|
Visit
the course site »
December 2000
Duquesne devoted an Honors College seminar in
the fall 2000 semester to experiential learning
in community planning and development in the Hill
District and Uptown.
Sixteen undergraduate honors students, with majors
in physical therapy, art history, business management,
information technology, liberal arts, multimedia
arts, finance, psychology, mathematics, secondary
education, biology, supply chain management, music
education, and music therapy participated in the
seminar. Over the course of the semester they
read articles about civic engagement and university-community
collaboration, studied the needs of the communities
near Duquesne, and undertook the following service-learning
projects:
Increasing Voter Participation in the Hill District
and Uptown
Community partner: NAACP
Uptown History Conservation Project
Community partner: Uptown Community Action Group
Experience-based Music at the Hill House
Community partner: Hill House Association
Inventory and Purchasing Management at the Epiphany
Catholic Church
Community Partner: Epiphany Catholic Church
After-school Enrichment
Community partner: Madison School
Newsletter and Job Proposal for the Hill District
Consensus Group
Community Partner: Hill District Consensus Group
Helping Out at Miller Elementary School
Community Partner: Miller School
Storm Drain Stenciling
Community Partner: Kelly Elementary School.
Community representatives met with the class,
conducted tours of the neighborhoods, and guided
the students with their projects. The syllabus
for the course, the students' reviews of articles
they read, and reports of their projects are available
at http://sagan.ccit.duq.edu/community_and_university/.
June 2001
Addressing the problem of public participation
in planning, Duquesne is making available students
trained in program evaluation to assist the communities
to develop recommendations, establish priorities,
and provide better input to the city of Pittsburgh's
Consolidated Community Development Plan.
Mr. Justin Cowles, a student in Duquesne's Graduate
Center for Social and Public Policy and a returned
Peace Corps volunteer, served as community budget
analyst to the communities during this period.
To identify resources already available to the
communities Mr. Cowles met with city officials,
secured copies of the city's capital and Community
Development Block Grant budgets, and analyzed
them in depth. He then met with leaders of the
Hill District Community Development Corporation,
Uptown Community Action Group, and Councilman
Sala Udin's office to discuss their use of existing
programs and to explore unmet needs. He identified
a number of priorities, and found that in almost
every case the city had already provided funds
for the identified purposes. In many cases his
assistance was most valuable in connecting community
leaders with city officials who could provide
assistance. In some cases he was able to do research
that would support the community's request for
help.
June 2002
Duquesne officially completed this activity, as
proposed, in the fall of 2000. Please refer to
the report for the period ending December 2000.
However, because of interest in the seminar, the
director of the Honors College asked Dr. Stoddard
to offer the seminar again in the spring 2002
semester, which he agreed to do.
Sixteen students participated in this second
seminar and completed a project they called "Education
for Enjoyment." They worked with children
in after-school programs at Alliquippa Terrace
in the Hill and Jubilee Soup Kitchen in Uptown.
With the tutoring and support of the students
from the Honors College, the children produced
an anthology of writing and art work and a mural
for a wall adjacent to one of the Greenlots in
Uptown. A full report of the seminar, including
the students' proposal, final report, photographs
and other materials, is available at http://firstclass.duq.edu/community_and_university/.
December 2002
Duquesne has completed this activity, offering
"Community and University" seminars
in the Honors College in fall 2000 and spring
2002. The results of the course are documented
at http://firstclass.duq.edu/community_and_university/.
Contact: Dr.
Evan Stoddard or call 396-5179
|
