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September 17, 2010

UL System officials honor ULM's service-learning initiatives

The University of Louisiana System recently recognized the University of Louisiana at Monroe and the other seven UL System universities for outstanding service-learning efforts over the past four years. The awards program, held Monday, Aug. 9, was part of a capstone conference in Baton Rouge celebrating the end of a $1.2 million federal grant.

"Service-learning is one of the best examples of how campus-community partnerships enrich both parties in ways you cannot easily measure. The work that has taken place over the past four years is admirable and worthy of recognition," said UL System Board of Supervisors Chair Winfred Sibille, who presented the awards.

In 2006, the UL System received a $1.2 million grant from the Corporation for National Community Service's Learn and Serve America division. The focus of the grant program was to implement service-learning programs at the eight universities for hurricane recovery and disaster preparedness. Eleven projects were funded at ULM under the initiative.

Over the four years, 79 campus projects engaged a total of 15,377 college students; 1,049 faculty and staff and 405 community partners in 143,886 hours of service.

Projects infused community service with classroom work in the following areas: agriculture, architecture, communications, education/mentoring, environmental sciences, family and consumer sciences, fine arts, foreign language, health and exercise science, historic preservation, information technology, mathematics and science, nursing, social sciences, psychology and social service. Additionally, there were several student-driven projects.

Full project descriptions can be found in the ULS Serves Service-Learning Report, available online here.

As a complement to the printed service-learning report, the UL System unveiled a new video report at Monday's conference. The video, which is broken down by campus, is available to view on the UL System's YouTube site, www.youtube.com/ulsystem.

In addition to highlighting campus programs, the video shares real-world impacts and the value that service adds to the academic experience.

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