Announcements

Campus Compact Honors Students for Outstanding Civic Leadership

BOSTON, MA — Campus Compact has selected two college students to receive the 2009 Frank Newman Leadership Award, which honors outstanding civic leadership: Leticia Burkhalter of Southeastern Oklahoma State University and Molly Hamm of Kansas State University. Both students have taken leadership roles in serving their communities while excelling academically.

Each of the winning students will receive $5,000 for school-related expenses or to support their civic work. They will also receive personal mentoring from their respective college presidents in fulfilling their scholastic, public service, and civic leadership potential during their college years.
“We had an outstanding pool of applicants this year, but even among this group, these two students stand out,” notes Pam Mutascio, program associate at Campus Compact. “We are delighted to be able to help them achieve their academic and civic goals through the award and through mentoring on the part of their dedicated university presidents.”

Leticia Burkhalter is a working mother of five and a full-time student at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. Majoring in special education, she says that her calling is to provide educational opportunities and to be an advocate for low-income families.

Burkhalter has founded three sustainable community-based organizations. Families Feeding Families (FFF) is a community kitchen that serves hot meals 5 days a week. Since opening, FFF has provided more than 275,000 meals. Funded by the United Way and community donations, the organization has one full-time employee and more than 200 volunteers. The Back Pack program provides elementary school children with nutritional, kid-friendly food that doesn’t require refrigeration or preparation. Over the past year, children have received approximately 14,000 snack packs. Mommy and Me provides guidance to new mothers on interacting appropriately with their young children to facilitate their development and refers families to any necessary community services. Through community donations, the program also provides diapers and baby formula.

President Michael Turner of Southeastern Oklahoma State University praises Burkhalter’s dedication, saying, “Ticia demonstrates civic values, civic skills, and civic efficacy and commitment” that are consistent with the university’s goal of developing responsible citizenship. Burkhalter’s long-term objective is to establish a program on campus to assist low-income parents and their children. Over the next academic year, Burkhalter will meet with President Turner monthly to share knowledge and ideas related to leadership and civic engagement, and will receive guidance from campus staff on the development of the child-parent program.

Molly Hamm, a junior at Kansas State University, has spent the better part of her undergraduate experience involved in civic engagement. After being mentored by another student, Hamm learned that being in college “required much more than membership – it required a conscious and active effort to always improve anything that you touched.” Taking this to heart, she sought nonprofit leadership as her academic focus and was connected to the university’s Office of Civic Leadership, where she became a student advisor and signed on to be a part-time AmeriCorps member tutoring local children.

As the director of community and internal relations for the Kansas State Greek Community, Hamm won grant support to co-found Greeks Going Green, a nonprofit that educates fraternities and sororities on minimizing their environmental impact. Since its inception in 2008, Greeks Going Green has enlisted 14 chapters nationally. Hamm has extended her commitment to the international environmental movement as a regional coordinator for the UN Environment Programme’s Kick the Carbon Habit Education Campaign and as an intern with the United Nations Foundation, planning the first-ever Global Youth Leadership Summit on climate change.

Hamm’s commitment to education has led her to be a campus recruiter liaison for Teach for America and the service chair for the Mortar Board Senior Honor Society. She has also served on the advisory board for the K-State Center for Child Development and provided a student voice for teacher preparation programs at K-State as a member of the Teacher Education Advisory Council. In addition, as president of the Student Foundation she oversaw the K-State Proud campaign, a student-led initiative that raised more than $100,000 in student financial awards.

In the coming academic year, Molly’s civic leadership capacities and skills will be fostered through a mentoring relationship with Kansas State’s incoming president, Dr. Kirk Schulz. This unique learning partnership will combine a first year presidency with a student leader on campus and in the community.

The Frank Newman Leadership Award
Campus Compact and the Newman family established the Frank Newman Leadership Award in honor of Campus Compact co-founder Frank Newman, a scholar who exemplified a life of public service and educational leadership. The award is designed to support and recognize students with financial need who have demonstrated civic leadership through service and scholastic achievement.
More information about the award is available here.

Congratulations CASE Award Winners!

 We are pleased to announce the awards for the Carter Academic Service Entrepreneur (CASE) program conducted by NYCC.  Four students have been selected for $1,000 awards to pursue campus//community projects. Please join us in congratulating the following individuals:

 1. For the Future Smiles of El Sauce, Allison Kornblatt, SUNY-Geneseo
2.  Designing and Implementing the “AssistaMouse” to Support Students with Disabilities, Christopher Keogh, Pace University
3.  Refugee Weavers' Guild, Emily Powell, Hamilton College
4.  Park Avenue Community Stewardship (PACS) Project, Cybil Tribie, Union College                                          

 Previous NYCC recipients of the CASE award include students from SUNY-Fredonia,   University of Buffalo and Rochester Institute of Technology.  The full descriptions of   these projects may be viewed at www.ServiceBook.org.

 The CASE program is sponsored by the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Foundation to recognize excellence in academic service-learning. The programs of the Foundation recognize and provide financial support to outstanding examples of campus/community collaboration and innovative ideas to serve the community.

  Funds for the CASE awards and the ServiceBook site are provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.  The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 “to help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations." To achieve the greatest impact, the Foundation targets its grants toward specific areas: health; food systems and rural development; youth and education; and philanthropy and volunteerism. Within these areas, attention is given to exploring learning opportunities in leadership; information and communication technology; capitalizing on diversity; and social and economic community development. For further information, please visit the Foundation's Web site at www.wkkf.org .

Campus Compact National Office Spreads Its Wings

“We’re delighted to be able to serve our members from a more accessible location,” notes Campus Compact president Maureen F. Curley. “Boston is only a short distance from our old home in Providence, but our new location has already proven fortuitous in terms of making direct connections with member institutions, policymakers, and others.”

Campus Compact now shares an address with the nonprofit New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) at 45 Temple Place in Boston. NEBHE’s mission includes increasing access to higher education, enhancing the quality and diversity of educational programs and institutions, and promoting higher education as a growth industry. “Our goals and scope differ substantially,” says Curley, “but we do see some synergies, particularly with regard to policy issues and practices that affect college access and pedagogical effectiveness.” (For more information about NEBHE, visit http://www.nebhe.org.)

In conjunction with the move, Campus Compact is creating new systems to serve members and the field more effectively. Already in place is a new online bookstore for the organization’s publications. Campus Compact has long been a leader in publishing cutting-edge books on campus-based service, service-learning, and civic engagement. Through the new e-commerce site, customers can now order books much more quickly and efficiently in one simple transaction. The online bookstore can be found at http://www.compact.org/publications.

Also in the works is a revamped website that will allow users to gain access to Campus Compact’s vast online resources more easily. The new site will offer simplified navigation and greater searchability, as well as updated resources such as an expanded online database of service-learning syllabi.

Full contact information for the national Campus Compact office follows:

45 Temple Place
Boston, MA 02111
Phone: 617.357.1881
Fax: 617.357.1889

Campus Compact
Campus Compact is a national coalition of more than 1,100 college and university presidents—representing some 6 million students—who are committed to fulfilling the civic purposes of higher education. As the only national association dedicated solely to this mission, Campus Compact is a leader in building civic engagement into campus and academic life. Through our national office and network of 34 state offices, members receive the training, resources, and advocacy they need to build strong surrounding communities and teach students the skills and values of democracy.

Campus Compact’s membership includes public, private, two- and four-year institutions across the spectrum of higher education. These institutions put into practice the ideal of civic engagement by sharing knowledge and resources with their communities, creating local development initiatives, and supporting service and service-learning efforts in areas such as literacy, health care, hunger, homelessness, and the environment.

Campus Compact comprises a national office based in Boston and state offices in CA, CO, CT, FL, HI, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, NH, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, UT, VT, WA, WI, and WV. For contact and other information, see http://www.compact.org.