The Office for Service-Learning recognizes and thanks faculty members who taught courses using service-learning during 2010-11. Thirty-two faculty members in 17 disciplines incorporated service-learning into 61 sections of 41 courses involving 1,228 students in partnership with a variety of community organizations.

St. Thomas faculty used service-learning pedagogies to engage their students in the lived experience of academic concepts, contextualizing learning and expanding the walls of their classrooms to encompass Twin Cities schools, programs with immigrants, seniors, single mothers and their children, social service organizations, mental health facilities, legal clinics, environmental organizations, and individuals and organizations working to transform conflicts or address problems locally and around the world.

Special congratulations to Nekima Levy-Pounds, associate professor, School of Law, who received the Faculty Service-Learning Award this year for her outstanding work as creator and director of the Law School’s Community Justice Project (CJP) of the Interprofessional Center for Counseling and Legal Services, which provides counseling and legal clinics for underserved individuals and communities.

The Community Justice Project works with community stakeholders to address problems in distressed communities such as racial disparities in the criminal justice system, police brutality, and racial disparities in the educational and juvenile justice systems for at-risk youth. 

Together, the CJP and the St. Paul NAACP have engaged law students, local youth and community members to write reports that led to the retraining of city prosecutors and legislative changes regarding Minnesota’s databases on gangs and the creation of a restorative justice program.

Levy-Pounds has worked for juvenile justice reform in Hennepin County, mobilizing community leaders and testifying with her students at the state Legislature. She also worked to establish Brotherhood Inc., a partnership between the CJP and the NAACP to create a program that works with African-American youth and young men who have been involved, or are at risk of being involved, in the justice system. Brotherhood Inc. provides comprehensive, culturally sensitive social services and educational opportunities, as well as on-site employment, and helps participants envision and achieve successful futures.

Faculty members who incorporated service-learning into their courses in 2010-2011 include:

• Bernard Armada, COJO 212, Rhetorical Criticism, and COJO 276 Argumentation and Advocacy
• Tonia Bock, PSYC 111, General Psychology; and PSYC 203: Psychology of Adolescence
• Lauren Braswell, PSYC 428, Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy
• Carol Bruess, COJO 111, Communication and Citizenship
• Susan Callaway, ENGL 110, Intensive Writing; ENGL 300, Theory and Practice of Writing; and ENGL 300, Theory and Practice of Writing for Center for Writing Consultants
• Thomas Connery, COJO 111, Communication and Citizenship
• John Del Vecchio, BLAW 301, Legal Environment of Business
• Joseph Fitzharris, HIST 113, Early America in Global Perspective; and HIST 114: Modern America in Global Perspective
• Kathleen Heinlen, ENGL 111, Critical Reading and Writing
• Angela High-Pippert, POLS 205, Introduction to the American Public Policy Process
• Katharine Hill, SOWK 40, Generalist Practice II: Large Client Systems
• Mike Klein, JPST 250, Introduction to Justice and Peace Studies; and JPST 470 Conflict Resolution
• Anna Kudak, COJO 472, Family Communication
• Nekima Levy-Pounds, LAWS 941, Community Justice Project Clinic; and LAWS 944, Advanced Community Justice Project Clinic
• Heather Lutz, OPMT 310, Operations Management
• Jill Manske, BIOL 295, Biology of HIV/AIDS
• Jennifer McGuire, ESCI 310, Environmental Problem Solving
• Christina Meyer-Jax, HLTH 345, Nutrition for Health and Fitness
• Susan Myers, THEO 431, Women in the Early Church
• Roxanne Prichard, PSYC 401, Physiological Psychology
• Michael Raimondi, ENGL 112, Critical Reading and Writing II: Drama and Poetry
• Kevin Sauter, COJO 100, Public Speaking; COJO 111 Communication and Citizenship; COJO 398U, Culture and Communication in Post-Apartheid South Africa
• Gerald Schlabach, THEO 386, The Church in Latin America (Topics in Systematic Theology)
• Sarah Schmalenberger, MUSC 412, Music History and Literature II
• Ivancica Schrunk, HIST 496, Museum of Hvar Heritage, Hvar, Croatia: the Community of Vlaka, St. Clement, Croatia
• Tim Scully, COJO 360, TV Field Production (Videography)
• Kathryn Shea, COJO 270, Public Relations Writing
• Arkady Shemyakin, STAT 314, Mathematical Statistics
• John Tauer, PSYC 151, Cross-Cultural Psychology
• Mary Twite, THEO 215, Christian Morality
• Kim Vrudny, THEO 220, Christian Belief: Ancient and Contemporary; THEO 397, AIDS, Apartheid, and the Arts of Resistance; THEO 452, Theology and Beauty
• Lisa Waldner, SOCI 210, Research Methods in Sociology; and SOCI 220, Sociological Analysis

For more information about course-based service-learning, please contact Barb Baker, Service-Learning Program Manager, (651) 962-5380.