Service-Learning Faculty Awards
May 2008-- Diane Tetreault and Joan Atlas Receive Service-Learning Faculty Awards
In May 2008, the Bentley Service-Learning Center announced that Prof. Diane Tetreault received the Bentley Curricular Service-Learning Faculty Award and that Prof. Joan Atlas received the Bentley Community Service Faculty Award. Both are members of Bentley’s English Department.
The Bentley Curricular Service-Learning Faculty Award is given for a exemplary Service-Learning pedagogy incorporated into course curricula. A curricular Service-Learning project offered for consideration may include either a 4th-credit Service-Learning project or an embedded Service-Learning course project. The Awards subcommittee particularly welcomes projects which demonstrate faculty initiative in designing the service project, finding the appropriate community partner, overseeing project interaction between the students and the community partner and/or incorporating valuable, critical thinking exercises into the course curriculum.
The Bentley Community Service Faculty Award is given to a faculty member who contributes his or her professional expertise in service to the wider community. Such service includes service to non-profit, philanthropic, public service or communitarian entities. The Award Subcommittee particularly welcomes applications that provide evidence that the applicant has created and utilized a mechanism whereby his or her professional service is modeled to Bentley students either through courses taught by the applicant or in some other campus forum.
Prof. Tetreault incorporated a Service-Learning component into her Expository Writing class. Her concept was for simple enough. “There are many non-profit organizations that serve constituencies in need of everyday items from shampoo to bed sheets to books.” So in fall 2007, Diane identified five organizations that fit this category. Among them were three Waltham organizations.
- - Waltham House, a safe house for gay and lesbian teens;
- Mary’s House, a temporary shelter for homeless families; and
- Teen Leap, a relatively new endeavor which sponsors a book shop in Waltham Center called, More Than Words, which is run by troubled youth.
Prof. Tetreault theorized that finding ways to help these organizations meet their commitments to clients required the same organizational inquiry and problem-solving skills that go into writing a coherent essay. So she tasked her students in Expository 201 with the responsibility of finding ways to meet the needs of these partner non-profits and to write about it.
To take one example, for Team Leap, which runs the book shop More Than Words, Prof. Tetreault’s students set a goal of delivering 1,000 books to the book shop during the semester. The academic component of the project required students to write three different articles in local newspapers about the More Than Words project and to submit the tear sheets from published articles for course credit.
Prof. Tetreault described the overall concept this way, “The basic premise is to use inquiry process to solve an important unmet need of a community partner. Students are introduced to the project on the first day of class and work throughout the entire semester in an effort to meet the need. We discuss progress, problems, smart strategies and observations in every class. We emphasize smart business strategies and critical thinking skills in order to help service our partners. Students learn how to use their brains in conjunction with community service and not only their hearts. The process they go through in order to find solutions to Service-Learning problems is the same process needed to write a coherent essay or make meaning out of challenging reading. Student feedback confirms that they make the correlation between skills used in meeting needs of the community partner and the skills needed to be an effective reader, writer and problem solver.”
Prof. Atlas received her award for her service to the Chesterbrook Learning Center. As a teacher of English, the faculty adviser to Circle K, and a lawyer, Prof. Atlas has been instrumental in rallying support for the Chesterbrook Center, which is located at Chesterbrook Gardens, a low-income housing development in Waltham, Massachusetts. The Chesterbrook Center provides a safe place where children who live at Chesterbrook can go to receive after school homework help, computer instruction, and mentoring by Bentley students.
In 2007, however, the Chesterbrook Center found itself running out of money and threatened with closure as was reported in the October 29, 2007, issue of The Daily News Tribune. Having already forged a relationship with Chesterbrook through previous Service-Learning projects, Prof. Atlas developed a three-pronged plan to help solve Chesterbrook’s financial problem. Working with her Expository 201 Honors class in fall 2007, her students researched grant opportunities and prepared grant proposals to keep Chesterbrook open. Working as adviser to Circle K, she spearheaded a student effort that raised more than $6,000 for the Center through both a car wash and by collaborating with the “Breakfast by Moonlight” fundraiser.
In addition, as a lawyer, Prof. Atlas has donated scores of pro-bono hours in researching and preparing filings for the Chesterbrook Learning Center’s non-profit corporate and 501(c)(3) status. In the process and with the aid of the Waltham City Councilman, Gary Marchesi, she organized a Board of Directors for the Center, which is composed of residents, city officials, and Bentley students.
A request for comment on Prof. Atlas’s efforts for the Chesterbrook Center elicited this note from the Waltham Police Department. “Through her dedicated fundraising efforts with her grant-writing students and Circle K, Professor Atlas raised more than $6,000 for our program. In addition, she worked with the Waltham Housing Authority, the Waltham Police Department, and the Chesterbrook Tenants Association to set up a new Board of Directors for the Learning Center. The Board has met three times already and is now taking the necessary steps to allow it to apply for tax-exempt status.’
The Bentley Service-Learning Center is pleased to recognize the exemplary service in behalf the wider community demonstrated by both Prof. Tetreault and Prof. Atlas.
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May 2007-- Donald McNemar and Gregory Hall Receive Service-Learning Faculty Awards
In May 2007, the
Faculty who receive the award have demonstrated initiative in designing the service project, establishing a relationship with the appropriate community partner, overseeing project interaction between students and the community partner, and incorporating valuable critical thinking exercises into their teaching.
McNemar — a member of the International Studies Department —received the award for his service-learning course GO 403 “Model U.N. Seminar.” The learning goals for Bentley students in the course are to develop their understanding of the objectives and functions of the United Nations, to study in depth a current significant issue confronting the U.N., and to enhance their research, public speaking, and negotiation capabilities.
To assist in accomplishing these learning goals for his Bentley students, McNemar created a 4th-credit option project — the Bentley Middle School Model U.N. Conference. In developing the conference, he established a partnership with Stephen Goodwin, Social Science Director for the
The Bentley Middle School Model U.N. Conference operated as an after-school program based at the
Hall of the Natural and Applied Sciences Department received the award for his course PS 325 “Cyber Psychology.” The course examines the influences of information technology on human behavior. Course learning objectives include engaging students in primary research on a contemporary topic, enhancing their ability to analyze and synthesize data, and improving their presentational skills.
To accomplish course objectives, Hall worked with Mary Gormley, Assistant Superintendent of the
To prepare for the program, Hall’s class was divided into eight teams of two students. The student teams conducted independent research on all aspects of children and their use of the internet. The Bentley students also developed interactive activities and prepared their presentations. As a whole the class created four presentational modules on topics that included internet safety, social networking, and curriculum resources.
On October 27, 2006, 300
Many
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