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January 2010
Fulfilling the civic promise of higher education.
Looking Back and Moving ahead
January (named for the their work in the community Service projects brought to
two-faced god of Pagan with partner projects and life Dr. King’s inspiration for
Rome) looks back – and organizations. The insights children (and for the Maine
ahead! It’s a good time to and energy generated will Red Claws – really!) in writing
look back over the year just guide and fuel more and bet- workshops and books pre-
past with appreciation for ter civically engaged work senting their collected works.
Civic Engagement News
our accomplishments; but ahead! In Spring 2010, we’ll
also to look forward to new Engagement in the highlight our most active and
endeavors. You’ll read about new Core Curriculum also promising community part-
some of each in this issue. presages well for our mis- nerships with a Spotlight
Preliminary data for sion. First year (“Entry Year Series featuring opportuni-
Fall 2009 shows steady Experience”) and upper level ties for student engagement
growth in student participa- (“Ethical Inquiry, Social Re- through volunteer commu-
tion in civic engagement, sponsibility, Citizenship”) nity service or service learn-
with nearly 2,000 of reported courses will offer every USM ing. Our deepening partner-
student community service student experiential learning ships represent the best kind
and over 3,000 hours of aca- opportunities in the campus of mutual relationship, pro-
demic service learning! or wider community, fulfill- viding active, engaged learn-
Fall 2009 saw our first ing our promise of engaged ing while addressing genuine
annual Civic Matters sym- learning that transforms loves and community need, making
posium of student civically communities. possible work that neither of
us could do alone.
OFFICE OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
engaged work, with over 70 In December and Janu-
students making oral and ary, two grant-supported ANDREA THOMPSON McCALL
poster presentations about Martin Luther King Day of DIRECTOR
National Mentoring Month
USM’s Husky Men- Husky Mentors are now our Spotlight Series in the
tors program was launched at serving at Lincoln Middle Woodbury Campus Center
the start of the Fall 09 semes-
ter. It was offered as a service
learning activity for students
enrolled in the Teachers for
Elementary and Middle
Schools (TEAMS) program.
Husky Mentors has now
expanded as an opportunity
for the entire student body.
The OCE aims to grow it
into a sustainable mentoring School, Hall Elementary, and dining area. There will also
program. Nathan Clifford Elementary. be a recognition luncheon.
January is National During the week of We are giving mentoring
Mentoring Month, and USM January 19th through the 22nd, another "big push" this se-
will recognize and celebrate the OCE will feature the mester we hope to recruit
our current mentors. There is Husky Mentors and other new students and to have a
a need for guidance and sup- mentoring opportunities in great outcome!
port in Portland’s schools. Greater Portland as part of LAUREN McELWAIN
MENTORING COORDINATOR
Page 2 CIVIC ENGAGEMENT NEWS
MLK Day of Service at Learning Works
January 18th marks the rooms at the two sites. Volun- have a long term partnership.
third Monday of 2010 which is teers were matched with a Learn- The success of this partnership
Martin Luther King Jr. Day. At ing Works student and as a team motivated two VISTA staff
its inception this national holiday they completed the writing members at the OCE to submit
was created to celebrate the workshop. The workshop com- a proposal to the Maine Com-
memory of Dr. King, years later menced with listening to the Dr. mission of Community Service’s
it’s transformed into a day of King’s “I Have A Dream” MLK Day of Service Grant.
action and service. USM Stu- speech, then six words from this Our project was selected as a
dents have embraced this trans- speech are selected to compose winner and awarded $450. The
formation by participating in the youth participant’s personal funds will be used to print a
service projects. Last year, stu- memoir. Also, these volunteers book of photos of the youth and
dents joined youth at the Port- in particular were posed to in- their memoirs. The book will be
land Housing Authority to re- spire youth to imagine them- distributed to the youth partici-
flect on the life and legacy of Dr. selves in college. This is one of pants at both sites. The Maine
King through film, small group the pivotal moments in the pro- Commission for Community
discussion and the creation of ject, as youth at these schools are Service, local media and the fed-
murals. This year over 60 Resi- mostly refugee and low-income eral government have all taken
dent Assistant’s participated in students who need extra support deep interest in this project and
the implementation of a writing to aspire to their full potential. celebrate the accomplishments
workshop for youth from Learn- Having these college students of our volunteers and the youth.
ing Works after school programs discuss the youths’ personal sto- This was truly a memorable Mar-
at East End and Reiche Elemen- ries and goals makes this project tin Luther King Jr. Day of Ser-
tary Schools. memorable and unique for the vice for everyone who was in-
youth. volved.
USM Volunteers served in third,
fourth and fifth grade class- Our office and Learning Works DAVID CIMATO
MLK Writing Workshops
In August 2009 our direc- because the council was con- munity youth and volunteers
“The result of the tor, Andrea McCall, secured a nected, through its members, to were listening to, and interacting
workshops is a collection
grant from the Campus Compact all partners of the grant: many with the words of Dr. King. The
of North Carolina for activities lived in Kennedy Park or River- workshops involved listening to a
of prose written by
around Martin Luther King Day. ton, some were members of speech, having discussions about
young members of the Andrea foresaw collaboration MEIYA, some had participated key words from the text, and
Portland community, between the National Associa- in Telling Room projects before developing imagery to go along
facilitated through tion for the Advancement of and of course, they are all poten- with the words. The culmination
intergenerational
Colored People (NAACP), the tial future college students. As was then the production of two
Portland Housing Authority, such the Youth Council repre- or three memoirs per youth, and
collaborations, inspired United Way, the Maine Interfaith sented exactly the type of young a picture in which they held one
by the words of Martin Youth Alliance (MEIYA), and community leaders that this pro- of their memoirs. The result of
Luther King Jr.” local the Telling Room. . ject was designed to empower. the workshops is a collection of
The partners agreed upon a With their approval and a prose written by young members
program that would place USM request that they be included as of the Portland community, fa-
students and other volunteers facilitators, the Telling Room cilitated through intergenera-
into the Study Centers of the designed a curriculum for the tional collaborations, inspired by
PHA housing centers of Saga- workshops. They created a pro- the words of Martin Luther King
more, Kennedy Park and River- gram around the six word mem- Jr. On Monday the 18th of Janu-
ton, and at the Parkside oir concept, through which stu- ary the work was presented as
Neighborhood Center, for a se- dents would explore the rele- part of the annual NAACP Mar-
ries of writing workshops. Before vance of Martin Luther King Jr. tin Luther King Breakfast and
the project got a final green The Telling Room trained a mot- will be published in a short chap-
light , we pitched it to the ley crew of volunteers from book in February.
NAACP Youth Council. This USM, UNE, NAACP and the DAVID BROWN
step was an important because it VISTA community to facilitate COMMUNITY SERVCIE &
presented an opportunity to em- the workshops. MULTICULTURAL OUT-
power the Youth Council and On three occasions com- REACH COORDINATOR
VOLUME 2, ISSUE 2 Page 3
Fall Service Learning Report
During the fall semester former volunteers of the Center work practice at the organiza-
students enrolled in service for Grieving Children (CGC) tional and community level
“One student learning courses engaged in regarding their motivations to For instance students who served
various activities ranging from: volunteer, experiences, and at Ina Demers Conversational
expressed her mentoring in the Gorham reasons for leaving. The CGC English Class interacted with
Schools; hosting Reiki clinics; provides loving support to refugees from Sudan, Somalia,
gratitude for tutoring English Language grieving children, teens, families Iraq, the Dominican Republic
Learners; winterizing homes; and communities through peer and Rwanda. These students
engaging with leading elementary school stu- support, outreach and education. entered into dialogues about
dents in recreation activities; Each student wrote a research cultural differences including
this project planning, implementing and paper based on an analysis of the religion, gender norms and
evaluating various fund-raising interviews. At the end of the stereotypes of American youth.
because it activities to help build a play- semester Dr. Baugher’s students Non-white USM students dis-
ground for Haitian children; submitted a report to the Center pelled Demers’ students’ miscon-
provided orthopedic care to on their findings. This research
better citizens of the Dominic Republic will improve the quality of the
ception that American citizens
are exclusively white and engaged
and more! Service learning is a CGC’s volunteer program.
prepared her teaching method which com-
in further discussion about what
In Professor Ray Belicose’s it means to be American. They
bines community service with
for her work academic instruction as it focuses
course Social Work Methods II: then explored Demers’ students’
Organziational and Community hopes to apply for citizenship
on critical, reflective thinking and
with clients civic responsibility. Over 4,300
Change the service learning pro- and shared their own stories
jects addressed the following about becoming citizens. Other
hundred hours of service learn- learning objectives: students learned about the
from the ing activity was reported to the Rwandan genocide for the first
OCE completed at 26 organiza- Identify and evaluate generalist
immigrant time and their understanding
tions by 197 students enrolled in social work change methods which
about the conflict in Iraq was
14 courses. help disadvantaged individuals
deepened. One student ex-
and refugee One of the highlights
and groups to achieve increased
pressed her gratitude for engag-
empowerment and greater social
includes Professor John ing in this project because it
community” Baugher’s course Qualitative
and economic justice;
better prepared her to work with
Methodology in Sociology. Professor demonstrate an awareness of clients from the immigrant and
Baugher’s students put into race, class, gender age, disability, refugee community.
practice the sociological method- sexual orientation, cultural ALICIA SAMPSON
ology learned in this course to factors and biases, and their SERVICE LEARNING
conduct interviews with 13 implications for generalist social
COORDINATOR
Fall Community Service Report
Imagine on the first day of ter volunteering and that is the King Day project. Students per-
the semester, students started picture we are beginning to formed and reported to us over
volunteering…and didn’t stop. form. Not possible? Well, actu- 2,700 hours of community ser-
They did everything; coastal ally, it is possible because over vice this past semester which
clean-ups, blood drives, mentor- 280 students made it happen this roughly equals 113 days of com-
ing, tutoring, fall clean-ups, art semester at the University of munity service. With the first
therapy, home weatherization, Southern Maine. day of classes for the 2009 fall
serving meals at soup kitchens, semester commencing on Mon-
gift-wrapping, helping at USM students started on day August 31 and the last day
neighborhood centers, helping at the first weekend of school at falling on December 18th; 110
Maine Medical Center and hun- Rippling Waters Organic Farms days passed. Not quite enough
dreds of other opportunities. digging out weeds and clearing time to match the dedication of
Now we are not talking about an fields to plant greens destined University of Southern Maine
eight hour day, but rather 24 for our local food pantries and students.
hours a day, 7 days a week, every farmers markets, it progressed to
day of the month, with no holi- the countless clean-ups at our DAVID CIMATO
days until the end of the semes- beaches, parks and brooks and
ter. That’s right, imagine they ended with facilitating writing VOLUNTEER AND LEADERSHIP
workshops for a Martin Luther COORDINATOR
spent every minute of the semes-
PLACE
Office of Community Engagement
STAMP
University of Southern Maine
23 Brighton Ave
HERE
P.O. Box 9300
Portland, ME 04104-9300
Phone: (207) 228-8091
Fax:: (207) 228-8403
E-mail: community@usm.maine.edu
usm.maine.edu/studentlife/communityservice
Civic Engagement Close Up
Service Highlights: from fall semester
Danae Kesel, Aaron Mitchell, Alfine Nathali, Tyler Ruthamel, Kaleb Titherington,
Bijou Umuhoza and Jamison Wiggins facilitated a writing workshop for a Martin Luther
King Project! Jennifer Cragen is a Husky Mentor at one of our local Portland Schools!
Alison Parker has performed over 30 hours of community service at Wayside Soup
Kitchen and completed home weatherization projects! Jessica Barilone, Brittany Carter,
Josh Keogh, Matthew McDermott and Amanda Roy have spent over a hundred hours
cleaning up Capisic Brook and Acadia National Park! Kaysar Hirad has volunteered 22
hours to the College Transition Assistance Program! Amanda Roderick has volunteered at
Parkside Neighborhood Center, Wayside Soup Kitchen and with American Red Cross!
Brandon Guzman has volunteered over 240 hours to the Baha'i Campus Association!
Charlie Nickell, Rebecca McElrath, Monique Lefebvre, Brook Hayne, Ashley
Oliver, Rachel Putnam and Muhammad Dini have all volunteered their time to create
amazing volunteer opportunities! All told, over 280 students reported service this past
semester! You should next!
q: hey. where’s my service?
a: if you want it on the list next time, send a sentence to community@usm.maine.edu
