Since 2006, nearly 150 faculty members have participated in the Service-Learning Fellows program. They represent 16 schools/colleges, plus the medical partnership, the Provost's Office, and Public Service & Outreach, in over 50 separate departments/units.
See below for details about each cohort's participants and projects.
2022-23 Service-Learning Fellows
The 2022-23 Service-Learning Fellows are:
The 2021-22 Service-Learning Fellows are:
The Service-Learning Fellows selected for the 2020-21 program year are:
2019-20 Service-Learning Fellows
The 2019-2020 Service-Learning Fellows, their respective academic fields, and proposed projects are—
Collette Chapman-Hilliard, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Counseling and Human Development Services, College of Education
Chapman-Hilliard will incorporate a social justice and advocacy service-learning project engaging graduate students in the Mental Health Counseling program with organizations supporting marginalized communities, including curricular development and needs assessments.
Elizabeth M. Grant, Assistant Clinical Professor, Law School
As part of the Public Interest Practicum clinic, Grant plans to work with law students and partners to develop and incorporate graphic arts to help better explain legal information for unrepresented litigants in Athens and enhance law students’ communication skills.
Jessica L. Heywood, Externship Clinician, Washington DC Semester Program, Law School
For the DC Semester legal externship, Heywood is working to implement additional elements of service-learning best practices across the variety of student externship placements and experiences.
Candice Hollenbeck, Lecturer, Dept. of Marketing, Terry College of Business
Hollenbeck’s students in MARK4600S (Integrated Marketing and Brand Communications), will work with nonprofit organizations and local businesses to identify target markets, design campaigns, and create and disseminate messages in support of their organization’s missions.
Melissa Scott Kozak, Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Human Development and Family Science, College of Family & Consumer Sciences
Kozak plans to have students in her Family Life Education Methodology course partner with UGA Cooperative Extension to develop, facilitate and evaluate programs based on identified community needs.
Suzanne H. Lester, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine, Augusta University/UGA Medical Partnership
Lester plans to enhance and assess partnerships and pedagogy supporting medical student and community interactions in the Community and Population Health two-year curriculum.
Magdalena Matuskova, Lecturer, Dept. of Romance Languages, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences
Matuskova is developing a new service-learning course on Spanish-English medical and healthcare interpreting, in which students will develop skills through taking part in interpreting in health education and clinical settings.
Jill Stefaniak, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Career & Information Studies, College of Education
Stefaniak will engage graduate students in providing performance evaluations for non-profit organizations locally and beyond, in her EDIT 7350 course on e-Learning Evaluation and Assessment.
The 2018-19 Service-Learning Fellows are:
Nine faculty members are part of the 2017-18 Service-Learning Fellows cohort:
2016-17 Service-Learning Fellows
Nine faculty members were selected as 2016-17 Service-Learning Fellows:
Debra Alvis, Lecturer, Division of Academic Enhancement
Jodi Barnes, Lecturer, Institute for Leadership Advancement, Terry College of Business
Melinda Camus, Assistant Professor, Veterinary Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine
Krista Capps, Assistant Professor, Odum School of Ecology & Savannah River Ecology Laboratory
Julie K. Gaines, Associate Professor and Librarian III, Medical Partnership Campus Library, Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership
Laura German, Associate Professor, Anthropology, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences
Dainess Maganda, Lecturer, Comparative Literature, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences
Paula Mellom, Associate Research Scientist, Center for Latino Achievement & Success in Education, College of Education
Kristi Schaller, Senior Lecturer, Communication Studies, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences
Nineteen faculty members were selected for the 2015-2016 Service-Learning Fellows program. They include:
Lisa Bazzle, clinical instructor, Small Animal Medicine & Surgery, College of Veterinary Medicine
Abigail Borron, assistant professor, Dept. of Agricultural Leadership & Communication, College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences
Peggy Brickman, professor, Dept. of Plant Biology, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences
Scott Connelly, assistant professor, Odum School of Ecology
Cheryl Fields-Smith, associate professor, Dept. of Educational Theory & Practice, College of Education
Laurie Fowler, associate dean, Odum School of Ecology and clinical faculty, School of Law
Leslie Gordon, Office of Academic Planning
Katie Darby Hein, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Health Promotion & Behavior, College of Public Health
Meg Easom Hines, Lecturer, Dept. of Educational Psychology, College of Education
Alice Kinman, Lecturer, Dept. of Economics, Terry College of Business
Theodore (TJ) Kopcha, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Career and Information Studies, College of Education
Juan Meng, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Public Relations, Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communications
Bodie Pennisi, Professor, Dept. of Horticulture, Griffin Campus
Nancee Reeves, Lecturer, Dept. of English, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences
Jerry Shannon, Assistant Professor, Geography/Family & Consumer Science, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences & College of Family & Consumer Sciences
Jennifer Jo Thompson, Assistant Research Scientist, Dept. of Crop & Soil Sciences, College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences
Susanne Ullrich, Associate Professor, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences
Brandy Walker, Public Service Assistant, JW Fanning Institute for Leadership Development
Elizabeth Watts Warren, Lecturer, Dept. of Sociology, Griffin Campus
The 2014-15 Service-Learning Fellows, their respective academic fields, and proposed projects are:
Robert Christensen, Associate Professor, Public Administration & Policy, School of Public and International Affairs Christensen plans to develop and implement research examining undergraduate students’ public service motivation and its relationship to participation in service-learning activities, with particular attention to the influences of student gender and ethnicity, and longer term impacts on career choices that may be public service related.
Caree Cotwright, Assistant Professor, Foods and Nutrition, College of Family and Consumer Sciences Cotwright will continue to enhance applied field experiences for students in FDNS 4660/6660, Foods and Nutrition Education, and plans to develop a mobile food market at child-care centers to increase availability and consumption of fresh produce.
Jolie Daigle, Associate Professor, Counseling & Human Development Services, College of Education Daigle’s project will further integrate service-learning pedagogy and training experiences in the school counseling curriculum, so that school counselors, in turn, can develop service-learning programs to enhance the academic curriculum, engage students meaningfully in the community, and contribute to school improvement and success.
April Galyardt, Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology, College of Education Galyardt intends to involve graduate students in applying educational “data mining” and statistical analysis to projects that benefit university offices and departments by using institutional data to answer questions relating to institutional priorities.
Natasha Ganem, Lecturer, Sociology, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences Ganem will continue to develop the service-learning components of her SOCI 3070 (Juvenile Delinquency) course, including a focus on preparing UGA students to more effectively engage in their roles as mentors of youth in the community.
Mary Hondalus, Associate Professor, Infectious Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine Hondalus will expand service-learning opportunities for students in veterinary medicine, including incorporating vaccination clinics and animal health education into a course focusing on the needs of underserviced Athens communities.
Peter Jutras, Associate Professor, Hugh Hodgson School of Music Jutras plans to establish additional service-learning courses in music teaching at the graduate and undergraduate levels, partnering with the Community Music School, which offers music instruction to individuals and groups of all ages and income levels.
Catherine Teare Ketter, Academic Professional, Marine Sciences, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences Teare Ketter plans to revise and incorporate additional community partners into her marine science educational outreach course, converting it into a new course (MARS 3800S: Service-Learning through Educational Outreach in Marine Sciences), as well as to research impacts of prior semesters’ courses on short- and long-term student outcomes.
Tiffany Washington, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work Washington will develop a Maymester gerontology course in which her students apply course knowledge to engage with and provide respite visits to Alzheimer’s disease caregivers in the local community.
The 2013-14 Service-Learning Fellows, their respective academic fields, and proposed projects are:
Alison Bramlet, Assistant Professor, College of Environment & Design
Bramlet plans to incorporate new projects into the LAND 6030, “Nature and Sustainability Design Studio,” integrating community engagement opportunities into the studio through real-world projects and partnership with community organizations.
Carissa DiCindio, Curator of Education, Georgia Museum of Art
DiCindio will work with students at the Georgia Museum of Art to promote collaborative involvement and provide practical application for their coursework, including through ARED 5260/7230, “Engaging Art Museum Audiences as Student Docents.”
Sujata Iyengar, Professor, English
Iyengar plans to incorporate service-learning into a course called “Shakespeare in the Classroom,” in which her students will work with local schools to enhance vocabulary development and to incorporate Shakespeare’s work and influence into the curriculum creatively.
Melissa Landers-Potts, Lecturer, Human Development & Family Sciences
Students in Landers-Potts’ HDFS 3700S, “Adolescent Development,” course serve as mentors and tutors of high school students at the Performance Learning Center (PLC). She will incorporate assessment of the impacts of this service-learning on the cultural competency and attitudes of students in this course, and students will co-develop a student leadership structure with students at the PLC.
Carol Laws, Instructor, Institute on Human Development & Disability
Laws will integrate service-learning into the graduate and undergraduate Disability Studies Certificate program and its coursework. She also plans to develop a new service-learning course on “Disability in Childhood and Adolescence.”
Roy Legette, Associate Professor, Hugh Hodgson School of Music
Legette’s project will focus on development and implementation of a robust pre-K field experience practicum into his teaching methods courses for music education majors, in collaboration with the UGA Child Care Center.
Sudhagar Mani, Associate Professor, Biochemical Engineering
Students in Mani’s ENGR 4490, “Renewable Energy Engineering,” course will engage with campus partners, such as Physical Plant and Campus Kitchen, to assess and implement sustainable engineering service projects. Mani also hopes to incorporate service-learning into other engineering coursework.
Virginia Nazarea, Professor, Anthropology
Service-learning will be incorporated into two of Nazarea’s courses, “Anthropology of Roots and Rooting,” and “Transnationalism and Practices of Memory,” in order to engage students in exploring anthropological concepts through work with campus and community outreach organizations.
Neelam Poudyal, Assistant Professor, Natural Resource Recreation & Tourism
Poudyal plans to engage students with service-learning through NRRT 4400/6400, “Resource Management and Entrepreneurship,” in which they will apply principles and practices of recreation resource management to assist parks operated by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. (Neelam was hired away from UGA by another institution, so did not complete the full program year.)
Gretchen Thomas, Instructor, Learning, Design, & Technology
For her service-learning project, Thomas’s EDIT 4180, “Discovery Dawgs Online Mentoring,” students will expand opportunities for online mentoring and project-based learning with high-achieving elementary school students, their teachers and parents.
Karen Tinsley, Public Service Associate, Housing & Consumer Economics
Tinsley plans to integrate needs identified by the Georgia Initiative for Community Housing program into the HACE 4900, “Housing and Community Development,” course, involving students with real-world projects on housing and neighborhood revitalization.
Phillip Tomporowski, Professor, Kinesiology
Tomporowski intends to develop a new course that engages undergraduates in theory-based methods of teaching physical activity games, through field experiences in local schools’ after-school programs.
The 2012-13 Service-Learning Fellows, their respective academic fields, and projects are:
Michael Castengera, Senior Lecturer, Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication
Castengera plans to link students in TELE 5580 & 5590 who produce the student newscast "Newsource" with citizen journalists to promote dialogue between citizens and government through digital media.
Ann Glauser, Associate Professor, Division of Academic Enhancement
Glauser's project entails integrating service-learning into UNIV 1103 (Strategies and Life-Skills Needed for Success), allowing students to become aware of the complexity of issues facing the local community while they practice critical thinking, interpersonal and leadership skills.
Betina Kaplan, Associate Professor, Spanish
Kaplan proposes restructuring the SPAN 4090 (Spanish Practicum for Service-Learning) course as well as further developing a Spanish adult literacy program at the Pinewoods Library and Learning Center.
Anna Karls, Associate Professor, Microbiology
Karls plans to develop and teach GRSC7970S (Approaches to Community Engagement), helping prepare graduate students as future faculty to take part in effective community-engaged research, teaching and service.
Emily Sahakian, Assistant Professor, Theatre and Film Studies & Romance Languages
Sahakian plans to develop and incorporate community partnerships with the Boys and Girls Club into a community-based theatre course, and to enhance assessment of the community-based work of her students.
Ajay Sharma, Assistant Professor, Veterinary Biosciences and Diagnostic Imaging
Sharma proposes establishing a sustainable multi-week community-based rotation experience into the College of Veterinary Medicine's curriculum.
Anne Shenk, Public Service Assistant, State Botanical Garden of Georgia
Shenk will build on an interdisciplinary service-learning program that partners after-school programs with environmental education and school gardening initiatives, co-teaching the Project FOCUS after-school course.
Kim Skobba, Assistant Professor, Housing and Consumer Economics
Skobba's project entails connecting students in HACE 5310 (Managing Nonprofit and Special Community Housing) with hands-on work with nonprofit housing organizations in the community.
Julie Spivey, Associate Professor, Lamar Dodd School of Art
Spivey plans to develop collaborative service-based projects integrated into the curriculum of graphic design courses, connecting students with multidisciplinary teams to address social and civic issues.
The 2011-12 Service-Learning Fellows, their respective academic fields, and projects are:
Jon Calabria, Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture
Calabria’s project will integrate service-learning into a graduate studio course (LAND 6030, Nature and Sustainability) focusing on green infrastructure on and off campus.
Silvia Giraudo, Associate Professor, Foods and Nutrition
Giraudo plans to develop, implement and assess programs focused on prevention of childhood obesity among the Latino population in conjunction with a First Year Odyssey Seminar.
Jennifer Hauver James, Assistant Professor, Elementary & Social Studies Education
James’s service-learning project entails development of a First Year Odyssey Seminar (Learning with Young Children) and assessing how students and teachers reflect on their experiences as teachers of young children.
Jennifer Martin Lewis, Public Service Program Coordinator, Center for Community Design & Preservation
Lewis plans to develop and implement assessments for the impact and effectiveness for students and community partners of the community design charrettes developed as service-learning projects by students and faculty in the College of Environment and Design.
Michael Marshall, Associate Professor, Art
Marshall’s project integrates service-learning into the photography curriculum via a special topics course (ARST 4210/7210) for undergraduate and graduate students, allowing them to integrate their photographic skills into community contexts.
Katherine Melcher, Assistant Professor, Environment & Design
Melcher will develop a graduate-level independent study course (LAND 6040) focusing on design-build work in collaboration with local community partners, in which students enhance their professional skills while meeting an expressed community need.
Maritza Soto Keen, Public Service Associate, Fanning Institute
Soto Keen will work with the Office of Service-Learning and community partners to develop a set of orientation materials for faculty and students interested in engaging with the Latino community through service-learning.
M. Montgomery Wolf, Lecturer, History
Wolf will work with the Global LEAD program to enhance service-learning in study abroad programs (FCID 3900S, Service-Learning and the Arts) with students in South Africa and Greece.
The 2010-11 Service-Learning Fellows, their respective academic fields, and projects were:
Paul Boumbulian, Public Service Associate, Health Policy & Management
Boumbulian developed HPAM 8010S: Advanced Service-Learning in Health Policy and Management. Taught Fall 2010, the class gave students the opportunity to partner with the Athens Neighborhood Health Center and gain an understanding of the complexities of the healthcare system by serving as patient advocates.
Tom Lawrence, Public Service Associate, Biological & Agricultural Engineering
During Fall 2010, students in Lawrence’s ENGR/LAND 4660: Sustainable Design course conducted projects at the request of the UGA Office of Sustainability. These projects involved either recently completed new building construction projects (such as the new Pharmacy School addition and the Building 1516 residence hall) or in planning for the addition of a renewable energy system.
Sungkyung Lee, Assistant Professor, Environment & Design
Landscape architecture students in Lee’s LAND 4912: Sustainability in Design studio worked with a local community group, Athens Permaculture, to design a community garden. In order to understand the site context, students conducted field research, worked on site clearing and rain garden construction, and participated in community meetings.
Deanna W. McEwen, Public Service Assistant/IPPE Coordinator, Pharmacy
McEwen supervised the service-learning incorporated into the pharmacy curriculum during the second and third year (PHRM 4520/4530/5710/5720) with a variety of sustainable internal, local, and statewide partnerships to provide direct patient care and improve health outcomes. For instance, beginning in January 2011, 14 students implemented a smoking cessation program entitled Beat the Pack offered to UGA employees.
Shari E. Miller, Assistant Professor, Social Work
During Spring 2011, undergraduate social work majors participated in a pilot version of Miller’s course in which inter-disciplinary faculty (social work; horticulture; food and nutrition) collaborated to develop a school garden initiative in local public schools, with a focus on addressing UGA students’ relationship to the natural environment, food security, sustainability, childhood nutrition/obesity, sense of self-efficacy, and community involvement.
Laurel Boykin Murrow, Assistant Professor, Georgia Health Sciences University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership
Murrow coordinated all forty first-year medical students at the Georgia Health Sciences University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership as they participated in the Community Health curriculum. Students worked in small groups with faculty coaches and local partner agencies to investigate a community health problem identified by partners and then implement a health promotion and disease prevention project.
Channette Romero, Assistant Professor, English
During Spring 2011, students in Romero’s ENGL 4890: Literatures of the Caribbean tutored in two after-school programs for elementary and middle school children in the Athens Latino/a community. By applying concepts found in literature to their interactions with Latino/a children and parents, students learned to critically examine issues such as bilingual education, the relationship between immigration status and access to public education, and the difficulties and joys of negotiating cultural difference.
Stephanie Tingler, Associate Professor, Music
Students in Tingler’s Fall 2010 MUSI 3450/7500: Vocal Pedagogy course provided vocal instruction to students preparing for Georgia Music Educators Association All-State Chorus auditions in public high school choral programs in Jackson and Barrow counties, and to youth and adults in Oglethorpe County. Community partners provided career-relevant situations to which students could apply their classroom knowledge, while students brought qualified vocal instruction to areas that have limited access to this educational resource.
The 2009-10 Service-Learning Fellows, their respective academic fields, and projects were:
Elizabeth Davis, Academic Professional, English
Students in Davis’s ENGL 4832: Writing for the World Wide Web class provided a rhetorical analysis of the UGA Writing Center’s web page. Students used their course expertise to identify its purpose, audience, presentation of information, and ethos, and made recommendations for revision of the website.
Joseph Goetz, Assistant Professor, Housing & Consumer Economics
Goetz developed a service-learning component integrated into HACE 5200/7200: Family Financial Counseling. Students provided financial counseling and planning services to individuals and families in the local Athens community; they put their course knowledge to use by aiding individuals in financial distress, and community members benefited from receiving comprehensive financial counseling services.
Tina Harris, Professor, Speech Communications
Harris developed additional service-learning components for SPCM 3820: Interracial Communication, and modified the course to be offered in a Costa Rica context for Summer 2010. Students explored relationships between race, culture, and communication.
Cecilia Herles, Assistant Director, Institute for Women’s Studies
Herles developed a new service-learning course, WMST 4170/6170: Environment, Gender, Race, and Class for the Institute for Women’s Studies. Students in the course worked on service activities including food recovery and laid the groundwork for developing a Campus Kitchen organization at UGA.
Megan Lee, Assistant Professor, Textiles, Merchandising, & Interiors
Students in Lee’s courses assisted individuals and agencies in the Athens community with improving “aging in place” longevity, learning to humanize residential design principles through in-depth involvement with individuals aging in place. Lee’s students also worked with downtown Athens retailers to implement design strategies for increasing walk-in traffic.
Hyangsoon Yi, Associate Professor, Comparative Literature
Yi developed a study-abroad service-learning course (CMLT 3181S: East Asian Cultures in Social Context) in which students acquired first-hand experience of East Asian cultural traditions by engaging in educational activities for a community’s children. She piloted this with a Korean study-abroad summer program.
The 2008-09 Service-Learning Fellows, their respective academic fields, and projects were:
Leigh Askew Elkins, Public Service Assistant, Fanning Institute
Askew Elkins incorporated a service-learning component into the existing School of Environmental Design’s study abroad program in Costa Rica, focusing on asset-based community development.
Brad E. Davis, Assistant Professor, Environment & Design
Davis’s landscape architecture students focused on the creation and long-term utilization of a garden at Whitehead Elementary School in Clarke County. In collaboration with Chris Morgan, his project worked to establish a reproducible and sustainable model of the school garden as a service-learning project.
Daniel Forrister, Clinical Assistant Professor, Clinical and Administrative Pharmacy
Forrister extended and updated the PHRM 5500: Community-Based Pharmacy Outreach course (originally designed by Chris Cook). Student projects focused on improving community awareness of cough and cold, bone health, wellness, medication management in elderly, diabetes, asthma in children, and seasonal nonprescription medication use.
Stacey Kolomer, Associate Professor, Social Work
Kolomer collaborated with the School of Nursing in Athens (SONAT) and the Medical College of Georgia to create interdisciplinary teams of social work and nursing students. These students developed important professional skills while designing and implementing health and wellness fairs for older adults in Athens and Oconee Counties.
Hilda Kurtz, Associate Professor, Geography
Kurtz extended the GEOG 4890/6890: Athens Urban Food Collectiveservice-learning course to spur the creation of community-based urban food gardens in Athens-Clarke County. She worked to involve a team of UGA service-learning faculty from several departments to sponsor a suite of related projects aimed at launching community gardens.
Chris Morgan, Assistant Professor, Agricultural Leadership, Education & Communication
Morgan and Brad Davis collaborated on a service-learning project focused on a teaching garden at Whitehead Elementary School. Students from Morgan’s ALDR 3900: Leadership and Service course developed curricula and lessons to be used with the garden, appropriate for each grade level.
Jennifer Williams, Assistant Professor, Agricultural Leadership, Education & Communication (Griffin Campus)
Williams focused on creating a service-learning program/center for UGA’s Griffin Campus. She also incorporated additional service-learning opportunities into her ALDR 3900: Leadership and Service course.
The 2007-08 Service-Learning Fellows, their respective academic fields, and projects were:
Deborah Gonzalez, Public Service Assistant, International Public Service & Outreach
Gonzalez designed a service-learning component for a leadership development course for professionals to be held in Central America.
Nik Heynen, Assistant Professor, Geography
Heynen continued development of the Athens Urban Food Collective (AUFC) and its affiliated course, GEOG 4890/6890. Students learned about and engaged in direct action around urban hunger in Athens with Athens Food Not Bombs, the Athens Common Ground Resource Center and ACC’s Department of Human and Economic Development.
Jessica Muilenburg, Assistant Professor, Health Promotion and Behavior
Muilenburg’s health promotion students implemented the Healthy Adolescent Workers program (HAWK), a theory-based innovative curriculum aimed at the adolescent workforce, at local school and community sites.
Robert Nielsen, Assistant Professor, Housing and Consumer Economics
Nielsen integrated a service-learning component into a new HACE4000/6000: Research Methods in Housing and Consumer Economicscourse. His students developed survey questions for a Georgia Poll; this provided a non-profit organization with the resulting state-representative data to further its education and advocacy mission.
Uttiyo Raychaudhuri, Academic Professional Associate, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources
Raychaudhuri’s project explored global service-learning opportunities associated with community-based marine resource management in a coastal village in Fiji, in conjunction with UGA’s Studies Abroad in the South Pacific and Caribbean program. His students gained a better understanding of traditional Fijian environmental practice, assisted in replanting corals to revitalize marine areas, and aided in the efforts to conserve and replant mangroves.
Leara Rhodes, Associate Professor, Journalism
Students in Rhodes’ magazine publishing class produced a 32-page color magazine promoting eco-tourism along the Chattahoochee River from Fort Gaines, Georgia to the Florida state line. Students prepared a market analysis, assessed the target audience, developed story ideas, wrote, edited, and took pictures for the stories, and designed the final magazine, which was distributed to communities in that area.
Peter Smagorinsky, Professor, Language & Literacy Education
Smagorinsky developed LLED 3461S: Service-Learning in English Education. In this course, English Education majors are placed in tutoring relationships with Athens youth from impoverished backgrounds, providing academic help as well as providing teacher candidates with experiences with students from backgrounds different from their own.
Kathy Thompson, Public Service Associate, Elementary & Social Studies Education
Thompson integrated service-learning into the Middle School Initial Certification Program. Students enrolled in EDMS 5020: Educating Young Adolescents studied service-learning best practices, made connections to critical frameworks for middle grades education, and engaged in a service-learning project that implemented these best practices.
The 2006-07 Service-Learning Fellows, their respective academic fields, and projects were:
Diane Bales, Associate Professor, Child & Family Development
Bales chaired a college-wide Service-Learning Task Force for the College of Family and Consumer Sciences. They developed a “FACS Guide to Service-Learning” website for college faculty, with ideas and guidelines for faculty beginning to develop a service-learning course and a listing of FACS faculty with experience teaching service-learning courses.
Danny Bivins, Public Service Assistant, Fanning Institute
Bivins worked with Project Riverway (a collaborative partnership between the Fanning Institute, School of Environmental Design, Institute of Ecology, Center for Community Design and Preservation, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, and communities in need) to strengthen the Chattahoochee River corridor’s economic and community well-being and develop Heritage/Cultural/Educational & Ecological Tourism in the area.
Christopher Cook, Clinical Assistant Professor, Clinical & Administrative Pharmacy
Students in Cook’s PHRM 5500: Community-Based Pharmacy Outreachcourse led health interventions in the community. Projects included educational materials and activities on pediatric care, women’s health, healthy eating and weight management, selecting “over the counter” drug products, and medication therapy management reviews for senior citizens.
Denise Lewis, Assistant Professor, Child & Family Development
Undergraduate students in Lewis’ “Friendly Visitors” service-learning gerontology course interact each week with over 100 elders. Students engaged in a range of activities from reading to the visually impaired, gardening, sewing, pet visits, delivering meals through the Meals on Wheels program, or simply talking with the elders.
Alfred Vick, Assistant Professor, Environmental Design
Students in Vick’s courses, including LAND 4360: Applied Landscape Ecology and ECOL 6810, designed and installed demonstration rain-garden projects at local elementary schools.
The Service-Learning Fellows program debuted in Spring Semester 2006. The 2006 Inaugural Service-Learning Fellows, their respective academic fields, and projects were:
David Berle, Assistant Professor, Horticulture
In response to concerns over development in the Hog Hammock community on Sapelo Island, Georgia, Berle’s students documented and mapped over 1200 trees in the 434-acre community. Using the latest GPS equipment, students learned to map trees and collect data related to overall tree health. After received training on campus in Athens, the 12 students spent 8 intensive days mapping trees and roads.
Donna Bliss, Assistant Professor, Social Work
Students enrolled in Bliss’s Communities and Organizations class conducted comprehensive analyses of Athens-Clarke County community issues, and developed grassroots intervention proposals to address them. Then, social work students in her Organizing Community Groups class helped organize community groups to implement these grassroots interventions.
Keely Jones, Assistant Professor, Public Administration & Policy
Jones designed and implemented service-learning components for her classes to connect MPA students with nonprofit organizations. Student teams worked with local nonprofits and provided customized fund-raising and organizational management recommendations.
Katherine Kipp, Associate Professor, Psychology
Students in Kipp’s developmental psychology course took part in service-learning, volunteering their time mentoring and tutoring pre-K students, writing reaction papers relating their experiences back to developmental psychology concepts, thinking critically about the impact of their service on the community, and presenting final thoughts and reflections at the end of the semester.
Paul Matthews, Academic Professional Associate, Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education (CLASE)
Matthews extended CLASE’s service-learning initiatives involving UGA students in working with the K-12 Latino community in Athens, especially with after-school tutoring and mentoring programs. He developed the LLED 4620/6620: ESOL Service-Learning course to support these initiatives.