The University of Vermont (UVM) Office of Community-Engaged Learning (CELO) has recognized the long-time commitment of the UVM Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources to community-engaged teaching and learning. Two 2020 CELO awards honor the contributions to students and community made by Professor Bill Keeton and Lecturer David Raphael and their local partners.
Bill Keeton: ENSC 201 Restoration and Recovery of Altered Ecosystems
Bill Keeton has received the 2020 Lynne Bond Outstanding Service-Learning Faculty Award. Named in honor of CELO’s founder, Professor Emerita of psychology Lynne Bond, the honor goes to faculty with a long-standing commitment to service-learning and whose teaching exemplifies the principles of academic rigor, community reciprocity, and reflective engagement. Bill has taught the environmental sciences course, ENSC 201 Restoration and Recovery of Altered Ecosystems, with partners in the Burlington area since 2001.
Each year, 30 to 70 students in Bill’s course spend a semester designing a plan of work to restore and improve a local park or lands managed by a community partner. The course culminates in a field day during which students implement the plan and practice ecological restoration techniques learned in the classroom.
“I love working with the students in this class,” said Bill who has led 17 restoration projects at local parks and sites around Vermont where he and his students have planted more than 10,000 trees in all, among other activities. “Applying the science, getting our hands dirty in the great outdoors, making a tangible difference in our community—this is such a gratifying experience for all. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to our community partners— Dan Cahill, Rose Paul, and others—without whom none of this would have been possible.”
Long-term community partners with the course, Rose Paul of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Dan Cahill of Burlington Parks, Recreation and Waterfront, nominated Bill for the award. Both partners highlighted the value of students' work and the intentional and reciprocal nature of the partnership.
Rose Paul lauded Bill’s proactive development of projects on TNC lands in close collaboration with TNC staff. She commended Bill for ensuring open lines of communication and engaging students thoughtfully with reflective questions. The process, said Rose, resulted in "useful, informative, creative plans tailored to each service-learning site for stream bank restoration, in-stream habitat restoration, management of invasive plants, recreation trail enhancements, and vegetation restoration."
Like TNC, Burlington Parks, Recreation and Waterfront also benefited from collaboration with Bill and his students. Dan Cahill, a Rubenstein School alumnus, explained that the partnership has transformed ecological restoration from a distant academic concept to a lived reality of natural community restoration in three parks in Burlington, with over 4000 trees planted, 400 volunteers engaged, and more than 14 acres impacted. Involvement of Bill's class has also allowed the city to leverage additional resources and volunteers for significant impact.
But the course offers more than services rendered. It provides the city with opportunities to engage in support and mentoring of students and in critical review of projects and proposals.
"The City of Burlington increased its competency and capacities through this partnership, but it is also evident that nearly 200 students’ lives have also been enriched through the imprint of Dr. Keeton’s pedagogy, process, and most of all his passion,” said Dan in his nomination. “In my experience as both a student and a community partner, I cannot imagine a more deserving nominee for this award."
Rose echoed this praise. "As conservation professionals, a big part of our jobs at TNC is ecological restoration of the lands we own and manage,” she said in her nomination. “It is truly rewarding for us to see a large cohort of students each year begin to experience and practice what they aspire to for their careers—making places better for people, for wildlife, and for our planet."
David Raphael: PRT 138 Landscape Architecture for Parks & Recreation
In fall 2019, Ray Coffey, Community Services Director, and Heather Carrington, Economic Development Officer, for the City of Winooski partnered for the first time with David Raphael’s PRT 138 Landscape Architecture for Parks & Recreation course to envision possibilities for "lost spaces" in the city. The students created a detailed vision for reviving neglected outdoor spaces and contributed to the city’s plans for parks and open spaces.
For their partnership with David and his students, Ray and Heather received the UVM CELO 2020 Outstanding Community Partner Award – New Partnership.
The partnership included mutual benefits. Students gained meaningful opportunities to engage their academic knowledge and competencies, and partners Ray and Heather fully invested in the project and professionally critiqued the students’ park and lost spaces designs. The partners engaged in all phases of the project—on site with the students for multiple days, meeting with student groups throughout the semester, and participating in end-of-semester feedback and presentation sessions. The students had the opportunity to address a real need with the partner, rather than simply for the partner.
“As an instructor, I couldn’t have asked for better partners than these two officials from the City of Winooski,” said David, who has taught the course for more than 25 years and submitted his first ever nomination for a community partner award. “I was inspired to nominate Heather and Ray this year as they both were so supportive of the students and so readily engaged with the class as to make it an exceptional experience. They were truly interested in the design recommendations that emerged and signaled that the students’ ideas would be readily incorporated into their plans going forward.”
“We, in CELO, know this takes work, time, and intentional commitment to pull off and are glad to honor this opportunity they have provided for our students,” said Susan Munkres, director of the UVM Office of Community-Engaged Learning.
Each year, the Office of Community-Engaged Learning recognizes faculty, students, and community partners for their leadership in creating transformative learning experiences that meet community needs. These service-learning courses, designated at UVM since 2007, connect academic learning goals with community work and projects. Supported by community partners, students can prepare for their lives after graduation by deploying their academic skills within community partnerships. Together, about 50 faculty members, teaching 100 courses, with over 200 community partners, create real-world learning experiences that reach over 40% of UVM's graduating seniors.
Learn about more 2020 UVM Community-Engaged Learning award winners.