Academy for Community-Engaged Faculty

Call for Participants for Spring 2013: Project Hope

Imagine the collective impact our region’s Universities could have on one issue if we focused the time and talents of all of our faculty, students, and staff. That’s the premise of “Project Hope” - an initiative being advanced by the Greater Cincinnati Service Learning Network and regional stewards’ Agenda 360 and Vision 2015. The Project is supported by a coalition of higher education institutions (UC, Miami, NKU, Mt. St. Joseph, Thomas More) and designed to move the needle forward on the issue of poverty and related outcomes in our region. UC, Miami, and Xavier will be working independently and collectively to measure and advance our service learning efforts in Cincinnati on this issue over the next two years.

For the first time, the Eigel Center’s Academy for Community-Engaged Faculty – an annual curricular development program for faculty focused on course redesign and creation using principles of community-engaged scholarship – will focus as a cohort on one issue: our region’s challenged relationship with poverty. The Center and our 2013 Academy cohort will include multiple academic disciplines who will work directly with community partners that impact poverty and its related issues. The ultimate goal will be a measurable, definable impact through collective service learning experiences and/or related scholarly and community based research of value to the community and participating faculty.

The Spring 2013 Academy for Community-Engaged Faculty will be open to eight full-time principal, visiting, or clinical faculty or instructors.

Now in its fifth year, the Academy has previously supported Xavier faculty making a significant revision to a chosen course or in creating a new course incorporating principles and practices of community engagement. Engaged courses foster a learning environment that brings faculty, students, and community members together and connects academic and community knowledge and resources. Such partnerships develop the capacity of university and community participants to learn, serve, and lead together.

Participants receive a stipend upon completion of the Academy. Five workshops will be scheduled during the spring including community partner site visits. The Eigel Center will coordinate workshops with faculty schedules and facilitate off campus transportation. Each member of the faculty cohort will be expected to redesign or create a course using principles of engaged service and/or scholarship. Additional funding is available to participants and their partners who finalize and implement a course design or redesign for Fall 2013 or Spring 2014.

Interested faculty participants should address questions to Sean Rhiney (rhineys@xavier.edu), Director of the Eigel Center for Community Engaged Learning.

Applications should be electronically submitted in PDF form by January 4, 2013 to the Eigel Center‘s office administrator, Nancy Hackett (hackettn@xavier.edu), and include a brief statement (no more than two pages) that includes the following:

A description of the course to be modified or created and the learning activities and assignments as they relate to community engagement and the issue of poverty;
A description of the desired student learning objectives and how they will be enhanced through engagement.
A description of the potential role a community partner would play in the development and execution of the course.
A short statement outlining the faculty member’s personal interest in advancing community-engaged learning at Xavier University.

Note that applicants are not expected to have a fully designed course in mind. We expect that participation in the Academy will provide insight, guidance and access to resources that will shape the course. Applicants are encouraged to have some concept of what they want to accomplish, the issues that could be addressed through their course, and the type of potential community partner with whom they would like to collaborate.