Syracuse University to honor students, organizations with Chancellor’s Awards for Public Engagement and Scholarship on March 26

Syracuse University to honor students, organizations with Chancellor’s Awards for Public Engagement and Scholarship on March 26March 21, 2007Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

Syracuse University will honor students and organizations that exemplify the University’s commitment to engagement with the community and Scholarship in Action with the 2007 Chancellor’s Awards for Public Engagement and Scholarship in a March 26 celebration dinner in the Hildegarde and J. Myer Schine Student Center’s Goldstein Auditorium.

Each year, SU community members volunteer tens of thousands of hours to the greater Syracuse community through the Mary Ann Shaw Center for Public and Community Service (CPCS), which promotes, supports, facilitates and recognizes public and community service as a fundamental part of the teaching and learning experience. Service provided by students, faculty and staff covers a broad range, from mentoring and tutoring in the Syracuse schools to delivering meals and building homes through Habitat for Humanity.

“This year’s nominations are remarkable, clearly demonstrating that civic engagement is not simply something students do, but has become an essential part of who we, and SU, are,” says CPCS Director Pamela Kirwin Heintz.

This year’s honorees include:

Chancellor’s Awards for Public Engagement and Scholarship

Residence Hall Awards

Team Flint for a “Did You Know” campaign to inform residents of Flint Hall about HIV/AIDS statistics and facts; the team also raised $623 for the LivingRoom, a local center for persons affected by or infected with HIV/AIDS.

Office of Residence Life Civic Engagement Committee for a “Day of Service” on Jan. 26 in which 75 SU students worked with eight local community agencies to provide services for children, seniors, the hungry and the homeless in the Syracuse area.

Student Organization Award

Sport Management Club for continuous volunteer service by its members, including activities with the Boys & Girls Clubs, Habitat for Humanity, Adopt-a-Street community clean-up and Relay for Life. The club’s annual signature event, the Distinguished Lecture and Charity Sports Auction, benefits the Boys & Girls Clubs.

Student Group Awards

CSTEP Ambassadors for a variety of projects, including the Hope for the Holidays campaign, volunteering at the Southwest Community Center’s Thanksgiving Dinner, a clothing drive to benefit refugee families, and raising money to purchase more than 4,000 sanitation kits for the UNICEF Global Water Fund.

Fowler High School Tutoring and Mentoring Program, which was created by students in the Renee Crown University Honors Program to help promising 10th-graders from Fowler High School complete Advanced Placement courses.

Special Award

Alibrandi Catholic Center and Protestant Campus Ministry for organizing several trips to New Orleans to assist the victims of Hurricane Katrina in rebuilding their homes and lives.

Academic Service Learning Projects

CMD 352/Design Project Management (College of Visual and Performing Arts) in which students recently worked with the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn to develop exhibits that addressed a wide range of themes relevant to Tubman’s life, a self-guided tour and signage.

Community Benchmark Program (The Maxwell School of Citizenship andPublic Affairs), which tackles a specific local problem brought to them by a community organization, nonprofit or government agency. Students are working with the Syracuse City School District to collect data on the new Institute of Technology, developing a model for a study that will compare student successes with other high schools in the district.

Family Advocacy Program (College of Law), which combines law and medicine to provide comprehensive legal advocacy to resolve the health-related legal needs of low-income children.

Family Law and Social Policy Center (College of Law), which provides students with the opportunity to work on actual family law problems, especially those involving low-income persons, and to provide needed services to the community.

Health Literacy 311 (HSHP), through which each involved student performs 15 hours of community service at various sites, teaching reading and comprehension skills and how to manage their own health.

HNR 220/Culture of Violence Seminar (Renee Crown University Honors Program), which explores the issues of gangs and juvenile gun violence in the Syracuse area; class members face their own stereotypes about gangs and youth violence, confront their fears, and increase their knowledge about the roots of violence in American culture.

Pioneer Visiting Critic Studio (School of Architecture), which gives architecture students the opportunity to develop designs for an actual building site in downtown Syracuse on two parcels of land adjacent to The Warehouse.

Seinfeld Visiting Critic Studio (School of Architecture), which is a three-year initiative that offers students the opportunity to learn about housing design options and commercial forms of development as they define culture and revitalize urban areas.

Shawn Rohlin G’09,who examined police-citizen and community interactions in Syracuse to determine whether different races or ethnicities receive differential treatment when encountered by Syracuse Police. The results of the study werepresented twice before the Syracuse Common Council.

Kelvin Smith Jr. ’07 (HSHP), who developed and implemented a leadership skills group at Dr. King Elementary School with eight African American boys; he designed and conducted the workshops with the children in the areas of creating leaders, leadership and health, leadership in sports and the rhythm of leaders.

First-Year Student Leadership Awards

Christina Simmons ’10 (The College of Arts and Sciences), who is a floor president at Sadler Hall and mentors at Hughes Elementary School and Crouse Hospital; over Winter Break, she traveled to New Orleans to assist in rebuilding efforts.

Adam Sternbach ’10 (HSHP), who started “Teddy Bears for Hope,” a charitable organization that works with corporations and other donors to send teddy bears to children in areas that have encountered natural disasters, wars, poverty or other dire circumstances.

Community Service Leadership Awards

Group

The following groups have service to the community as their main purpose and core. Some of their activities this past year have included tutoring and mentoring school children; providing free and accessible tax help to the poor; collecting canned goods and toys for local service agencies; building and remodeling houses; sending care packages and writing to troops overseas; and volunteering at scores of community activities:

Alpha Phi OmegaArmy ROTC Cadet CorpsArnold Air SocietyAssociation for Student Elderly ConnectionBeta Alpha Psi’Cuse Cares Community OutreachDefense Comptrollership Program 2007Hughes Mentoring ProgramRelay for Life Planning CommitteeSouth Campus Organization for Programming Excellence (SCOPE)SU/ESF Habitat for HumanitySyracuse University Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE)Syracuse University Volunteer OrganizationThe Young Artists’ Workshop

Academic Service Learning Projects

Balancing the Books (Whitman School of Management), which is a mentoring program at Huntington Elementary School focused on helping students at risk for dropping out of school; mentors and students meet weekly to work on academics and life skills, to help students achieve their goals in school, and to improve each child’s confidence in his/her abilities.

Community Design Center (School of Architecture), which is working with the Syracuse Housing Authority on the construction of a master plan for an urban precinct largely controlled and owned by the SHA and on a house-type and housing density study of the Danforth neighborhood on Syracuse’s South Side.

Genesis Health Project (HSHP), which is a community-designed, faith-based initiative to reduce obesity and empower African Americans to adopt healthier lifestyles and improve their quality of life.

Healthy You News Magazine (HSHP), which is a student-produced health newsmagazine designed to promote health literacy and healthier behaviors among students, faculty and staff on the SU campus and in the surrounding area.

NHM 511/Nutrition Education (HSHP), in which students worked with the Girl Scouts of Cortland County to coordinate a health fair at Camp Hoover.

Individual Awards

These awards are given for significant, long-term participation in active learning and active citizenship through public and community service. Recipients are also recognized for providing leadership and a strong personal commitment to regenerating and sustaining community.

Brendan Abel ’07 (A&S) Lauren D’Angelo ’08 (A&S)Shannon Dubois ’07 (A&S)Thomas Hackman ’08 (A&S)Douglas Jack ’07 (Architecture)Jennifer Perrone ’07 (A&S)