The Office of Service-Learning has selected seven faculty members as 2008-2009 Service-Learning Fellows. This year-long faculty development program provides an opportunity for fellows to integrate service-learning into their teaching, research and public service work while becoming recognized campus leaders in engaged teaching and scholarship.
“This year’s fellows are again a diverse, talented and enthusiastic group,” said Paul Matthews, co-director of the program and a Senior Scholar with the Office of Service-Learning. “They are also building on and extending collaborations and projects with each other and with past fellows, helping leverage the program’s impact.”
The seven fellows, awarded up to $2,500 each to develop their service-learning projects or courses, are Leigh Askew, Fanning Institute; Brad E. Davis, College of Environment and Design; Daniel Forrister, clinical and administrative pharmacy; Stacey Kolomer, School of Social Work; Hilda Kurtz, geography; Chris Morgan, agricultural leadership, education and communication; and Jennifer Williams, agricultural leadership, education and communication-Griffin Campus.
The fellows are developing projects that provide more course-based service-learning opportunities for students, allowing them to apply what they are learning to community-based issues.
Askew will take Fanning’s Project Riverway service-learning course and use it as a model to build a service-learning component into the School of Environmental Design’s existing study-abroad program in Costa Rica.
Landscape architecture and agricultural leadership, education and communication students are working collaboratively to create a school garden and companion curriculum at Whitehead Elementary in Clarke County through Davis and Morgan’s service-learning courses.
Pharmacy students in Forrister’s elective community-based pharmacy outreach service-learning course are developing community wellness programs in response to local health needs.
Kolomer’s students in social work are designing and implementing health and wellness fairs for older adults in Clarke and Oconee counties in collaboration with nursing students at the Medical College of Georgia.
Geography students in former fellow Nik Heynen and Kurtz’s courses will expand the services of the Athens Urban Food Collective, an organization that addresses food insecurity in Athens, with the goal of launching a community food garden.
As the first service-learning fellow from UGA’s Griffin Campus, Williams will provide leadership for creating more support and programs for students and faculty involved in service-learning on this extended campus.
The new fellows will participate in monthly meetings and programs throughout the year and are paired with mentors from previous fellows classes. Service-Learning Fellows applications for 2009-2010 will be available in February through the Office of Service-Learning.
