On April 5th, 2017, we recognized strong service-learning and honored students, faculty and community partners - all of whom are needed to make this practice possible.  UVM offers approximately 100 service-learning courses every year, and the work done in these classes contributes to multiple communities across the state, helping to fulfill the land-grant mission of UVM.  We also recognize this as a powerful way students can prepare for their adult lives through deploying their academic skills on behalf of community organizations.  We honor the faculty who teach these high-impact courses, the community partners who offer their time and expertise to strengthen students’ experiences, and the students themselves who contribute to the depth and rigor of this practice.  

Below are comments about each award winner:   

 

Student Awards for Outstanding Service-Learning

Elizabeth Boley, Sociology, CAS

 

Elizabeth Boley is a senior in Sociology, who has worked on the ongoing Sociology – Department of Corrections engaged research project as a Service-Learning Teaching Assistant for former Lynne Bond Award winner Kathy Fox.  Elizabeth is being recognized for her complete grasp of service-learning, her work in support of the course coordinating and organizing student research, and especially, her willingness to engage with service-learning pedagogy from a student perspective, offering suggestions and revisions to the critical reflection component of the course.

 

B. Freas, RSENR

 

B. Freas is a December graduate of the Rubenstein School who served for three semesters as a TA in Birding to Change the World, after falling in love with the service-learning pedagogy in Trish O’Kane’s class – about which you will hear more shortly!

B is also currently working as a TA in NR1 and 2, which serve as exposure level courses for Rubenstein students; in this capacity.  The words of nominator Margareat Burke, they are a committed and “charismatic” representative of the school to community partners. Finally, B has chosen to deepen their understanding and engagement with service-learning as a pedagogy through reading and conversation at every opportunity, including workshops and opportunities off-campus.

 

Outstanding Community Partner in Service-Learning Award

 

Jenn Fink, Champlain Valley Head Start / CVOEO

 

Jenn has been the Family Services coordinator of Champlain Valley Head Start, and served as the community liaison for Betsy Hoza’s Fit Kids and Advanced Fit Kids Research courses in the Psychology department at UVM.  The course implements a physical activity curriculum and promotes general physical fitness – and evaluates the efficacy of the program, combining research and service.  Jenn coordinated placements of 65 UVM students within those courses, met with teachers and administrators on the course and UVM’s behalf to promote involvement, arranged and offered trainings for students in critical elements of working with youth, and coordinated background checks for UVM students, among many responsibilities.   We are delighted to recognize this level of dedication to, and support of, a UVM service-learning and research project. 

 

 

Jim Pease, Agency of Natural Resources

 

As a new community partner, Jim Pease went above and beyond the call of duty: he approached Prof. John Lens, who just this year introduced the new 2-semester senior capstone in Civil & Environmental Engineering, with a project idea.  The project is in a critical arena – stormwater runoff mitigation surrounding Lake Champlain – and Jim brought not only the project but his expertise, time and commitment. Jim coordinated access to the site through landowners, provided access to professionals working on a nearby and related site, worked with the students to create a manageable scope of work and set of deliverables, and met with the students weekly at the site or at UVM – traveling from Montpelier each time.  This kind of commitment extends far beyond professional practice – an “instructor’s dream” according to nominator John Lens.  Our review committee was impressed with this level of dedication to student learning, about issues critical to our region. 

 

 

Outstanding New SL Faculty Award

         Rachael Montesano, Romance Languages & Linguistics, CAS

 

Rachael Montesano redesigned her Spanish 101: Composition & Conversation in 2014 through participating in the Faculty Fellows program and has taught it as an SL course virtually every semester since. Despite the challenges of combining service-learning with a language course covering required grammar and vocabulary, Rachael’s course has successfully connected students to the broader historical context of Mexican immigrant agricultural labor and the present-day situation of migrant workers in Vermont, through plays, music, books and exploration – entirely in Spanish. Rachael’s students are able to concretely benefit the migrant farmworker population – for example, supporting the Dia de Los Muertos celebration in Addison County ­– while deepening their Spanish language ability and their connection to this marginalized population.  Rachael is honored for her persistence and creativity in this pedagogical endeavor, and for her commitment to service-learning as a pedagogy, through her employment of Service-Learning Teaching Assistants, service on the CUPS Advisory Committee, and presentations to faculty and partners on issues of social justice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trish O’Kane, Environmental Program, RSENR

 

Trish O’Kane’s Birding to Change the World course is among the newest in our nominations pool, but the program has more than 10 years of service-learning experience behind it.  Trish came to UVM in fall 2016, and immediately began building a partnership with Flynn Elementary – which in her own neighborhood and relatively “unpartnered” with UVM– to recreate a successful initiative she had built at UW-Madison.  The course creates twenty one-on-one pairs of UVM students and elementary students every Wednesdays afternoon.  The partnership is deeply reciprocal: UVM students are accountable to their buddies (the Flynn students can give homework to their college mentors), to Flynn Elementary, and to the partnership, as they allow the younger students a consistent opportunity to see, move and be outdoors.  The review committee also noted the explicit commitment to racial and social justice within the project and its broader context, and with the strength of the critical reflection assignments Trish designed.   

 

 

Lynne Bond Outstanding SL Faculty Award

Amy Seidl, Environmental Program, RSENR

 

 

Amy Seidl is the first ever repeat Faculty Fellow for Service-Learning; one of the earliest (2002) and now one of the most recent (2017).  Returning from significant leadership in the UVM Environmental Program, Amy again chose to apply to the Faculty Fellows program for to bring fresh perspective to her long-standing and deeply-beloved Adaptation to Climate Change course.  Her commitment to service-learning as a pedagogy also extends to grant-funded collaboration with colleagues that yielded a publication on the intersection of sustainability and service-learning pedagogy.   CUPS faculty reviewers were impressed with the range and creativity of the partners with whom Amy’s courses have collaborated.  Her strong focus on adaptation and resilience helps students engage creatively with issues posed by climate change, rather than simply being daunted by the scale of the problem.