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 In The New Public Affairs eJournal
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
Many of you may have been hearing about the area's first community school, a pilot program which will begin at Robberson Elementary this fall. As one of Springfield's most impoverished schools (see report), the Community School project is an exciting new concept in which we are eager to partner. The school will serve as a community hub for numerous activities and programs designed to provide support for not only the children who attend, but for the Robberson community as a whole. Programs could include such things as parent education classes, on-site medical clinics, tutoring, health care, mental/behavioral health services, etc. Parents will play an active role in determining the most pressing needs. School officials will work with community partners (area businesses, nonprofits, and the faith-based community) to help meet these needs. As a community partner, Missouri State's CASL office will conduct a workshop/luncheon to help train Robberson faculty about service-learning as well as assist them in integrating this type of teaching into K-6 curriculum. Additionally, … [Read more...] about New Community School Presents Opportunities
In March, representatives from the MSU-West Plains campus attended the "Beyond the Borders: The Future of Service-Learning" Faculty and Staff Development Conference here at Missouri State University. The conference featured keynote presentations by nationally recognized service-learning scholars, Drs. Rick Battistoni, Patti Clayton, and Jean Strait (see CASL website soon for conference video presentations). The West Plains administrators were so impressed by what they heard, they approached the CASL office requesting guidance on how to expand service-learning on their own campus. From this conversation, an exciting new partnership was formed. Beginning this summer, CASL staff, along with a graduate assistant (funded by MSU-West Plains), will begin identifying and meeting with community partners, developing databases, assisting with program marketing, setting up processes and procedures, etc. In the fall, a new CASL satellite service-learning office will come on line in West Plains, staffed by a CASL graduate assistant, who will be onsite one to two days per week to accommodate these … [Read more...] about CASL Program Expands To Include West Plains