Carolina Center for Public Service - Public Service and Engagement at Carolina

Office of the Provost Engaged Scholarship Award

2008  2007    2006    2005    2004    2003    2002    2000

 

2009

Scholars’ Latino Initiative (SLI) was recognized for their mentoring program which is designed to help high-potential Latino high school students achieve their dream of higher education. Currently, the program participants include 50 Latino high school mentees, 50 undergraduate mentors, 10 university faculty, and an additional 10 university support students. In total, the Scholars’ Latino Initiative community includes more than 200 mentors, mentees, faculty, and other colleagues from diverse backgrounds.
Words from a SLI high school student: “SLI helps you to be a better person and choose the right track in life. I wanted to be in SLI because I wanted to be the first person in my family to go to college and to let people know that you can make your goals come true and that nothing is impossible. It does not matter how many things they put in your way, you can make it if you try hard and if you want it."

United with the Northside Community Now (UNC-NOW) for its efforts to build partnerships between the university and local communities. These partnerships are primarily focused in Northside, the largest and oldest historically African-American neighborhood in Chapel Hill/Carrboro.

UNC-NOW evolved from work that began with students from Della Pollock’s APPLES course on Performance and Oral History offered in partnership with St. Joseph’s C.M.E. Church. After her first time teaching this course, she remarked, ‘I have just had one of the best, most surprising teaching experiences of 20 years. The service component of the course unleashed a wildly devoted degree of activism among my students that will guide me for years to come. I have learned that if I allow my students to connect their coursework and their world actively, they will build their own foundation for a genuinely engaged education.’ Kane Smego, UNC-NOW organizer, describes this as a ‘community outreach model that creates a horizontal relationship with community members, helping them to achieve their own goals and tackle obstacles while avoiding the pitfalls of paternalism.’

2008

Student Coalition for Action in Literacy Education (SCALE), in the School of Education was recognized for Learning to Teach, Learning to Serve, a statewide consortium of public and private universities designed to develop a generation of K-12 teachers who have extensive experience with service-learning.

The Learning to Teach, Learning to Serve team works with selected community partners, K-12 schools and afterschool programs to identify community concerns that can be addressed through placement of trained volunteer pre-service teacher candidates. They embrace the teaching and research missions of UNC, infusing teaching with service and providing research opportunities related to service-learning engagement for participating faculty. The LTLS project balances the service, teaching, and research missions of the University and uses them to inform one another.

UNC School of Law’s Center for Civil Rights was recognized for its work representing several communities in Moore County, NC.

These are African American communities that lie immediately outside the boundaries of local towns, and are deprived of municipal services and political participation. Since 2004, the Center for Civil Rights has worked with the communities on developing their advocacy skills to negotiate with town officials. It also held advocacy workshops to prepare residents for meetings with the town and to advise them on their rights.

The success of their work was built on the trust developed early on between residents and the Center. Center staff attended nearly every community meeting, not as leaders but as advisors. One resident said the following of the relationship: "I am so thankful for the Center...We were struggling down here - When they first started working with us, I didn't know which way was up. With of all the terms they used like ETJ, annexation, I thought I was in a strange land. But, when I think about all of things they've done with us, I just feel more invigorated. We are locked together!”

 

2007

Department of Psychiatry for their Outreach and Support Intervention Services (OASIS). OASIS is a specialized treatment program that identifies and treats individuals in the early stages of a psychotic illness with the goal of increasing the likelihood of a sustained symptomatic and functional recovery. The program is modeled after successful international programs and grounded in research findings regarding early psychosis. The services provided include psychiatric and psychosocial assessment, individual and group psychotherapy, community support, and family support and psychoeducation.

Native Health Initiative is recognized for addressing the health inequities faced by American Indians in North Carolina, and utilizing the unique resources within this population to address health concerns. The Native Health Initiative (NHI) was created in 2004 as a partnership between health professions students and North Carolina’s American Indian communities. Using a community-oriented model, allowing tribal leaders to direct its projects while providing logistical support to aid their efforts and ideas, NHI created a novel partnership for engaged service. Through two years of work, involving five North Carolina tribes and more than 10,000 volunteer hours by health professions students and tribal members, NHI is addressing previously un-addressed health inequities in the American Indian population.

2006

Partnerships for Inclusion (PFI) in the FPG Child Development Institute is a statewide technical assistance project to promote the inclusion of young children with disabilities, age birth to five years, and their families in all aspects of community life. PFI offers a variety of services in all 100 counties, including consultation to improve early childhood program access and quality, intensive training sessions and follow-up, assistance to community agencies engaged in strategic planning and program evaluation, and resource identification and linking. By establishing offices and relationships at the regional level, PFI is able to assess local needs and concerns of professionals and communities and to design and deliver responsive services. Early childhood outcomes associated with PFI's work in North Carolina include increases in child care quality and inclusion.

Action-Oriented Community Diagnosis, HBHE 240-241 is a 4 hour required course for master's students in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education that uses concepts and methods from anthropology and epidemiology to teach a powerful "service-learning course" that shows students how to plan community-based research. The course directors choose 6 or 7 communities that the students assess, and then provide solutions to help alleviate the problems found. In particular, in one diagnosis, Accion Latina!, students interviewed community members and formulated an action plan for addressing identified problems with health, education, employment, and transportation. AOCD projects like Accion Latina! promote sustainability by giving valuable information to community members who can then develop informed plans.

2005

Team Epi-Aid is an initiative that recruits and places UNC SPH students in the North Carolina Division of Public Health (NCDPH) and local health departments throughout North Carolina to assist with outbreak investigations and other short-term applied public health projects. From forming a public health response to Hurricane Isabel, to investigating the E. Coli outbreak associated with the state fair, to conducting Hepatitis vaccination clinics, students, faculty, staff, state and local public health professionals work together to respond to the health needs of the people of North Carolina.

Project OpenHand is recognized for its service to people living with HIV/AIDS in Chatham, Orange and Alamance counties. Project OpenHand brings together graduate and undergraduate student volunteers on a weekly basis to cook and deliver meals. Working in tandem with county health departments, Project OpenHand is able to cater to the clients and provide a valuable service for health department officials.

2004

N.C. Institute for Public Health is honored for its Management Academy for Public Health, a partnership between the School of Public Health and Kenan-Flagler Business School. Faculty from both schools have worked together to develop customized courses for public health managers to improve the effectiveness of public health organizations.

Carolina Environmental Program is selected for One North Carolina Naturally, a statewide program seeking cooperation among conservation, agricultural and development interests in an effort to conserve targeted bodies of land and water in the state.

 

2003

Mobile SHAC is recognized for The Hubbard Project, an innovative effort that pairs health professions students with elders in the community who need home care and specialized development plans. In case you are wondering about the name, Mobil SHAC is a program of the Student Health Action Coalition (or SHAC), the oldest student run Health Center in the nation.

The Episcopal Campus Ministry has established a long-term relationship with community partners in Ashe County, North Carolina, has taken an annual mission trip to that area. Through this series of student mission trips, ECM has contributed to improved conditions for many Ashe County residents, and they are honored for this Annual Ashe County Mission Trip.

The Department of Biology is recognized for its Traveling Science and Technology Laboratory Program, DESTINY, for providing innovative science and hands-on learning experiences to North Carolina high school students and their teachers. To date, this mobile laboratory, equipped with satellite Internet-connected computers, has served 7,500 North Carolina high school students, reaching literally from one end of the state to the other.

The Carolina Environmental Program is recognized for its Environmental Field Site Network. Through its environmental field sites throughout North Carolina, the Carolina Environmental Program has established strong community university partnerships to provide training ground for UNC students whose resulting environmental research benefits the community. In addition to their work in North Carolina, the program has field sites in Salzburg, Austria and Bangkok, Thailand.

2002

Carolina H.E.E.L.s (Helping to Educate and Encourage Leaders) for Youth Leadership Day
Youth Leadership Day makes the annual "day off" for the observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday into a "day on" for Orange County middle school students. Begun in 2000 by the student organization Carolina H.E.E.L.s, Youth Leadership Day has become a successful annual event where middle school students are invited to participate in a program organized on the UNC campus by UNC students. In 2002, over 100 middle school students worked with 80 Carolina students in creating a commemorative quilt to honor the legacy of Dr. King.

M.A.N.O. (mujeres aprendiendo por nuevas oportunidades = women learning through new opportunities) for their tutoring and ESL program for Spanish speaking women Since its inception in 1999, MANO has sought to empower Spanish speaking women by teaching English skills based on the needs of the participant while providing childcare and tutoring for the participants' children, all free of charge. Classes are held twice a week at Carrboro Elementary School and they serve 35 women a night with an average of one new student a night. Over forty students volunteer with the MANO program.

Master of Public Administration Program in the School of Government for the MPA Service-Learning Project Two MPA Professors have organized their separate classes into one overall service and learning experience. This partnership allows for the students to practice program evaluation and team management skills they are developing in those courses while also meeting pressing community needs throughout the state. The response from the agencies and government organizations receiving services has been overwhelming positive, demonstrating the public impact and benefit of this project.

2000

Jeffrey S. Beam
Jeffery S. Beam is a staff employee in the Couch Biology Library of the Academic Affairs Library. Since he began his career as a poet, he has worked tirelessly through readings, workshops, and supporting young writers and poets to show and teach the beauty and excitement of creative endeavors. In words and in actions, he has given his talents to the campus, the citizens of the state of North Carolina and beyond in support of the University's mission. In addition to a prodigious creative output, he has an outstanding history of public service to the campus, his community, and his state.

Patricia A. Curtin is a faculty member in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. When she arrived on campus in 1996, she quickly realized that the public relations writing courses did not have a service-learning component. In fact, students were being asked to make up hypothetical organizations and write press releases, human-interest stories, and fact sheets for imaginary groups. She herself had at that time years of practical public relations experience and was actively involved in many significant community volunteer initiatives. She realized how valuable this student energy could be, and how powerful a community-based service learning public relations curriculum could be. The rest, as they say, is history - both for the students and the many community organizations with which they partner. More broadly, her efforts quickly became one of the leading models for other faculty interested in converting their courses to the powerful service-learning model.

Pamela York Frasier is a faculty member in the UNC Department of Family Medicine.Pam was responsible for applying to the Duke Endowment to establish the immigrant health initiative, a program sponsored by Chatham Hospital in Siler City. The primary goal of our initiative is to improve immigrant access to health care in the community through the use of lay health advisors in the Hispanic churches and local industries. Currently she serves as project director and is working with the Hispanic community in planning and implementation of the initiative.

Jacquelyn M. Gist is a staff member at UNC Career Services. One person writes in support of her nomination, "She has been sharing her passion for public service with students at UNC for over 10 years, and she should be recognized for the encouragement and service she has provided to students who wish to pursue service beyond their years at UNC."

Beth D. Kivel is a faculty member in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies. She has had a positive impact on the community and her students through working with Teens Climb High, the North Carolina Lambda Youth Network, and other efforts to bring health education, violence prevention, and recreation activities to children who live in public housing in our communities, and leadership training for lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender young people across the Triangle area. Her outstanding public service demonstrates how she is committed to initiating innovative public service projects to improve the quality of life for citizens of UNC, Chapel Hill, and beyond. She has personalized the mission of her department through her work and actions.

Angenette E. McAdoo is a staff member in UNC's Office of Human Resources. She is a woman of outstanding public service abilities and dedication to her community. She has been a leader in the development of programs for adolescents, as well as a variety of other community improvements. She has been especially tireless in her efforts to improve opportunities for minority youth. Her local community public service activities over the past five years include: the Orange County Recreation and Parks Advisory Board; The Orange County 4-H Advisory Board; the Orange County Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Coalition; Shaping Orange County Task Force; United Voices of Efland Cheeks; Efland Cheeks Community School Park Task Force; and Teens in Power - a youth enrichment program that provides training and activities for building decision making and problem solving skills to youth in her community.