Syracuse University will honor students, faculty, staff and community partners who exemplify SU’s commitment to engagement with the community and public scholarship at the 2015 Chancellor’s Award for Public Engagement and Scholarship (CAPES). The awards will be given at a ceremony on Wednesday, April 22, at 5:30 p.m. in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Newhouse 3.
SU students, faculty and staff engage in tens of thousands of hours of community-based work in the Syracuse community, the Central New York region and the world. Public scholarship is done through a myriad of SU/community partnerships and programs across campus, as well as from the Mary Ann Shaw Center for Public and Community Service. The Chancellor’s Award for Public Engagement and Scholarship recognizes commitment to investment in the public good.
Whitman School of Management Dean Kenneth Kavajecz delivers opening remarks at the 2015 CAPES Awards ceremony at the Hergenhan auditorium.
“The robust engagement work SU students, faculty and staff are involved with locally, regionally and globally is celebrated at the CAPES event,” says Pamela Kirwin Heintz, associate vice president and director of the Shaw Center. “We thank our community partners for the time and energy they commit to SU here and around the globe, helping us all learn about and better understand the complexities in our world. More importantly, they teach us how to partner and engage with community to build capacity and explore solutions. Their commitment helps us all construct experiences and learning that would not be possible alone.”
This year’s honorees are:
Nomination Category: Residence Life
Residence Hall Association (RHA) and OttoTHON at Syracuse University.
RHA Executive Board includes Malik Evans, Bo Yeon (Hannah) Kim, Huimin (Tina) Li, Stephen Milewski, Mallory Miller, Nedda Sarshar, James Silvermans, Domenica Vera
OttoTHON Executive Board includes Lucero Andujar, Jessica Goldstone, Ryan Harper, Bess Howell, Pruthvi Kilaru, Victoria Soyeon Kim, Caroline Koller, Aaron Lassin, Ariel Litovsky, Chelsey Lustig, Jillian Lynch, Abby Maddigan, Stephanie Malis, Amelia Stalknecht, Jessica Weinstein
OttoTHON is a 12-hour dance marathon developed to benefit the Golisano Children’s Hospital. In the event’s first year, more than 800 people took part, raising $84,000 dollars. Nominator Elizabeth Green writes, “Given the event was completely student driven and implemented, it
speaks to the passion and commitment to service that our student leaders are capable of. RHA, in partnership with OttoTHON, a new student organization, spent days and hours prior to the event planning fundraisers, developing marketing strategies, and meeting with campus and community partners to ensure that every aspect of an event this size was taken care of and addressed appropriately.”
Nomination Category: Student Organization
Sport Management Club at SU
The Sport Management Club organizes a yearly charity sports auction, and in the past 10 years students have raised over $270,000 for nonprofits in Central New York. This year, more than 100 students helped with marketing, facilities, donations, public relations, website development, inventory, sales and production of programs. Their efforts brought in close to $60,000 for Make-A-Wish. In addition, each group member is required to volunteer 15 hours of community service. Nominator Kate Veley writes, “ In every conceivable way, the Sport Management Club has consistently demonstrated innovative public scholarship and community engagement, along with advancing knowledge and awareness about local nonprofits and meeting real-world needs.
Nomination Category: Student Group
It Girls Alumnae E-Board (from the School of Information Studies)
Members include Elizabeth Griffin, Chelsea Hawkins, Christie Jasmin, Fatma Ngom, Rosaly Salcedo, Megan Swanson.
The It Girls Alumnae is comprised of a small group of participants from the It Girls Overnight Retreat, launched in 2011, which is described as a slumber party meets hackathon designed to engage, inspire and celebrate young women and their potential in technology. Close to 350 high school juniors and seniors have participated, with many going on to apply and matriculate at SU. Nominator Jessica Walcott Murray says the e-board has conducted numerous social and educational events to build a community within the It Girls cohort, leveraging the expertise of faculty and staff. Events include a midterm study session for first-year It Girls, “Cupcakes, Cookies, and Code;” an introduction to coding workshop, “Wings and Web Design Workshop;” and Present IT, a speaker series featuring a wide range of information technology topics. The e-board also collaborated with Girls Inc. on last fall’s “Made With Code” program, an initiative launched by Google to engage girls with coding.
Nomination Category: Innovation in Academic Engagement.
FST 402, “Feeding the City”: Assistant Professor Evan Weismann, David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics
According to nominator Rick Welsh, Professor Weissman’s course “engages students through a combination of traditional didactic approaches with hands-on learning. His students have been involved in projects that included creating educational workshops for Syracuse’s only urban farm and assisting Nojaim Brothers Supermarket in leveraging e-commerce to address inequalities in food access, and are currently working on a community food assessment. Additionally, students in FST 402 also participate in My Lucky Tummy, described as a pop-up food court celebrating the refugee and new American community in Syracuse.
SCM 755, “Lean Six Sigma”: Martin J. Whitman School of Management
Megan Waite
Waite, who was enrolled in SCM 755, serves as an item manager for the U.S. Air Force at Robbins Air Force Base. Her class project involved finding an alternate way of tracking parts history. Along with her team, Waite conducted an in-depth analysis to document the current method (an index card inventory) for hundreds of thousands of items and worked to update military processes used at the Air Force base and replace them with a more accurate, standardized electronic system.
Honorable Mention
Syracuse Community Geography Undergraduate Internship Program, Assistant Professor Jonnell Allen Robinson
Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
(including Andrew Barrows, Andree Finkelstein, Ly Ho, Chiara Klein, Shannon Hazlitt, John Marino, Kelsey May, Rose Tardiff, Shaye Weldon)
Student interns, under the guidance of Assistant Professor Jonnell Robinson, have participated in projects including mapping and analysis, suggesting solutions for issues ranging from food insecurity and the development of alternative farming networks, to making child care, financial and alternative-energy services available to low-income residents. Professor Robinson and her student-interns are impressively dedicated to learning skills that enhance their community-based work.
Nomination Category: Legacy Award for Academic Engagement
Social Work B.S.S.W. Seniors and M.S.W. Graduate Students in Field Practicum: SWK 435; 445; 671; 771; 772
David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics of Social Work
This award goes to 43 senior Bachelor of Science in Social Work students, along with 175 Master in Social Work students. Combined, these students provided the Syracuse community with 109,000 volunteer hours as social work interns (more than 12 years!). Nominator Deborah Ducett writes, “The interactive process of integrating skills and theories learned in the classroom with experience in the real-life laboratory of our human service agencies enriches all participants—students, clients, supervisors and field faculty liaisons. The students from the School of Social Work offer the very best example of Public Engagement and Scholarship.
Honorable Mention
CMD 352, “Design Project Management”: Associate Professor William Padgett, College of Visual and Performing Arts
Nominator William Padgett explains that the communications design class partnered with an International Delphic Games Committee to be a client/sponsor for the semester. Their task was to develop a pitch to Syracuse, N.Y., to serve as the first host of the event, described as the arts and culture sibling of the Olympic games. Writes Padgett, “The students succeeded in their broad tasks and their individual tasks involving project management and organization, leadership and team building, administration, and implementation of complex problems, design under pressure, public relations, presentation skills, and client management. They got a major-league dose of real-world experience.”
Nomination Category: Chancellor’s Citation
Maryann Akinboyewa ’15, Martin J. Whitman School of Management
Akinboyewa, a senior dual major in marketing and writing rhetoric, made a four-year commitment to the development of a program called “REAL Girls,” which promotes positive self-esteem through weekly activities including art, writing and public speaking. She combined her marketing and social media skills to secure a summer internship working with women in Uganda. Her nominator, Kate Henson, says Akinboyewa “has made a sincere commitment to education, community building and women’s issues locally, nationally and internationally. Through her efforts runs the thread of promoting gender equality and confidence in women.”
Stephanie Breed ’15, College of Arts and Sciences
Breed, a Coronat Scholar and member of the Renee Crown Honors program (she’s also Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa) founded “Books are Food for Thought,” an organization that has provided over 20,000 books to children receiving free and subsidized meals in Central New York. She’s also a member of the Strategic Plan Steering Committee, a Dean’s Team member and student representative for SU Abroad’ s program in Strasbourg, along with interning at the Everson Museum in Syracuse and the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass.
Mileysa Ponce Rios ’15, College of Engineering and Computer Science
Ponce Rios, a chemical engineering major, was nominated by five people, led by Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering Katie Cadwell. She says “Miley has been an instrumental, influential student leader in the E&CS Women’s Overnight program. Ponce Rios also serves as a Pathfinder (peer mentor) who is responsible for a group of 12 first-year students each fall, as well as president of oSTEM (Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). Additionally, she is a student leader of the Engineering Ambassadors program, a partnership with SRC, E&CS, the Shaw Center and the Syracuse City School District and served as the sole undergraduate representative on the E&CS Dean Search Committee.”
