1) Cover Sheet

 

Select one:

 

___ Project Grant

_X  Core and Core Area Grant

___Seed Grant

___ Dissemination Grant

 

Name:  Ellen Kennedy                       Dept./Program: Service-Learning

 

Mail #  4050      Phone # 2-5082            E-mail: ejkennedy@stthomas.edu

 

The date of my initial full-time employment at UST was: Sept. 1987 and the status of my present employment (tenured, tenure-track, limited term, adjunct) at UST is: Tenured.

 

1.         Title of proposed project:

 “The Changing Faces of Minnesota”

 

2.         Description of project suitable for use in publicity and reporting to a general audience (not to exceed 50 words; avoid use of jargon):

 

This program, now in its second year, partners students in three pairs of freshman core courses with students at Abraham Lincoln High School, a school for immigrant and refugee youth in Minneapolis.  The students will all work together to focus on community-based learning projects that address civic engagement such as public policy work and grass-roots community action.

 

3.      Intended start date: Planning began in Spring 04 for fall 2004; the project is in its second year.  The specific workshop for which these funds are sought will occur on August 17-20.

 

Project duration (in months): This project is ongoing and will expand annually, both in numbers of courses and students and in its scope.  For fall 2004, for example, we have added a residential component and an upper-level course.

 

4.         Total amount requested: $6,150

 

5.         Have you previously received 2002-05 Bush Grant funds?   X Yes   No

 

If yes, please describe:

 

Seed Grant, spring 2004

Project Grant, summer 2004
2)  Budget Format page for:

 

BUDGET ITEM                                Grant Request            Other Funding            Total

 

1. Personnel /  Director Stipend       $6,000             __________                          $6,000

           

2. Travel expenses      ___________           ___________           ___________

 

a. Lodging                              ___________

b. Transportation                   ___________

c. Meals                                   ___________

d. Conference Fee                  ___________

e. Other (give detail)              ___________

 

3. Supplies, e.g. books

and refreshments ___________              ___________           ___________

 

4. Duplicating, postage, telephone      $150                                                              $150

 

5. Other (provide detail)                    ______           ___________

 

TOTAL REQUESTED:                   ___________           __________              $6,150

3)  Grant Application Checklist

 

Please complete this checklist and submit with your application, which is due by 5:00 p.m. on the following dates:

 

For work beginning in:          Due                             Notification Date

 

            Summer                                  April 1                                    June 1

            Fall                                          July 15                         August 1

            J Term                                     October 1                   November 1

Spring                                     November 1               December 1

 

Submit the application to: Bush Grant, Mail # JRC 432.

 

Check that your application package contains eight complete, collated copies of the following:

 

__X_   A.  Cover Sheet

__X_   B.  Proposal Narrative

__X   C. Budget Format page and Budget Explanation (not required for Seed Grants)

__      D. Copies of supporting documentation, if applicable

___   E. Two-page vitae (not required for Core and Core Area Grants)

__X   F. Grant Application Checklist (this sheet, signed and dated)

 

Other items to acknowledge:

 __X_   G.  Final reports

I do not have any final reports due for previous UST Bush grants.

 

__X_   H.  Protection of Human Subjects of Research

I understand that if my research will involve human subjects, I must seek approval from UST's Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research (IRB) before beginning the project. See the IRB website for information: http://www.stthomas.edu/irb

 

__X_   I.  Final Report

Within three months of my project’s completion date,  I agree to submit to Program Coordinator Vanca Shrunk (c/o Bush Grant Mail # JRC 432, idschrunk@stthomas.edu, 2-5740) the following: 1) a project evaluation report, 2) an accounting of funds spent, and 3) assessment results. I understand that submission of this final report is a prerequisite for any future funding from UST’s Bush grant for Collaborative Inquiry.

Applicant

Signature:_____________________________________________

 

Date:____________

 

1.  Abstract:  Last fall, sixty University of St. Thomas freshmen and six faculty members began a semester-long project, The Changing Faces of Minnesota.  Created in conjunction with the University’s Paired Courses Program, the Changing Faces project had several goals: 1) to socialize the St. Thomas students to the university mission of being both “in and of the city” through community partnerships; 2) to develop active, inquiry-based interdisciplinary learning; 3) to decrease barriers of race, ethnicity, religion, citizenship, and socioeconomic status, and 4) to create a learning community among our first-semester freshmen through a focus on crucial social issues in a unique environment.   These goals were met through a partnership with students from Minneapolis’s Abraham Lincoln High School for immigrant and refugee youth from East Africa and Central and South America.[1] We are continuing the project in fall 2004 with a new cohort of freshmen and are requesting a Core and Core Area Grant [2] to support a faculty workshop.[3] 

2. Rationale/Need for the project: Our goal is to engage faculty and students in multidisciplinary, inquiry-based service- learning, the outcomes of which are well-documented.[4]  We request funds for the faculty workshop because several components are different for fall 2004: we have new professors; new disciplines; new pairings of courses/professors/disciplines; a living/learning community (students will be housed together in Cretin and Grace Halls), two shared texts; a work-study student for Changing Faces; and the opportunity for exciting co-curricular planning.

We will use the workshop as follows:

  • to create greater interdisciplinarity.  Both the English/Psychology and the Theology/Sociology pairs will read We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow You will be Killed with your Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch; all classes will use Heading South, Looking North: A Bilingual Journey by Ariel Dorfman, the freshman common text.  We need to develop appropriate disciplinary linkages to these texts.
  • to design community-based learning that focuses on civic engagement..  Civic engagement occurs on a continuum from direct participation through political activism.[5]  Most of last year’s activities were classroom-based such as writing a book of poetry about the students’ cross-cultural experiences; writing a play; etc.  We want to deepen the 2004 experience to cover the range in the civic engagement continuum to include public policy work, e.g. organizing letter-writing campaigns on key issues in Ward 6(the ALHS ward)[6] such as the reduction in public library hours; political activities, e.g. voter registration efforts; and grass-roots community action such as meeting with local leaders to urge for drivers’ licenses for immigrants.  These projects are neighborhood-based, require inquiry-based teaching and learning strategies such as community-based problem solving, field investigation, and action research[7], and will facilitate UST students’ civic engagement while also enhancing ALHS students’ English-language and American cultural learning. This workshop will give us the opportunity to design these projects. 
  • to work with ALHS teachers in project design.  We will have ALHS teachers who are new to the Changing Faces program; this workshop will give us the necessary planning time to work out the shared projects.
  • to develop opportunities for faculty to integrate their teaching and their scholarship.  We will examine conference and journal outlets for dissemination of Changing Faces curricula, community-based outcomes, and assessment strategies.
  • to develop opportunities for student leadership through active learning. We will have two students from Fall 2003 participating as student leaders in fall 2004.  This is a new model:  students assisting in the facilitation of inquiry-based learning in an interdisciplinary, multi-cultural, service-learning setting.  We will develop plans for these students’ roles during the workshop.  The students will likely be involved in field investigation surrounding appropriate public policy initiatives and the design of community action agendas.

Goals: UST and ALHS Students

-Provide Lincoln students with the skills and support they need to pass the high school exam and access educational options beyond high school.

- -Provide UST and ALHS students with real-life experiences that complement and/or challenge classroom pedagogies.

-Connect high school participants with mentors throughout their high school and college years.

-Provide UST students with interdisciplinary, community-based and inquiry-based learning at the beginning of their academic careers.

Community-Based Goals

-Bring together youth from diverse backgrounds to promote cross-cultural understanding

-Increase the number of UST and ALHS students who can address issues that impact Twin Cities communities

-Continue sustainable campus/community initiatives that encourage engaged learning

-Develop racial, religious, and ethnic understanding in the classroom to extend into Minnesota’s business, community, and neighborhood environments.

Faculty Goals

-Develop course projects using community-based problem-solving, action research, and field investigation

-Develop more interdisciplinarity in the pairs

-Develop plans for the scholarship of inquiry-based service-learning teaching

4.  Project Activities:  the four-day workshop will be structured as follows:

Day 1:  Best practices:  orientation, training, implementation, reflection, and assessment

Day 2: Project development with teachers at ALHS and City Council Member Dean Zimmerman

Day 3:  Presentations by American Refugee Committee; Centers for Victims of Torture; MSS

Day 4:  Co-curricular planning with Campus Life

5.  Preparation for the project:  We pilot-tested the project very successfully in fall 2003. All faculty have used inquiry-based learning and/or service-learning in previous courses.  Kennedy has facilitated similar planning workshops at UST[8].  Community representatives have been contacted for their workshop participation:  Dean Zimmerman, City Council; Karen Elshazly, American Refugee Committee; Evelyn Lennon, Center for Victims of Torture; and Rachel Kittelson, Director of Campus Life and Alice Grider, Director of Multicultural Student Services.

6.  Evaluation:  Each group will be assessed longitudinally; we will compare 2003 and 2004.

Constituent Group

Assessment Strategy

UST students

Quantitative pre- and post-experience surveys based on existing service-learning instruments

UST faculty

Mid-term and final qualitative interviews

ALHS students

Quantitative survey administered by C. Nevin

ALHS teachers

Qualitative interviews done by C. Nevin

UST faculty, administrators, and ALHS coordinator

Final qualitative assessment

UST Program Director

Synthesis

 

7.  Dissemination:  1) At UST:  we will prepare an article for Synergia detailing the two-year experience; syllabi and project assessment outcomes will be posted on our website.  2) More broadly:  Results will be shared at the National Society for Experiential Education annual conference and in an article submitted to the first-tier service-learning journal, the Michigan Journal of Service Learning.

Budget

Stipend for 6 faculty participants @$1,000 apiece   $6,000

Duplicating and materials                                                          150

Total requested                                                                $6,150

 

Rationale for the budget request:

This amount reflects a stipend for the workshop and for the time outside of the workshop for additional course and program development.  When compared to the stipend of $1500 to revise a single course, the stipend of $1,000 for each participant is insufficient but is the maximum available through this grant.  The professors are being asked not only to revise their courses to include activities involving active civic engagement and community-based learning but also to do so in conjunction with their teaching partner at UST and their partner at ALHS; to develop co-curricular materials; to incorporate two shared texts into their curricula; and to integrate their Changing Faces experiences of inquiry-based learning into their scholarly work.

Other funding for the project:

The Changing Faces of Minnesota received a grant from Minnesota Campus Compact to support the following:  bus transportation from UST to ALHS; one work-study position; and stipends for the community participants in the workshop.  The Office of Academic Advising is supporting a lunch for ALHS and UST students and the purchase of a film; the Office of Multicultural Student Services purchased a second film.


[1] Please see the website www.stthomas.edu/servicelearning for more information about “The Changing Faces of Minnesota,” including course syllabi, goals, etc., because of the space limitations for this grant application.

[2] Each of the six courses for fall 2004 is a core course (see the Course Catalogue pgs. 21-30):  Theology 101 (two sections); Political Science 105; Sociology 100; English 111, Psychology 111.  Therefore it is appropriate to apply for a Core and Core Area Grant for this project.

[3] Three of the faculty are returning from fall 2003:  Drs. Cara Anthony and Bernard Brady (Theology) and Amy Muse (English). Three are teaching in Changing Faces for the first time:  Drs. Steve Hoffman (Political Science), Ellen Kennedy (Sociology), and Greg Robinson-Reigler (Psychology). None of the returning faculty are teaching in the same pairs as in fall 2003.  Two of the fall 2003 faculty are teaching IDP courses in fall 2004 and felt those courses were not a good program match; the other professor, Dr. Jeff Maclean, was interested but had schedule problems.

[4] The assessment from The Changing Faces of Minnesota 2003 demonstrated clearly that students reported learning more; being more willing to engage in their communities; learning more deeply and across disciplines; and having better and stronger relationships with their professors and their peers.  Contact Kennedy at ejkennedy@stthomas.edu for a copy of the report.

[5] Minnesota Campus Compact, “Social Change Wheel.”

[6] We have met with City Council Member Dean Zimmerman, Ward 6, who is eager to be involved in The Changing Faces of Minnesota and to engage the UST and ALHS students in the civic life of Ward 6.

[7] These are higher-order thinking skills included in the description for Core and Core Area Grants.  They are also skills that are essential to the successful application of service-learning.

[8] Kennedy developed and facilitated the planning workshop for The Ascension Parish Project in January 2000 and the planning workshop for The Changing Faces of Minnesota in June 2003.