f Office of Community-University Partnerships & Service-learning Annual Report 2014-2015

University of Vermont
Office of Community-University Partnerships & Service-learning
Annual Report 2014-2015
Annual Report 2014-2015:
Table of Contents
Who We Are
Letter from the Director..................................................................................................................................2
A Short History of CUPS................................................................................................................................3
CUPS Staff and Advisory Committee.............................................................................................................3
Our Institution
Awards & Recognitions..................................................................................................................................4
Cross Campus Collaborations........................................................................................................................4
Benchmarking UVM with Peer Institutions......................................................................................................5
Our Faculty
SL Courses in 2014-2015...............................................................................................................................6
CUPS Support................................................................................................................................................7
Course Profiles...............................................................................................................................................8
CUPS Faculty Awards....................................................................................................................................9
Our Students
Student Impact in 2014-2015.......................................................................................................................10
CUPS Support.............................................................................................................................................11
CUPS Student Award...................................................................................................................................12
Our Community Partners
CUPS Support..............................................................................................................................................13
Feedback & Reciprocity................................................................................................................................14
CUPS Partner Awards..................................................................................................................................14
Our 2014-2015 Partners...............................................................................................................................15
Left: Students on their way to interview inmates
for the Department of Corrections in courses
taught by Kathy Fox (SOC 216 Criminal Justice)
& Alice Fothergill (SOC 286: Service-Learning
Internship), 2013-2015; photographer unknown.
Cover Top Left: Eric Venezia works with
Bhutanese refugee Saran Chhetri in Barri
Tinkler’s EDSC 215 Education & Citizenship in
the United States course (Spring 2015), photo
by Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist. Cover Top
Right: Graduate students from Gillian Galford’s
NR385 Vermont Climate Assessment present
to legislators; photo by Sally McCay. Cover Mid
Right: Students in PRNU 241 Uganda: Public
Health Nursing (Winter 2015); photo by University Communications. Cover Bottom: LANDS
Semester students collect data (Fall 2015);
photo by LANDS students.
Annual Report 2014-2015:
Who We Are
Our Mission: We work to create meaningful, sustainable, pedagogically
rich opportunities for students to contribute to the community through the
skills gained in their academic discplines.
Letter from the Director
This past year has been
one of deepening and
solidfying our programs
after several years of
transitions and special
projects. The renewal in
January of UVM’s designation through the Carnegie
Foundation as a Community-Engaged Campus was
Photo by Ben Searle
both a real honor and the
result of tremendous work
in FY14 to document the wide range of reciprocal
community-engaged partnerships here at UVM.
CUPS coordinated and led the reapplication for
this classification, and again we express heartfelt
thanks to all the faculty and staff who assisted with
the process. Our 10th anniversary in 2013 similarly
provided opportunities for unusual events and celebrations marking this milestone, as documented in
our first significant UVM-wide report.
With Carnegie and our anniversary behind us, we
began FY15 ready to return to many of our signature programs. We expanded our Advisory Committee to two representatives from each School and
College. We re-introduced a UVM-based cohortmodel Faculty Fellows for Service-Learning—and
were rewarded with thirteen fellows participating,
the largest cohort in the sixteen years of the program.
We returned to our recognition of outstanding faculty, student and community partner participation in
service-learning and were delighted to offer awards
to three faculty, including a new award for junior
faculty who employ service-learning pedagogy.
CUPS also reestablished a tradition of bringing
leaders in the field of community engagement to
campus, with a spring visit by Dr. Barbara Jacoby,
author of Service-Learning Essentials, the text used
in our Faculty Fellows. Her visit inspired us and provided concrete training in critical reflection in project-model service learning for experienced faculty.
We welcome any and all to explore the possibilities
for academic engagement between UVM and communities near and far.
Sincerely,
Susan Munkres
CUPS Staff 2014-2015
Susan Munkres, Director
Tom Wilson, Program Coordinator
Alia Degen, Program Assistant
Vivian Nicastro, Program Assistant
CUPS Advisory Committee 2014Kate Finley-Woodruff, CALS
Rachel Montesano, CAS
Lesley-Ann Dupuigny-Giroux, CAS
Mandar Dewoolkar, CEMS
Cynthia Gerstl-Pepin, CESS
Barri Tinkler, CESS
Mary Val Palumbo, CNHS
Ann Kroll-Lerner, HCOL
Walt Poleman, RSENR
Kimberly Wallin, RSENR
Annual Report 2014-2015:
Our Institution
A Short History of CUPS
John Dewey was an American philosopher and
educator widely regarded as the “father of progressive education.” Born and raised in Burlington,
Vermont, Dewey attended the University of Vermont. Dewey’s work lead to new ways of thinking
about education as actively connecting knowledge
to experience through engagement in and reflection
on the world outside the classroom. UVM continues
to honor John Dewey with its civic engagement program, the Dewey House for Civic Engagement.
In line with Dewey’s philosophy, UVM was an early
advocate of service-learning and founded the Center for Service-Learning in 1972. After a decline in
interest, the service-learning program was reinvigorated when UVM received a federal Housing and
Urban Development (HUD) Community Outreach
Partnership Center (COPC) grant in 1998. This
grant led to the creation of the Community-University Partnerships and Service-Learning (CUPS) program, which is specifically charged with supporting
academic service-learning at UVM.
Today CUPS has trained over 100 faculty in the
pedagogy of service-learning, provides high-impact
learning opportunities for students in every School
and College, and serves as a voice for academic
community engagement across the campus.
Dendrochronology students
measure white oak along
the LaPlatte River, Shelburne. Photo credit: David
Siger, student.
UVM’s Mission: To create, evaluate, share, and apply knowledge and
to prepare students to be accountable leaders who will bring to their
work dedication to the global community, a grasp of complexity, effective
problem-solving and communication skills, and an enduring commitment
to learning and ethical conduct.
Awards & Recognitions
UVM received national and international recognition
this year for its commitment to service-learning.
During the fall semester, Dr. Alan Tinkler, assistant professor of Education, was named a finalist
for the Ernest A. Lynton Award for Scholarship
of Engagement for Early Career Faculty by the
New England Resource Center for Higher Education and the Center for Engaged Democracy.
This award is presented to pre-tenure faculty who
connect their teaching, research and service to
community engagement.
The Greater Burlington Region received official
designation as a Regional Center of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development
by the United Nations University Institute for
Advanced Studies of Sustainability. The region
was recognized for its collaborative and innovative
sustainability education programs, such as UVM’s
service-learning partnerships with local schools
and NGOs. Learn more in the UVM press release:
http://bit.ly/1NwmoZd.
Cross-Campus Collaborations
CUPS by the Numbers 2014-2015
91 13 2,233 22% 200 89%
ServiceLearning
courses
New
ServiceLearning
Faculty
Fellows
Student seats in
Service-Learning
courses
Percent of the
undergrad
student body
enrolled in an
SL course
Community
partners of
SL courses
Community
partners who
reported that
SL projects met
or exceeded
expectations
This year, CUPS continued to work with departments and units at UVM committed to public service and engagement of all kinds. CUPS worked
with the College of Arts & Sciences as it continued with initiatives developed in its Strategic Action
Plan; CUPS participated in the Student Engagement & Success Subcommittee of the Strategic
Planning Process in 2013-2014. In particular, CUPS
assisted in the development of community partnerships for three internship courses being piloted in
CAS, and spoke with CAS directors and program
chairs about service-learning faculty development
opportunities. CUPS Director Susan Munkres
serves on the Advisory Board of the Humanities
Center, where she is helping to develop opportu-
nities for engaged arts & humanities activities at
UVM. She also spent the year as a Sustainability
Faculty Fellow, sponsored by the Office of the
Provost, the Office of Sustainability and the Center
for Teaching & Learning. Her project as a fellow –
to explore the intersections of service-learning and
sustainability learning outcomes – led to a successful application to the Davis Foundation for additional faculty development funding (see below).
In addition to work with academic units, CUPS collaborates with other units involved in engagement
and service. All CUPS staff participate in the UVM
Service Network which also includes the Offices
of Local Government & Community Relations,
Leadership & Civic Engagement, and Student &
Community Relations, as well as the Dewey House
for Community Engagement. In 2014-2015, CUPS
continued its participation in the Career + Experience Hub, bringing awareness of service-learning
The Carnegie
Foundation for the
Advancement of
Teaching renewed
UVM’s Community
Engagement Classification, which certifies that UVM has a
significant and institutionalized local, national and global commitment to community engagement through
reciprocal partnerships that benefit both
community partners and the faculty, students
and staff. UVM first won the Carnegie classification in 2006, the year it was launched, for
both academic engagement and community
participation, one of only 76 schools in the US
to receive both designations.
and community engagement opportunities to the
Hub collaborators – through cross-training – and
students through workshops and events. Finally,
CUPS and the UVM Service Network continue to
support Vermont Campus Compact (VCC), the
state-wide consortium for community-engaged
campuses. This year, VCC explored merging with
the Vermont Higher Education Consortium (VHEC),
and CUPS staff participated in focus groups and
ongoing discussion of the proposal to merge.
CUPS continues to seek ways for community
engagement and public service – a key element of
UVM’s mission – to deepen through data-sharing,
collaboration and strategic planning.
Benchmarking Academic SL
In response to the introduction of Incentive-Based
Budgeting (IBB), CUPS undertook study of academic service-learning at our peer and aspirant
peer institutions. Such work had not been done
in the office since 2006, and we learned much
about the strengths and weaknesses of our unit.
Throughout this annual report, we are now able to
contextualize the data provided in light of benchmarks against our peer/aspirants.
While most campuses had some form of service
center or volunteering activities among the student
body, we found widely diverging levels of academic
service-learning among these peer/aspirants.
Some had no formal service-learning at all, while
others had fully institutionalized service-learning.
UVM is at the highest level of institutionalization,
with academic service-learning supported by an
official center, with at least one full-time staff person specifically leading faculty development activities. At this level, SL courses are designated and
tracked campus-wide, and there is an institutional
commitment to civic engagement, as evidenced by
participation in the Carnegie Classification and networks for civic engagement such as Campus Compact. Joining UVM at this level of institutionalization
are George Washington University, Tufts University,
the University of Connecticut, and the University of
Massachusetts- Amherst.
Among these peers in particular, we are notable for
high numbers of service-learning courses and for
reaching a high percentage of the student body. We
host a unique Service-Learning Teaching Assistant
program that is notable for its training of students in
service-learning pedagogy. However, we lag these
peers in operating budget, staffing and strategic
planning capacity. Half of all peer/aspirants have
a high-level administrative leader for community
engagement, an endowed center or a strategic plan
for engagement. UVM has none of these. Due to
these gaps, we lag our peers in several areas: providing stipends for faculty development, supporting
transportation for service-learning, and engaging
in substantial community outreach and partnership
development. We have also cut our support for
faculty engaged scholarship as other institutions
are moving to increase their staffing and support.
To view the entire report, see the CUPS website
(About CUPS/reports).
Faculty, adminstratiors,
and staff celebrate the
year’s accomplishments
at the CUPS 2014-2015
Awards Ceremony.
From left to right: Susie
Merrick; Kathleen Liang,
CUPS Award Winner,
CDAE; Jane Kolodinsky, Department Chair,
CDAE; Brian Reed,
Associate Provost; and
Tom Vogelman, Dean
of CALS. Photo by Sally
McCay.
Annual Report 2014-2015:
Our Faculty
CUPS Support
After consulting with the CUPS Advisory Committee and other faculty development professionals at
UVM, CUPS brought back its former training model
for Faculty Fellows for Service-Learning. This training, begun in 1999, had featured faculty meeting
over an entire semester in a cohort to learn with
and from each other. From December to May this
past year, thirteen faculty members – the largest
cohort yet – met monthly to develop service-learning courses. They heard from experienced faculty,
community partners and service-learning teaching
assistants, trained by CUPS.
“This experience was 100% positive.
Joyce [Hendley] was extremely helpful
in how she set up the partnership with
the students [in her CDAE 120 class]
and the organizations in making sure
that there wasn’t an increased work
load for the community partner. It was
so easy to work with her and her students due to the way she set it up. ”
- Kindle Loomis, Common Roots
CUPS staff additionally consulted individually on
service-learning pedagogy and partnerships with
45 faculty members, and served over 100 faculty
through workshops and events throughout the year.
Presentations on service-learning reached another
70 faculty and staff. Of particular interest was a
2-day visit from Dr. Barbara Jacoby, author of Service-Learning Essentials, the main text for our Faculty Fellows program. Dr. Jacoby conducted workshops for students and for faculty, and keynoted the
CUPS Awards Ceremony. Her workshop for faculty
addressed a need expressed at UVM: Critical
Reflection in Project-Model Service-Learning.
Implementation Grants and Service-Learning
Teaching Assistants further help faculty with introducing service-learning components within their
courses. In 2014-2015, CUPS recruited and trained
19 SL-TA’s for 17 faculty.
2014-2015 Faculty Fellows for
Service-Learning
Emily Brodsky, Lecturer, LANDS Program,
RSENR
Margaret Burke, Coordinator of Community
-Based Learning, RSENR
Thomas DeSisto, Lecturer, Community
Development & Applied Economics
Jason Gabarino, Clinical Instructor, Nursing
Nancy Gell, Assistant Professor, Rehabilitation &
Movement Science
Shana Haines, Assistant Professor, Special Education
Kelly Hamshaw, Lecturer, Community
Development & Applied Economics
David Hohenshau, Lecturer, RSENR
Lori Meyer, Assistant Professor, Special
Education
Cheryl Morse, Assistant Professor,
Geography
Jeanne Shea, Associate Professor,
Anthropology
Sara Solnick, Associate Professor, Economics
Laura Webb, Associate Professor, Geography,
CAS
Thomas DeSisto and Kelly Hamshaw, both of the Community
Development & Applied Economics Department, in the Faculty
Fellows for Service-Learning Program; photo by Jeff Clark.
Implementation Grant
Recipients 2014-2015
Emily Bodsky, RSENR: $600 for LANDS
Semester
Katrinell Davis, Sociology: $100 for Social
Class & Mobility
Kate Finley Woodruff, CDAE: $300 for
Socially Responsible Marketing
Kathy Fox, Sociology: $200 for Criminal
Justice
Rachael Montesano, Romance Languages:
$125 for Spanish Composition & Conversation
Cherie Morse, $200 for Food Systems Immersion Seminar
Amy Seidl, ENVS: $300 for Adaptation to
Climate Change
Jeanne Shea, Anthropology: $300 for Culture,
Health, & Healing and $200 for Anthropology
of Aging
SL-TA Recipients 2014-2015
Carol Buck-Rolland, CDAE 120 Pediatric
Concepts and Exploring Health Care: Oaxaca
Susan Comerford, Working with Refugees
Cecilia Danks, Community-Based Natural
Resource Management
Clare Ginger, Charlie Ross Environmental
Public Service Practicum
Kelley Helmstutler de Dio, Western Art
Tom Hudspeth, Sustainability Education
Rachael Montesano, Composition & Conversation (both Fall & Spring)
Teage O’Connor, Natural History of Centennial Woods
Alison Pechenick, Senior Seminar
Jennifer Prue, Development: Theory & Application andTeaching to Make a Difference
David Raphael, Parks & Recreation Design
and Sustainable Landscape Architeacture &
Construction
Amy Seidl, Adaptation to Climate Change
Jeanne Shea, Anthropology of Aging
Kevin Stapleton, Sustainable Development in
Small Island States, St. Lucia
Barri Tinkler, Citizenship & Education in the
US
Kimberly Wallin, Forest Ecosystem Health
Richard Watts, Contemporary Policy Issues:
Organizing for Change and Sustainable
Transportation Planning
Kate Westdijk, Place-Based Herbal Medicine
and Community Participatory Research
Continued Growth
In 2014-2015, CUPS designated a record number of
courses, reaching a higher proportion of the student
body than in previous years. 91 courses, taught by
57 UVM faculty members, received the SL designation, reaching 2233 students (see graph of courses
over time). The breadth and reach of our courses
is truly impressive, particularly given the size of our
institution.
Several of these courses represented new or
unique initiatives, such as the LANDS semester
– a 4-course SL travel immersion program in land
resources in the fall semester; and a paired-course
SL project in Museum Anthropology and Museum
Studies. Existing courses continued to garner
attention across campus, such as Kathleen Liang’s
Entrepreneurship courses and Barri Tinkler’s Education for Citizenship course, featured in Vermont
Quarterly and in the UVM newsfeed, respectively.
(See course profiles, page 10).
CUPS Awards
On April 16, CUPS honored faculty, students and
community partners for their exceptional service-learning efforts. We were delighted to have
service-learning expert Dr. Barbara Jacoby as the
keynote speaker at the ceremony, held in Waterman
Manor.
Associate Professors Kimberly Wallin and Ernesto
Mendez were both given the Lynne Bond Outstanding Service-Learning Award for Faculty.
Top Left: Tom Wilson, CUPS Program Coordinator & Kimberly Wallin, RSENR. Bottom Left: Susan Munkres, CUPS Director
and Sarah Heiss, CDAE. Right: Barbara Jacoby at the 2015 Service-Learning Awards Reception. All photos by Sally McCay.
Professor Mendez of Plant and Soil Science
teaches service-learning courses in Advanced
Agroecology and Community Participatory Action
Research. He has led faculty collaborations to
“[Mendez’s] colleagues cite
his ‘gift for leveraging
reflection in his partnerships
to surface those ‘elegant
solutions’ that deepen
collective impact and cultivate
both sustained and joyous
engagement for all partners.”
promote engaged scholarship and developed local
research projects that involve community partners
in long-standing efforts to promote agricultural resilience in the face of climate change in Vermont. His
colleagues cite his “gift for leveraging reflection in
his partnerships to surface those ‘elegant solutions’
that deepen collective impact and cultivate both
sustained and joyous engagement for all partners.”
Professor Wallin teaches in the Forestry department of the Rubenstein School. She was nominated by no less than three people, including a
former student who took her first service-learning
course with Kimberly as a first-year student and is
now a Ph.D. candidate in RSENR. Kimberly has an
ability to meet students at their starting point and
carefully and rigorously scaffold experiences that
develop their abilities and prepare them for community-based research and other opportunities.
Assistant Professor Sarah Heiss of CDAE
was awarded the title of Outstanding New Service-Learning Faculty. With the depth of service-learning experience across the university,
junior faculty do not always receive recognition for
their important work. Professor Heiss has shown
steady commitment, an ability to deeply engage
students and a thorough understanding of the service-learning experience.
Annual Report 2014-2015:
Our Students
2014-2015
Course Profiles:
Full stories from University Communications: www.uvm.edu/partnerships/.
Far-Reaching Impact
LANDS Semester
“UVM’s new LANDS Program Field Semester is
the only program of its kind in the United States.
Similar to a study abroad program - but staying on
campus - 15 undergraduate students signed on
as the first team in the spring of 2014. Then they
worked - full time, all fall - on field-based alternatives to traditional classes - serving as consultants
to numerous towns and conservation organizations across Vermont....“[T]he purpose of LANDS
is to promote better land stewardship,” explains
Flore Costume ’16....’A lot of the things we were
doing involved going outside - and putting what we
learned conceptually into practice.’” Full story by
Joshua E. Brown.
Community Entrepreneurship
“[Kathleen Liang] walked into the first class of
the semester with forty-five dollars in hand and
staked each student with a single bill. They would
then form teams, develop a product to make and
sell with their startup capital and write a business
plan. “‘Dollar Enterprise’ students peddle their
wares in front of Bailey/Howe Library, a familiar
scene on campus thanks to the enduring popularity of...[the] class...The class won the 2014 Best
Practices Award at the National Small Business
Institute Conference and was named one of Inc.
magazine’s best entrepreneur courses in America
last fall, among offerings from Stanford, MIT and
Cornell.” Full story by Lee Ann Cox.
Museum Anthropology & Art
“Two classes taught in tandem this semester gave
art and anthropology students the space to work
together as curators on a fall 2015 exhibition at
the Fleming. Group-based coursework and workshops taught students everything from the art of
writing wall text to the fundamentals of museum
installation.... The interdisciplinary effort, led by
Professors Jennifer Dickinson, anthropology, and
Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio, art history, in partnership
with Fleming staff, was this fall’s recipient of the
College of Arts and Sciences’ competitive grant
program, Enhancing Excellence through Interdisciplinary Experiential Engagement....” Full story by
Amanda Kenyon Waite.
Citizenship & Education in the US
“Sophmore Eric Venezia works with Saran Chhetri
to prepare the Bhutanese immigrant for his U.S.
citizenship test. The unlikely relationship...was
forged during a service learning course taught
by Barri Tinkler, assistant professor of education.
Every Thursday evening, students in her “Citizenship and Education in the U.S.” class meet at the
O’Brien Community Center in Winooski to help
adult refugees...prepare for the U.S. citizenship
test.... ‘The course content is designed to help
students understand how the system works,/ says
Tinkler. ‘Once they understood it better, I wanted
them to talk to people who are actually in the system.’” Full story by Jon Reidel.
Courses such as those profiled at left have profound effects on student learning. Service-learning
is included as one of ten “high-impact practices”
(Kuh 2008) documented to support student learning. National data confirms over and over that
participation in service-learning is associated with
greater learning, engagement, retention and success. Data at UVM affirms these national findings
with data from the National Survey of Student
Engagement (NSSE) 2015 showing that participation in service-learning was significantly associated with a number of positive perceived gains
for students. Seniors reported perceived gains in
the following areas: speaking clearly and effectively, working effectively with others, acquiring
job or work-related knowledge and skills, being an
informed and active citizen and clarifying a personal code of values and ethics. Data from UVM’s Survey of Recent Graduates also
shows that service-learning participation is associated with greater satisfaction with UVM as an institution, greater sense of academic challenge, higher
levels of faculty-student interaction and greater
likelihood to choose UVM again.
These beneficial effects are particularly strong for
under-represented students (McNair and Finley
2013), but at many institutions, underrepresented
groups do not participate at the same rates in the
high-impact practices. At UVM, ALANA students
participate in service-learning at the same rates as
white peers, and men and women participate at
very similar rates as well.
Service-Learning Teaching Assistant Program
CUPS staff work with faculty provide service-learning courses for students, but also work directly with
students. Since 2007, CUPS has provided opportunities for students to deepen their understanding
of service-learning pedagogy through working as
a teaching assistant for the service-learning component of designated courses. Either for a stipend
or for academic credit, students work up to 5
hours per week for faculty, while receiving training
in critical reflection, best practices in community
partnerships, grading student work, and project
management. CUPS Program Coordinator Tom
Wilson manages all aspects of the SL-TA Program,
from recruiting, matching, training and supporting
SL-TA’s, to assisting faculty in working effectively
with this support.
“Being able to help my students
interact with professionals in our
field was fantastic. Each student
developed lots of valuable skills
throughout the year, and are
responsible for a very exciting
exhibition that the community
will benefit from greatly.”
Kat Ford, Service-Learning
Teaching Assistant
CUPS SL-TAs 2014-2015
Nell Auchincloss ‘15, ENVS
Allie Brimlow ‘15, CDAE
Chris Damiani ‘15, CDAE
Jack Fitch, Nursing
Kat Ford ‘16, Art History
Marissa Lehrman ‘17, HDFS
Lauren Lumbra ‘16, Community Entrepreneurship
Jackson Massey ‘15, ENVS
Caroline McCall ‘15, ENVS
Andrea Meyer ‘15, ENVS
Vivian Nicastro ‘15, CDAE
Karla Noboa ‘15, Natural Resource Ecology
Sarah Richardson ‘15, Psychology/Social
Work
Aleyna Rodriguez ‘16, ENVS
Isaac Sacca ‘16, Forestry
Sarah Shaw ‘16, Global Studies
Olivia Taylor ‘15, ENVS
Corinne Sadlowski, Computer Science
Charlotte Wonnell ‘15, Anthropology/Psychology
analyze issues facing Burlington’s Old North End,
or write a grant for a local community organization.
I am passionate about community engagement and
service learning so this project was a natural and
easy [fit].”.
Left: LANDS students recording field notes
(Fall 2014); photo by LANDS students. Right:
“Scrappy,” the mascot created by FS 350 Food
Systems Immersion Seminar students to support
education about Vermont’s new mandatory composting law (Spring 2015).
Student Outreach & Engagement
In addition to significant outreach to recruit for the
SL-TA program, CUPS staff offer workshops for
service-learning students on identifying the work
-related skills that they are gaining in SL courses;
these Transferable Skills workshops were piloted in
5 courses this year and will be offered to all faculty
for inclusion in their courses in FY16. We also work
with students to identify opportunities that are natu-
“The students who come from
Alan [Tinkler]’s [EDSC 215]
class are experienced, confident, and supremely helpful.
This semester, his tutors were
my most reliable and some of
the most effective.”
Nick McKelvie, O’Brien
Community Center
ral outgrowths of service-learning projects, such as
internships and independent studies with the community partner, and supported research on behalf
of the community partner, such as the Simon Public
Research Scholarship, offered in the summer to
students and community partners. CUPS provides
materials for faculty, identifying these opportunities
for students in one centralized format.
CUPS Outstanding Student Award
Carley Jensen, ‘15, is this year’s receipient of
the CUPS Outstanding Student in Service-Learning. Jensen is a Sociology major, Community and
International Development minor, and a member of
the Dewey House for Civic Engagament.
Kailee Brinkner-McDonald, director of the Dewey
House,nominated Jensen, praising her passion,
facilitation skills, empathy, and ability to cohesively
pull together ideas to gain a complex understanding
of society’s systemic injustices. In a reflection on
her service-learning, Carley wrote: “I am especially
grateful for the hands-on professional experience
they have provided me. In no other class would I
have had the opportunity to plan and implement my
own international community development project,
work one on one with members of the Burlington
community struggling with housing issues, critically
Top: Students in Rachael Montesano’s SPAN 101 making tamales to sell in support of Huertas, a program building food security
for migrant dairy farm workers (Fall ‘14); photo by Sarah Shaw. Middle: Art & Antrhopology students explore all facets of museum
curation, while developing exhibit proposals (Spring 2015); photo by University Communications. Bottom: Nick McKelvie supports students tackling their homework at the O’Brien Community Center in Winooski; photo and caption by Marissa Mahoney.
Annual Report 2014-2015:
Our Community Partners
CUPS Support
In the past two years, CUPS staff have increased
our engagement with our community partners. We
now write directly to each community partner at the
beginning of the semester, introducing CUPS and
our resources for service-learning; we also offer to
assist community partners to find additional UVM
connections. We also now write directly to each
community partner requesting their feedback – via
a revised survey instrument – at the end of each
semester. The results of these new surveys are
discussed in the next section.
Through these contacts, and others, we met directly
with 21 community partners in 2014-2015, and
referred an additional 13 to other UVM staff, such
as Matt Myers, Food Systems Internship Coordinator; Margaret Burke, Community-Based Learning
Coordinator in RSENR, and the Career Center. We
were able to assist in the creation of one successful
Simon Public Research Scholarship, through connecting a community partner with an appropriate
undergraduate for a desired research project.
Community partners Dan Cahill (Burlington Parks,
Recreation and Waterfront), Jason Van Driesche
(Local Motion) and Laurie Dana (The United
Way) spoke as panelists to the Faculty Fellows
for Service-Learning. They offered their perspective on service-learning, both appreciating what
service-learning offers to them at its best (strong
students, with relevant academic preparation, overseen by a faculty member who ensures accountability, and access to this generation’s way of thinking) while reminding faculty of the need for advance
preparation, flexibility and respect for the timetable
and needs of community partners.
Community Partner Experiences
Our community partners generally are very pleased
with their work with UVM students. In FY15, all
partners responding to the feedback survey found
UVM service-learning students to be professional,
knowledgeable and responsible. The vast majority
(88% of respondents) said that the project or service was useful and met their expectation, while
only 4% saying that the work did not meet expectations.) Partners also testified that they helped to
determine the project (80% had helped to determine what students would do).
Outstanding Community Partner Award
Carey Hengstenberg was named this year’s Outstanding Community Partner in Service-Learning.
Hengstenberg is the Planning Manager in the
Administration & Innovation Division at the Agency
of Natural Resources. In addition to working directly
with service-learning courses and interns, Hengstenberg has stewarded interns through the UVM
“perennial internship” program at ANR. She has
supported the recruitment of new ANR partners for
service-learning and internship opportunities, leading to a doubling of ANR partnerships. Finally, her
vision has manifested in the creation of an experiential learning workshop spanning the entire ANR.
Right: Carey Hengstenberg of Vermont ANR
receiving her service-learning community
partner award.
Below: Working Landscapes Exhibit in
Bailey-Howe Library,
summer ‘14; produced
by students in FS350
Food Systems Immersion
Seminar, taught by Cherie Morse, Geography.
Photos by Sally McCay.
Our Community Partners 2014-2015
All Breed Rescue*
ANR (Agency of Natural Resources)
Dept. of Environmental Conservation*
ANR Dept. of Fish & Wildlife*
ANR Dept. of Parks & Recreation
Audubon State Foresters
Back Country Pizza
Boys & Girls Club of Burlington*
Bread and Butter Farm
Burlington Children’s Space
Burlington Co-Housing
Burlington Farmers Market
Burlington High School
Burlington School District*
Burlington School Food Project
Cabot
Camp Ta-Kum-Ta
Cathedral Square
Champlain Valley Office of Economic
Opportunity (CVOEO)*
Chittenden County
Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf
Chittenden Regional Correctional
Facility
City of Burlington Department of Parks
& Recreation
City of Burlington Department of
Planning & Zoning
City of Burlington Electric Department
City of Burlington Public Works
City of Burlington*
City of South Burlington
City of Winooski
Clinton County Health Department
Committee on Temporary Shelter*
Common Roots*
Community College of Vermont
Community Justice Panels
Coop Food Stores
Crow’s Path*
Dan and Whit’s Store
Danta Corvocado Lodge; Costa Rica
Dismas House
DREAM Mentoring Program
Dress for Success Burlington*
EarthWalk Vermont
ECHO Lake Aquarium & Science Center
Escuela Ida Guadalupe; Costa Rica
Fleming Museum*
Friends of the Mad River*
Friends of the Northern Lake
Friends of the Winooski River*
Girl Develop It
Greater Bridgeport Regional Council
Green Mountain Animal Defenders
(GMAD)
Green Mountain National Forest*
Greenhouse RLC*
Guaymi Indian Reserve
Health Care Rehabilitation Services
(HCRS)
HOPE Works
Howard Center
Huertas VT
Intervale Conservation Nursery*
Jake’s Convenience Store
Jericho Research Forest*
Johnson Conservation Commission*
Keller Williams
Kentucky Sanitation District
Kids-A-Part
King Arthur Flour
King Street Youth Center*
Lake Champlain Basin Program
Lake Champlain International
Lake Champlain Sea Grant Program
Lionshare Educational Organization Zoological Conservation Center
Local Motion
LUND
Meals on Wheels Association of
America
Metta Earth Institute*
Middlebury Town Manager’s Office
Ministry of Agriculture, Food
Production, Fishers, Cooperatives,
& Rural Development; St. Lucia, West
Indies
Ministry of Commerce; St. Lucia, West
Indies
Morpho de Oso; Costa Rica
National Resources Conservation
Service (NRCS)
National Wildlife Federation
New Haven Conservation Commission
Northfield Conservation Commission*
Oakland University
O’Brien Community Center*
Old North End Arts and Business
Network
ONE Arts Center/Collective
ONE Good Deed Fund
Our Community Cares Camp, Inc.
Outreach for Earth Stewardship
Parents & Adults Celebrating Children
& Teens
Partnership for Change
Permaculture Design Synthesis
Planning Commission Chair
Powe. Snowboards*
Pride Center of Vermont
Rock Point School
Rockpoint Garden Collective
Serve Burlington
Shelburne Farms*
Simbex
South Burlington Energy Committee
South Burlington School District
Mentoring Program
Spectrum Youth & Family Services
Sprinticity Track Club
Sun Common
Support & Services at Home (SASH)
The Nature Conservancy
The Village of Essex Junction
Tug of War event for Veterans
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service*
U.S. Geological Survey
Upper Valley Adaptation Workgroup
Upper Valley Haven
USDA Forest Service Northern
Research Station
UVM Fisheries Lab
UVM Campus Gardens
UVM Center for Ethics and Standards
UVM Center for Health & Wellbeing*
UVM Center for Teaching & Learning
UVM College of Engineering &
Mathematical Sciences
UVM CUPS Office
UVM Department of Community
Development & Applied Economics
UVM Department of Medicine
UVM Department of Pharmacology
UVM Food Feed
UVM Forestry Research
UVM Greenhouse
UVM LGBTQA Center
UVM Masters of Science
UVM Men’s Club Lacrosse
UVM Natural Areas Program*
UVM Office of Student & Community
Relations*
UVM Office of Sustainability
UVM Pest Outreach Extension
UVM Phsycial Plant Department
UVM Ropes Course
UVM Rubenstein School of Environment
& Natural Resources
UVM Spoonful Herbals
UVM Web Team
Vermont Adaptive Ski & Sports
Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition
Vermont Agency of Human Services
Vermont Center for Integrative
Herbalism
Vermont Department of Corrections*
Vermont FEED
Vermont Humanities
Vermont Monitoring Cooperative*
Vermont Public Interest Research
Group*
Vermont Public Service Department
Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program
(VRRP)
Vermont River Conservancy*
Vermont State Attorney’s Office
Vermont Urban & Community Forestry
Program*
Vermont Village Greens
Voices for Vermont’s Children
Watershed Alliance: Potash Brook
Winooski Natural Resources
Conservation District
YouthBuild
*Indicates community partner who
worked with multiple courses
The Office of Community-University Partnerships & Service-learning
409 Billings Center
48 University Place
Burlington, Vermont 05405
Telephone: 802-656-0095
Email: [email protected]