Welcome to the first edition of the CASL Connections blog. Whether you are a faculty member, community agency, student, or friend of Missouri State University's Citizenship and Service-Learning program, we recognize the important role you play in our success. Every day, YOU are the ones "out in the trenches" making things happen. Thank you for all you do. By collaborating together, we can make such a difference locally, nationally, and globally. In case you do not know, a new director came onboard to the CASL office in January, 2012. Her name is Katherine (Kathy) Nordyke. Backed by a wealth of service-learning experience, she has a lot of great ideas and will truly be an asset to our team. There are definitely many exciting changes and improvements ahead for us. In this month's posting, you'll learn about some of these. For those of you who worked with Elizabeth Strong, our former director, she is still here on campus. Elizabeth now serves as the Director of Study Away and continues to work with us to develop additional international service-learning opportunities. Interim … [Read more...] about Welcome to a new era
The Office of Citizenship & Service-Learning is proud to support the University's new eJournal of Public Affairs. About The eJournal of Public Affairs is a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary, open-access journal published by Missouri State University and affiliated with the American Democracy Project. By providing an academic, nationally refereed venue for such work, the eJournal aims to advance the status of public scholarship. The journal is focused on scholarship related to engagement in the public arena and, in particular, to the following themes: Considerations of citizenship and what it means to be a citizen, including global citizenship and eCitizenship Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, problem solving, and leadership related to citizenship and civic engagement Assessment of civic-engagement projects The relationship between social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) and civic engagement Mission Statement The mission of the eJournal of Public Affairs is to provide college and university faculty, students, staff, and community partners with a … [Read more...] about Get published on public affairs topics
Recently we were visited by a KY-3 reporter who came to interview CASL Director Kathy Nordyke about the new summer Forsyth project our office is involved in. Check out the story here. To provide a little background--Forsyth Mayor Ronald Potter approached Missouri State administrators this spring requesting assistance on the development of a new summer educational and recreational program for approximately 200 grade school students who qualify for the subsidized meal program. The half-day outreach/meal program will run several days a week, from July 9 to August 15 in Forsyth. CASL will use a global education curriculum package designed by Heifer International in order to introduce children to different cultures around the world and to teach them about sustainable solutions toward ending poverty. This helps to meet the University's Public Affairs mission for developing cultural competency and promoting inclusion and diversity. Learning activities will incorporate Geography, Music, Art, Science, Math, Civics, History, Language Arts, Reading, Recreation, and more. The program will … [Read more...] about Gearing up to serve our neighbors