bonner fall directors 2016 - signature work

Community Engaged Signature Work

Agenda

• Background

• Definition

• Worksheet Exercise

Background Why this matters to

Bonner?

The effort to create “Community Engaged Signature Work” fits well with the Bonner Program’s core goals and with strategic direction and initiatives undertaken by the Bonner Foundation and Network over the past decades.

Why This Matters to Us

Student Development

• Developmental Journey • Minors • Structured Pathways

Exploration - immersions, shadowing, rotations, resulting in regular placement

Experience - solid programmatic role -(Program Assistant - capacity building

Example - site and program leadership - capacity building

Expertise - capstone projects, research, studies

Community Impact

•Deep, sustained Partnerships

•High-Impact Community Engagement

•Capacity Building

Campus-Wide Involvement

• Strategic collaborative approaches

• Curriculum and institutional change

• Creating a culture of “everybody, everyday"

The emergence of civically engaged pedagogies:

• Student-centered

• Collaborative

• Faculty member as coach (“reflective practitioner”)

• Problem or issue-focused (i.e., addressing societal needs)

Ride the Wave…

Definition

A common core (all learning is “general and liberal education”

Source: Kathy Wolf from Association of American Colleges and Universities 2016

Changing curriculum

Breath plus depth (in the majors)

Rethinking education and pathways to degrees

- 19th - - 20th - - 21st -

2000-2005: Greater Expectations • a national dialogue about goals

and practices for college learning

2005-now: Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP)

• spread of high-impact practices and evidence for engaged learning

• development and application of rubrics

Source: Association of American Colleges and Universities LEAP Challenge, 2015

LEAP History

“The LEAP Challenge calls for all college students to pursue their own ‘signature work,’ integrating and applying their learning to complex problems and projects that are important to the student and important to society. All students, not just the most fortunate students, can and should be afforded the opportunity to produce capstones and signature work throughout their undergraduate experience.”

Source: Association of American Colleges and Universities LEAP Challenge, 2015

Signature Work

Worksheet Exercise

Breakout Groups

1) 100+ | 80 | 60 | 40 | 30 | Start-Up

2) If subgroup > 4 schools, divide based on other institutional or program characteristics (e.g., Scholar/Leader, Public/Private, Overall School Enrollment)

Appoint Notetaker for Each Group

Organize into discussion groups of 3-4 schools each….

Ingredients

1) Reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationships between students and community partners

2) Community defined projects

3) Academic study or inquiry that connects with students’ coursework and/or research

4) Mentoring or advisory relationships with faculty members and/or community representatives

Community Engaged Signature Work involves…

PLUS + What we have in place? What we can build upon?

DELTA - What would we need to change?

What do we need to build or develop?

#1 - Reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationships

#1 - Reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationships

1. Students with sufficient depth of experience • What mechanisms support Bonners to be engaged in at least a two

year relationship with a partner agency or in a similarly robust commitment to an issue or place?

• What other programs or majors might engage students in preparation for a meaningful community engaged relationship that might involve a culminating project?

2. Partners with sufficient depth and capacity • What mechanisms or processes exist to support multiyear

relationships and projects with specific partners? • What mechanisms or processes exist to identify capstone level

projects?




#2 - Community defined projects

#2 - Community defined projects

1. Project identification • How could your center (teams or student leaders, etc.) work with

partners to define capacity building projects (for information, research, reports, program design, etc). and potential projects?

2. Current student engagement in project definition • Could your Bonners or other active student leaders be directly

involved in cultivating capstone projects through their work and dialogue with partners? What currently or might enable this?

3. Implications of these projects for staff and faculty • What are ways to organize and manage community-based learning

projects like this in your context? What resources are needed?




#3 - Academic study or inquiry that connects with students’ coursework

and/or research

#3 - Academic study or inquiry1. Academic credit

• What course structures (capstones, internship, added credit option, etc.) already exist that might be tapped to link with such projects?

2. Academic pathways • What majors (i.e., Social Work, Environmental Studies, etc.) already

have experiential elements or capstones that might lend themselves to linkages or pilots?

3. Faculty champions • What individual faculty members (especially those who are solid

community-engaged scholars) or other administrators may be good to involve in Signature Work planning?

• What are the challenges for faculty involvement?




#4 - Mentoring or advisory relationships

#4 - Mentoring or advisory relationships

1. Faculty development • What models or resources exist for providing faculty with training or

support for this potential role? What is needed?

2. Syllabus design • What kinds of checkpoints (i.e., MOUs, meetings, etc.) might be

suggested for faculty who would build community engaged capstones into their coursework or major?

3. Sharing and dissemination of work • How are or might the community engaged signature work products

(posters, reports, papers, etc.) be shared with the partner and broader campus community, as well as departments)?