The Office of Service-Learning has selected 12 faculty members for participation in its yearlong Service-Learning Fellows program. This program provides an opportunity for faculty members from a range of disciplines to integrate academic service-learning into their professional practice.
Fellows meet regularly throughout the academic year and receive an award of up to $2,500 to develop a proposed service-learning project. Academic service-learning integrates organized service activities that meet community-identified needs into academic courses as a way to enhance understanding of academic content, teach civic responsibility and provide mutual benefit to the community.
“UGA’s Service-Learning Fellows are truly making a difference in the classroom and the community by having students tackle some very complex social, cultural and economic issues,” said Shannon Wilder, director of the Office of Service-Learning. “Every year, they develop innovative service-learning courses that are really challenging our students to think about the civic responsibility that comes along with the world-class education they are receiving at UGA.”
The 2013-14 Service-Learning Fellows, their respective academic fields and proposed projects are:
• Alison Bramlet, an assistant professor in the College of Environment and Design, who plans to incorporate new projects into the LAND 6030 course “Nature and Sustainability Design Studio” by integrating community engagement opportunities into the studio through real-world projects and partnership with community organizations.
• Carissa DiCindio, curator of education at the Georgia Museum of Art, who will work with students at GMOA to promote collaborative involvement and provide practical application for their coursework, including ARED 5260/7230, “Engaging Art Museum Audiences as Student Docents.”
• Sujata Iyengar, a professor of English in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, who plans to incorporate service-learning into a “Shakespeare in the Classroom” course. Her students will work with local schools to enhance vocabulary development and to incorporate Shakespeare’s work and influence into the curriculum creatively.
• Melissa Landers-Potts, a lecturer in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences’ human development and family sciences department, who plans to develop and implement a fully online version of HDFS 3700S, “Adolescent Development,” as an online service-learning class.
• Carol Laws, an instructor with the Institute on Human Development and Disability in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, who will integrate service-learning into the graduate and undergraduate Disability Studies Certificate program and its coursework. She also plans to develop a new service-learning course “Disability in Childhood and Adolescence.”
• Roy Legette, an associate professor in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, who will have a project that focuses on development and implementation of a robust pre-K field experience practicum into his teaching methods courses for music education majors, in collaboration with the UGA Child Care Center.
• Sudhagar Mani, an associate professor of biochemical engineering in the College of Engineering, who will teach ENGR 4490, “Renewable Energy Engineering.” The course will engage with campus partners to assess and implement sustainable engineering service projects. Mani also hopes to incorporate service-learning into other engineering coursework.
• Virginia Nazarea, a professor of anthropology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, who will incorporate service-learning into two of her courses, “Anthropology of Roots and Rooting” and “Transnationalism and Practices of Memory,” to engage students in exploring anthropological concepts through work with campus and community outreach organizations.
• Neelam Poudyal, an assistant professor of natural resource recreation and tourism in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, who plans to engage students with service-learning through NRRT 4400/6400, “Resource Management and Entrepreneurship.” Students will apply principles and practices of recreation resource management to assist parks operated by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
• Gretchen Thomas, an instructor of learning, design and technology in the College of Education, who will incorporate service-learning into her EDIT 4180, “Discovery Dawgs Online Mentoring,” course. Students will expand opportunities for online mentoring and project-based learning with high-achieving elementary school students, their teachers and parents.
• Karen Tinsley, a public service associate in the housing and consumer economics department of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, who plans to integrate needs identified by the Georgia Initiative for Community Housing program into the HACE 4900, “Housing and Community Development,” course, involving students with real-world projects on housing and neighborhood revitalization.
• Phillip Tomporowski, a professor of kinesiology in the College of Education, who intends to develop a new course that engages undergraduates in theory-based methods of teaching physical activity games, through experiences in schools’ after-school programs.
