The Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach has awarded 15 Scholarship of Engagement Grants for the 2008-2009 academic year. The grants, ranging from $5,000-$6,000, will support eight projects internationally and seven projects in Georgia by academic and public service faculty members who combine teaching, research and outreach activities.
“I am committed to supporting faculty members who work to connect their research to the needs of communities in Georgia and around the world” said Art Dunning, vice president for public service and outreach. “I also want to create rigorous academic opportunities where students can apply what they are learning in their courses to community issues through service-learning projects.”
Since 2004, the Scholarship of Engagement Grants Program has supported outreach projects that address a community need, create collaborations across disciplines and university units and offer service-learning opportunities to UGA students. The Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach continues to support strong connections among UGA’s outreach, research and teaching missions.
The 2008-2009 Scholarship of Engagement-In Georgia grant recipients, their department and projects are:
• Viktoria Driagina-Hasko, language and literacy education, “Providing Access to Language Education Careers for Georgia Heritage Speakers;”
• Tina M. Harris, speech communication, “Equipping and Engaging Communities for Effective Interracial Communication;”
• Stephanie Jones, elementary and social studies education, “Making a Magic School Bus: Transforming ‘Field Trips’ into the Center of Rich Integrated Learning in a High-Poverty and Multilingual School in Athens, Georgia;”
• Jeffery L. Jordan, agricultural and applied economics; Joseph Goetz and Nathan Harness, housing and consumer economics; and Denise Everson, Northeast District of the County Extension Service, “Partners for a Prosperous Griffin-Spalding County: Using Research and Outreach to Support a Community Partnership;”
• Lance Palmer, housing and consumer economics, “Employee Benefits Education in the Community through Volunteer Income Tax Assistance;”
• Annelieses Singh and Corey Johnson, counseling and human development service, “Collective Memories of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Youth in Schools;” and
• Seth Wenger, River Basin Center, “Development of Wetland Protection Ordinances for Coastal Georgia.”
The 2008-2009 Scholarship of Engagement-International grant recipients, their department and project are:
• Daniel Bivens and Leigh Askew, Fanning Institute, “Café Connection: Bringing Service-Learning to Costa Rica;”
• David Gattie, biological and agricultural engineering, “International Service-Learning in Rural Latin America: Engaging Students with Community in the Complex Management of Ecological Services; Costa Rica;”
• Rachel Hagues, Carl Vinson Institute of Government; Koqunia Forte, theatre and film studies; and Sharon Nickols, housing and consumer economics, “Girls Personal Development Program; Tanzania;”
• Kris Irwin, forestry and natural resources, “Community Development and Service-Learning: The UGA Costa Rica Integrated Farm System; Costa Rica;”
• Lisa Liguori, Marine Extension Service, “Bigger Fish to Fry: Collaborative Research and Outreach to Reduce the Risks of Mercury Contamination in Barracuda in San Felipe, Yucatan, Mexico;”
• Lawrence Morris, forestry and natural resources, “Developing a Program for Natural Resources Education on Ilha Marajó, Pará, Brazil;”
• Melinda Moore, Carl Vinson Institute of Government, “Human Capacity Building in Post-War Liberia: An Interdisciplinary Service-Learning Project; Liberia;” and
• Robert Rhoades, anthropology, “Participatory Monitoring of Climate Change in Mountain Communities; Ecuador.”
