Recipient
Ira Harkavy, Ph.D.,
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Dr. Ira Harkavy, a long-time leader in the field of service-learning, is the recipient of the eighth annual Thomas Ehrlich Award for Service-Learning. Dr. Harkavy is Associate Vice President and Director of the Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania, a role he has held since the center was founded.
Dr. Harkavy calls himself a ‘historian by training’ but brings a wide variety of perspectives to his teaching, his scholarship, and his service. Having taught his first ‘quasi’ service-learning course as early as 1985, his coursework strives to realize the full meaning of democratic education. In his own words, his current teaching ‘seeks to combine academically-based community service, collaborative, democratic learning and real-world problem solving on campus and in the community.’
Judith Rodin, President of the University of Pennsylvania says, ‘Ira’s voice has been the most original and the most passionate in calling faculty from Penn and across the country, to engage their research and teaching in service to their local communities.’ Indeed, Dr. Harkavy is considered one of the parents of the modern service-learning movement. Since 1990, Dr. Harkavy has had thirty-eight articles appear in major journals, and has written sixteen chapters with two more in press. He has co-edited an issue of Metropolitan Universities as well as AAHE’s History volume on Service-Learning in the Disciplines. In the last twelve years he has given 145 speeches on issues around service and academics, spoken at 55 colleges and universities, and presented at fourteen Campus Compact meetings and institutes.
Dr. Harkavy’s service-learning seminars and speeches are legendary, not only at Penn, but nationwide. ‘He has an uncanny ability to motivate undergraduates to devote their hearts and minds to working with the community,’ says President Rodin. Dr. Harkavy has been tirelessly committed to not only teaching about democracy, but also modeling democracy in his classroom. Every one of Dr. Harkavy’s course titles includes the phrase, ‘Faculty and Student Collaborative Seminar to…’
In her letter of nomination, President Rodin shared a story that illustrates this well. She and other colleagues at Penn have been encouraging Ira to be the Penn nominee since the Ehrlich Award was founded in 1995. However, year after year he refused, claiming that, ‘it would be better for the ’˜movement’ if one of his colleagues were rewarded for his or her efforts.’ Beginning in July of this year the Center for Community Partnerships will be celebrating its tenth year with a series of events, including a major international conference. President Rodin finishes, ‘In my judgment, nothing could be more fitting than for Ira to receive the Ehrlich Award during the Center’s 10th Anniversary and Penn’s celebration of its ongoing, creative and groundbreaking work.’
Finalists
Michelle R. Dunlap, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Human Development, Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut Dr. Michelle Dunlap envisions education as a ‘journey that never ends,’ and believes that any success she encounters in her journey is linked to the degree in which she has helped others along their way. She has been teaching service-learning courses for eight years, and was the first African American female in the history of the college to go through the ranks and gain tenure and promotion. She is a member of the Campus Compact/AAHE Consulting Corps and has made numerous presentations and faculty development workshops on her own campus as well as through both Connecticut and Massachusetts state Compacts. Dr. Dunlap participated in the creation of Connecticut College’s Hollern Center for Community Action and serves on the Public Policy Steering Committee. In her book, Reaching Out to Children & Families: Students Model Effective Community Service, published in 2000, Dr. Dunlap examines what it takes to prepare learners for their community service experiences. In addition she has published a series of eight articles documenting the student experience, focusing on issues they face and resources they draw upon during a service-learning course. Norman Feinstein, president of Connecticut College, notes that, ‘this type of expanded insight and knowledge, which is central to Professor Dunlap’s core academic communication, increases our students’ capacity to participate in professional, civic and familial life in a way that is freed from supposition and stereotype.’ Amy Hendricks, Ph.D Assistant Professor of Political Science, Brevard Community College, Melbourne, Florida In addition to integrating service-learning into every one of the classes she teaches, Dr. Amy Hendricks teaches a course specifically on the pedagogy and practice of service-learning. Dr. Hendricks’s personal dedication to the civic life of her students extends outside the classroom. She takes trips at least once a year with her students to the State Capitol, helps students with voter registration drives, and advises student civic projects and organizations. She is currently the Chair of the Liberal Arts Department where she encourages her colleagues to pursue service-learning in such diverse disciplines as Music Appreciation, Western Civilization, and Figure Drawing. Her presentations to faculty on campus are complemented by constant personal dialogue, and have led to numerous new service-learning courses. She has also been featured at several national conferences, some sponsored by Campus Compact. She serves as a member of the Community Volunteers Task Force at Brevard, Employee Evaluation Review Committee, and is a Curriculum Coordinator for the Social and Behavioral Science in addition to several other committees and organizations. President of Brevard Community College, Thomas E. Gamble, says that her wide range of activities on and off campus has aided Dr. Hendricks in placing ‘service-learning at the center of her courses, department, and college.’ Meredith Minkler, Ph.D. Professor of Public Health, University of California, Berkley, Berkley, California ‘For more than twenty-five years, Professor Minkler’s research, teaching, community involvement, and campus leadership have been dedicated to fostering the development of healthy communities, in the context of public heath-based participatory action research projects and service-learning courses,’ says Paul Gray, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost of the University of California at Berkley. Dr. Minkler has an impressive list of publications to her name including a volume she edited entitled, Community Organizing and Community Building for Health and the forthcoming, co-edited book, Community Based Participatory Research for Health. In addition to her publications and extensive list of presentations, Dr. Minkler has worked to further the use and understanding of service-learning on her own campus. For sixteen years she has helped guide the Tenderloin Senior Outreach Project, in which students set up support groups and tenant organizations in low income neighborhoods, and for seven years she has co-chaired the campuses Faculty Policy Committee on Service-Learning. Her classes illustrate the innovation with which Dr. Minkler applies service-learning. Her courses often seamlessly combine community based service and community based research in so useful a way that local governments have used her students projects to help shape policy. Dale Rice, Ph.D., Professor of Special Education, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan Dr. Dale Rice sees himself as the bridge between the university and the community, ‘as a professor I saw a need to get students and faculty involved in community service activities and as a member of the Ypsilanti community I knew there was a need.’ Dr. Rice has been instrumental in shaping service-learning at Eastern Michigan University, through his work with the Office of Academic Service-Learning, which he helped to establish. Using a faculty development model he created, he has fostered interest in service-learning in all levels of the university. Working both on his campus and throughout the entire Michigan state system, he has presented numerous service-learning workshops, and through a grant from the Michigan Department of Education he will soon be sharing his expertise with members of the K-12 community. Most recently Dr. Rice has secured a grant from the Kellogg Foundation to integrate service-learning into American Humanics courses. Through engaging students in service-learning, and teaching them about the methodology of service-learning as an important teaching pedagogy, Dr. Rice says he wants to, ‘provide resources to the community, help students feel more connected, and increase students’ civic engagement.’ Barbara E. Moely, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana Dr. Barbara Moely has made important contributions to Tulane University and the larger community of New Orleans. Dr. Moely was instrumental in establishing the Office of Service-Learning at Tulane, which opened in 1999. As Director, Dr. Moely oversees training for all students involved in community work through the university. Largely through her efforts, in 2000 Tulane University received a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education. This grant enabled Tulane to work with faculty in a systematic way to help them develop service-learning courses. Dr. Moely has also worked to integrate service-learning within other university outreach programs. Dr. Moley has undertaken unique and important research in an attempt to detail the effects of service-learning. Motivated by a strong interest in the impact of environmental factors on children’s learning and academic achievement, Dr. Moely is engaged in innovative research on the impact of service-learning on constituents being served. Coming to service-learning from a background in Psychology, Dr. Moley is interested in learning about the effects of University service-learning programs on both students and community representatives. She has presented her research at several conferences and in an article that appeared in the Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning. Diane K. Sloan, M.A., M.S. Professor of Speech Communication and English as a Second Language, Miami-Dade Community College, Miami, Florida Eduardo J. Padrón, President of Miami-Dade Community College, describes Professor Diane Sloan as ‘Miami-Dade Community College’s most effective, dedicated, and knowledgeable faculty advocate for service-learning.’ Professor Sloan’s hard work and leadership have resulted in major growth in the quality and scope of service-learning at the Miami-Dade Community College. As Service-Learning Faculty Coordinator for the college’s North Campus, Professor Sloan has compiled a booklet of varied reflection strategies for faculty to use with students in service-learning courses. This booklet is given to all service-learning faculty and administrators, and has been distributed to programs nationwide. She has also created a service-learning component for the Honors Program at Miami-Dade that connects leadership skills with civic responsibility. Professor Sloan’s dedication to service-learning has extended beyond the classroom and had become part of her family structure as well. She has used both classroom and family experiences in her unconventional research regarding the impact of service-learning. Professor Sloan has created monthly meetings with faculty, community agency guests, upper division colleagues, and administrators to discuss a wide variety of issues and ideas around service-learning. Debra Nitschke-Shaw, Ph.D. Professor of Education, New England College, Henniker, New Hampshire ‘I have always believed that a good teacher is one who models good teaching,’ says Dr. Debra Nitschke-Shaw. ‘If I want them to be civically engaged then I, too, must model civic engagement.’ Her work in the community is as tireless as her work in the university. Dr. Nitschke-Shaw is Chair of the Collegium of Knowledge, Growth, and Action at New England College, which includes the departments of Criminal Justice, Education, Health and Sport Science, Kinesiology, Psychology, Sociology, Social work, and Sport and Recreation Management. She also directs the Teacher Education Program, where has fully integrated service-learning into the curriculum. After participating in service-learning for four years, graduates of the teacher education program at New England College are fully prepared to use service-learning in a K-12 classroom in their first year teaching. Dr. Nitschke-Shaw functions as a teacher-scholar, working with college faculty and K-12 teachers to integrate service-learning into the classroom. In addition to her many presentations at conferences and workshops, she is the primary author of Campus Compact for New Hampshire’s K-16 Partnerships Toolkit and was the principal consultant for the Toolkit’s national dissemination. Several other publications focusing on guidelines for service-learning in education and research on best-practices have resulted from her service-learning work. Brooke Hallowell, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Neurogenic Communication Disorders, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio Dr. Brooke Hallowell is an associate professor in the School of Hearing, Speech and Language Sciences and Associate Dean for Research and Sponsored Programs at Ohio University. Dr. Hallowell has developed a three-course service-learning requirement for all majors in the School of Hearing, Speech, and Language Sciences. She has incorporated service-learning into her communication and aging, communication disorders, and neurophysiology courses. In addition to her extensive experience in teaching service-learning, Dr. Hallowell has connected federally funded scientific research programs with interdisciplinary experiences for students. As co-principal investigator for two five-year projects funded by the National Science Foundation, Dr. Hallowell joined students in multiple disciplines from multiple campuses throughout the United Stated to engage collaboratively in the design of technological devices for individuals with disabilities. Working with other faculty members, Dr. Hallowell has also been able to secure a grant from the Health Resources Service Administration for a program entitled ‘A Multidisciplinary Intervention program for the Diabetic Elderly population in Appalachia’ that has opened up a number of new collaborative and interdisciplinary opportunities with others from the region. Terry Davis, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Education, California State University, Chico, Chico, California As professor in the Department of Professional Studies in Education’s Special Education Program, Dr. Davis has been an integral part of the development of service-learning programs at California State University, Chico. When the service-learning program was being organized on campus, Dr. Davis was asked to help to create service-learning steering committee. She has developed new service-learning courses and currently serves as a faculty mentor and as a participant on this committee. The chair of the Department of Professional Studies in Education, Dr. Jim Richmond, comments that, Dr. Davis’s work with pre-service teacher education prepares new educators to implement the P-12 curriculum standards through community service-learning. Dr. Davis also played a major role in the introduction of community service-learning into teacher education at the national, state, and local levels. She is a participant on a grant funded by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) and has worked with other national leaders producing policy documents as well as pragmatic materials for the infusion of community service learning into teacher education. Catherine Ludlum Foos, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Philosophy, Indiana University East, Richmond, Indiana One of the first professors on all eight Indiana University campuses to adopt service-learning techniques in her classes, Dr. Catherine Ludlum Foos’s work has impacted the practice of service-learning at Indiana University. Her decision to integrate service-learning into one of her classes in 1992 arose out of her dissatisfaction with the popular approach to teaching applied ethics. Dr Foos hopes to teach her students an understanding of ethics as encompassing how one lives one’s life and, more specifically, ‘to replace a view of ethical debate as an exercise in futility with a view of ethical dialogue as a means of social cooperation and creative problem-solving.’ Dr. Foos’s scholarship is a reflection on institutional service, and looks at the implications of promoting service-learning institutionalization. Her writing examines the foundational issues and philosophical roots of service-learning. Dr. Foos is a member of the Campus Compact Consulting Corps and has received tenure and promotion at IU East by demonstrating how service-learning can be the vehicle for improving one’s teaching, research, and professional service.Being a part of Campus Compact has let us touch the heart and soul of building better communities while improving teaching and learning for faculty and students. James A. Drake, President, Brevard Community College