Service-learning awards presented at reception today

Service-learning awards to be presented at reception today

All faculty and staff are invited to the year-end celebration reception for service-learning from 4 to 5 p.m. today, Thursday, May 1, in Room 100, McNeely Hall.

The winners of the 2007-08 faculty and student awards for service-learning are:

  • Faculty: Dr. Susan Myers, Theology. For years, Myers steadily and quietly has been incorporating meaningful service-learning into her courses such as: Women in the Early Church, in which students contextualize attitudes toward ancient women while working with modern women in the Jeremiah Program and Women's Advocates domestic violence shelter; and Christian Theological Tradition, where students live out the notion of personal and communal responsibility to the common good by partnering with Open Arms of Minnesota to deliver meals to people living with HIV/AIDS, MS, ALS and other chronic illnesses.
  • Student: Joshua Kallerud, freshman. In Dr. Carol Bruess' January Term Public Speaking course, taught in collaboration with Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, Kallerud developed a speech about his journey to college that resonated with a class of ambitious, hardworking students who have overcome many challenges just to arrive at Cristo Rey, a college-preparatory high school designed for students from low-income families. Kallerud was invited back to Cristo Rey to speak to the entire student body, where he moved the audience to a resounding round of applause and helped many students consider what their journey is going to be: from Cristo Rey to college one day.

Service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy involving a reciprocal relationship between the university and a community partner, in which academic coursework and reflection are integrated with meaningful civic engagement. It is designed to enhance students' learning and to encourage social responsibility.