accommodateeach other to meet our goals in a 10-week quarter.Learning GoalsThe two courses collaborated to meet the following objectives: coursework civic engagement.Field trips to Eden Place gave students hands-on experience inour aptly named Watershed Project and engaged students in collaborativework. The Environmental Science students helped createthe stream on the garden’s premises, and the English studentsdug the streambed alongside them. The business writing classmounted an effective letter-writing campaign for donations andpublicity for Eden Place, and the Environmental Science studentsreviewed the English students’ letters for accurate content beforethey were mailed out. Students in both classes helped teach visitingFuller Park schoolchildren about the environment, leadingthem in activities such as composting and bird identification.AssessmentThe college’s students are non-English majors, so we also wantedto assess whether their attitudes toward English changed as aresult of their letter-writing campaign. On the first and the lastday of class, all English 325 students anonymously responded tostatements on their attitudes about writing, on a Likert scale. Inkey areas, survey results reported more positive attitudes of theEnglish 325 students toward writing after participating in theEden Place project. More than five times as many students agreedwith the statement “Writing is useful to me” and four times asmany students agreed with the statement “I will use writing in mylife,” after participating in the project than they did before.Our most far-reaching result, however, was the impact thisexperience had on the students themselves: They became civically
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First-Year Civic Engagement:Sound F
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CONTENTSivPrefaceMartha J. LaBare,
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Zlotkowski, Edward, ed. (2002). Ser
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we had the “great flood” of the
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Requiring civic engagement demonstr
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The preparation of citizens was one
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preparation. At its heart, this wor
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in it of particular interest to tho
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often in tension. Political partici
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educating students for active citiz
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CHAPTER 4Civic Learning: Aligning P
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Faces/Phases of CitizenshipFace/Pha
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ecome more informed and participate
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ReferencesAstin, A.W., Vogelgesang,
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photography techniques to inmates a
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CHAPTER 8Action Steps to Move theFi
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ConclusionI wish to be very clear t
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CASE STUDYALLEGHENY COLLEGECivic En
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CASE STUDYANTIOCH COLLEGECivic Enga
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CASE STUDYCALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSI
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