The three latest awards to the HSU Service Learning Center are:
- $45,000 from the 2010-11 California’s Call to Service Initiative, the community service mandate announced by then-Governor Gray Davis in 1999. It that harnesses public education with civic engagement. Humboldt State will select and train four service-learning faculty fellows and six service learning student leaders.
- $25,000 channeled through the California Campus Compact from Learn and Serve America Higher Education, which is administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service, an independent federal agency. This is the second-year grant to HSU in a three-year program begun in August, 2009, called Social Innovation Generation: California Recovery and Renewal Initiative, or “SIG-CARE.” It enables California colleges and universities to assist in the state’s economic recovery and renewal through service and service-learning. The campus compact was founded in 1988 to advance public service and civic and community engagement through grants, training and technical assistance. It supports more than 500,000 students, faculty, and community members statewide.
- $4,000 Learn and Serve grant to buttress service learning in the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), particularly for underrepresented groups. The Service Learning Center will conduct an inventory survey and departmental outreach to 12 academic disciplines and share best service learning practices with the university’s College of Natural Resources and Sciences. CSU’s Learn and Serve aids STEM students through direct service learning experiences, which research shows spur academic success. This is Humboldt State’s second Learn and Serve America Higher Education sub-grant through the CSU Office of the Chancellor’s “Laying the Foundation.” The objective is to meet California’s workforce needs for many more scientists, engineers, mathematicians and professionals with expertise in technology.
“All three of these grants enable our students and faculty to give back to their communities and strengthen the ethic of civic engagement among our graduates, who will enter the workday world with the double advantage of classroom knowledge and practical learning,” said Annie Bolick-Floss, Humboldt State’s Director of the Career Center and Service Learning. “CSU service learning provides our state with academically-trained, civic-minded professionals who bring invaluable community experiences to their jobs and their hometowns and cities.”
One big focus of SIG-CARE is to equip HSU students with the skills to be “change-making leaders.” Skills are developed with student-initiated and student-led projects that can have lasting economic and social impacts in California. The linchpin is service learning internships. Students train in a year-long leadership development exercise while taking part in related activities and events. The center is supporting five of these interns this year.
Bolick-Floss said one primary objective is ‘Food Security and Access to Healthy Foods.’ “This effort is aimed at the many individuals, senior citizens and families in Humboldt County who are food insecure,” she said. “Many of our partnering agencies and programs have a similar focus, and our student leaders explored and developed several methods to help address some of these needs.”
Student work has included the development of a Commodities Cookbook, given to senior citizens who participate in commodity distributions. Another project was a “Go-Green” curriculum for K-2 pupils, focusing on the California State Education Standards for science. Chapters addressed wind, water, recycling, gardening and ‘green’ cleaning tips.
HSU students also developed a set of energy ‘tip sheets’ and information handouts. These are shared with senior citizens and families receiving monthly food boxes through Food for People, the local food bank.
In addition to Food for People and its 22 community pantries, HSU’s Service Learning Center partners with scores of organizations. Among many others, they include Eureka City Schools, the California Alliance for Family Farms, the United Indian Health Services Potawot Garden, the Redwood Community Action Agency’s Raven Project and the North Coast Community Garden Collaborative. The collaborative supports development of community gardens in schools and area communities.
On campus, the Service Learning Center teams with the Career Center, Youth Educational Services (Y.E.S.), the Volunteer Opportunity Program, Green Campus and Take Back the Tap. It also administers the Faculty Development and Support Program, including an annual development training series called Service Learning Faculty Fellows. The center has trained and supported more than 75 faculty in service learning pedagogy.
The center will host the Northern California Regional Service Learning Conference on campus March 4th, featuring the keynote speaker, HSU English Professor Corey Lewis, and STEM faculty from other California institutions of higher learning.