UTA Center for Service Learning

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UTA Center for Service Learning

Service Learning gives students hands-on experience through coursework projects developed between faculty, students and area non-profit agencies.

05/14/2020

Mid-Cities Care Corps need help! Donate some puzzles and activity books to aid seniors in staying mentally active.

04/01/2020

TRI-C/UTA Food Pantry provides UTA students, faculty and staff experiencing food insecurity with bags of food. Distributions are by appointment only every Thursday from 9-12 and 2-5.
The Food Pantry is in great need of food donations! Current requests, in order of need, are tomato sauce or pasta sauce (jars or cans), soups (all kinds, especially vegetarian and chicken), canned meat (especially chicken), pasta (dry), cereal (medium-sized boxes are best), and crackers.
To make a weekday donation, go to the Tri-C Ministry at 405 W. 1st St. and see the instructions on the door. You also can send an email to [email protected].

02/26/2020

Faculty/Community Partner Highlight of the Week⚡️: Since 2008, including summers, Dr. Peggy Semingson has taught various literacy studies courses such as; Assessment in Literacy Learning, Foundations of Literacy Learning, and Independent Studies Management. Dr. Semingson’s first encounter with service learning happened to be through the past director of the Center for Service Learning. Thanks to the past director being in the same department as Dr. Semingson, this helped her connect with numerous faculty members, which in turn led Dr. Semingson to participate in “ENGAGE department”. Through her engagement with the center and various professors, she has since incorporated service learning into her courses every semester.
Being able to network and interact with faculty from various disciplines has been a highlight for Dr. Semingson during her time in the Faculty Fellows program. Having the opportunity to share ideas while gaining new perspectives from different disciplines, has shown Dr. Semingson that service learning enhanced active learning because it is able to give students an in-depth experience while still benefiting the partners involved.
After becoming aware of the extremely low literacy levels in Arlington and the DFW area, Dr. Semingson chose to focus her service projects to aid those in need. Connecting her students to their community helped Dr. Semingson raise awareness for those experiencing low literacy levels. Ever since incorporating service learning in 2010, she has partnered with Mission Arlington. Through this partnership her students were able to create book clubs for the surrounding residents, fostering both a sense of civic duty and engagement in her students.
To help facilitate the incorporation of the service learning component, Dr. Semingson would advise incoming faculty fellows and first-time service learning professors to take the time to develop a well-thought-out project. Dr. Semingson, who is an avid user of social media, encourages other faculty to make use of the platform by promoting their projects and helping spread awareness about service learning.

02/19/2020

Faculty/Community Partner Highlight of the Week ⚡️:
Kathleen Tice began her service learning career with fellow SL educator and Professor Larry Nelson. With a common goal in mind, the duo gathered research on service learning over the course of 10 years. It was then that she realized the importance of efficacy and how big of a help accurate data is to that effect. In addition, she also gained a better understanding of the implementation of the service learning project itself, as many different factors have to be taken into consideration for an effective project. Thus, they have compiled books, articles and journals dealing with the promises and pitfalls of service learning.
Working with greats such as Mary Lynn Crow, Tice was able to go on to create her own after school literacy program at elementary school Uplift Summit and through that, learned how to provide a comprehensive literacy program. She has also had the opportunity to present every year at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in a special interest group and also co-edits an online journal for their International Center for Service Learning.
She has also been able to help two community partners get funding for a Partner Breakfast a couple of years ago. The first one was $5,000 for a non-profit working with orphanages in Ukraine, helping those who aged out of the system pay for university dues. In addition to that, she has also been able to biome a Clinical Professor of Curriculum and Instruction for the College of Education.

Through another project, UTA students in LIST 4374 are going to meet over a period of three weeks with students in HEB ISD to read and discuss a novel, working in small groups/literary circles, akin to experiences of book clubs. The middle-school students are enrolled in courses in Hindi or Mandarin, which is part of the International Business Initiative in HEB ISD under the direction of Bhavani Parpani. Gaining global perspectives is a goal of the International Business Initiative, and the UTA students can foster students’ gaining global perspectives as they read/ have conversations about a novel set in Afghanistan and Pakistan by an award-winning author. @ The University of Texas at Arlington

02/12/2020

Faculty/Community Partner Highlight of the Week ⚡️:

As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Professor Tracy Orwig has taught several health-related MSW courses, as well as a bachelor’s level course that introduces students to interviewing and engaging with clients.

Her students have partnered with LifeGift, an Organ Procurement Organization (OPO), to help educate people about the gift of organ and tissue transplants. Their project was to partner with a community agency/organization, set up a booth, educate people about organ donation and offer the opportunity for people to sign up to be organ donors.

On March 27th, Camp Gladiator is having an event at the new Texas Rangers stadium that includes a workout. The students in her course will be out there at a booth throughout the afternoon/evening. The students are very excited about this event as there are currently 2100 people signed up and they expect over 4000 people.

Here is the event information:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cg-stadium-mega-workout-hosted-by-the-texas-rangers-tickets-88126413475
@ Texas Rangers Baseball

01/31/2020

Faculty/Community Partner Highlight of the Week⚡️:

LaShaunn Bold has been a licensed master social worker since 1995. She began her teaching at UTA in the school of social work in 2004 as an adjunct professor, until she was appointed as a non-tenured full-time faculty in 2012. Since her time here, she has served as a traditional classroom instructor, online instructor, field Liaison, field Placement Specialist, interim Director of Field Education, and Field supervisor. Her areas of training are as diverse as her service roles as they include field education, child abuse and trauma, domestic violence, leadership, management, and community service. Her experiences and expertise in these areas have provided her with the knowledge and practicality applicable to service learning.

Professor Bold is a firm believer in students getting firsthand experience outside the classroom, especially for her students in social work as their work will involve direct engagement with the community once they graduate. She recently partnered with Recovery Resource Council among many others, and her students had the opportunity to choose from various events like the Fall festival as well as community outreach events, prevention events, fund raisers, and intervention courses for those effected by substance use. Since incorporating service learning into her coursework, Professor Bold has noticed a difference in the way her students now respond to their coursework.

01/27/2020

Our first Faculty Fellows Seminar of the semester was a success! Nine faculty members across a variety of departments and colleges on campus met in the Engineering Research Building to discuss ideas on service learning, their current and future work in the field, and ideas on how to move forward in the program!

01/24/2020

We are excited to kick-off our first Service Learning Faculty Fellows Seminar of the year tomorrow, January 25! With nine faculty fellows to complete our spring cohort, we are geared up and ready to go for the semester!

01/22/2020

Faculty/Community Partner Highlight of the Week ⚡️: David Hopman is a registered Landscape Architect and member of the American Society of Landscape Architects. He came on as part-time faculty in 2003 and accepted the position as a professor at the Graduate Program in Landscape Architecture at The University of Texas at Arlington in 2004. His service learning courses are Design studio III – Site Planning (LARC 5663) and Planting Design (LARC 5331).
David Hopman is no stranger to service learning and has been actively engaged in it prior to becoming a faculty at UTA. From building a small farm for homeless teenagers to designing for the Fort Worth Botanical gardens, David Hopman and his students have taken on multiple projects ranging from small to large-scale redesigns of various locations in the DFW metroplex

· Redesign of 2 acre therapeutic/healing gardens, parking, and courtyards for patients, families, and caregivers of Hospice House in Burleson, Texas: for Community Hospice of Texas (LARC 5663).
· Redesign of entrance and transition space, to the North portion of the Fort Worth Botanic Garden and the concert greens: for the Fort Worth Botanic Garden
· Re-design of the CAPPA courtyard for the new CAPPA Café. (LARC 5331) @ Architecture Building

01/15/2020

Faculty/Community Partner Highlight of the Week: ⚡️

Pamela Johnson is an assistant professor in practice for the school of social work at UTA. Prior to this, she started as an adjunct professor in 2008. Since then, in addition to becoming assistant professor in practice in 2014, she became the Clinical Director for the Center for Clinical Social Work (CCSW) here at UTA in 2016.

The CCSW is a student training facility for UTA School of Social Work advanced graduate students. It operates under a contract between UTA’s school of social work and the Arlington Independent School District (AISD). The program sees advanced graduate students following the social work process and utilizing appropriate interviewing skills to provide counseling interventions and resources to AISD children and their families. @ The University of Texas at Arlington

01/08/2020

We love to see service learning in a variety of colleges on campus! ⚡️

Here is an article showcasing UTA Distinguished Lecturer Shanna Banda’s service learning class (UT Arlington College of Science) from May 2019:

"Math students gain new perspective through service-learning projects" - https://www.uta.edu/science/news/2019/05-22-math-statistics-service-learning-project-story.php

01/07/2020

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 🎉

Every week we will highlight a different community partner and the incredible work they do.

Proyecto Inmigrante ICS, Inc. is a nonprofit agency founded by Douglas D. Interiano and cofounded by a group of community leaders dedicated to ensure that injustices against the immigration population community are not committed in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.

UTA professor Dr. Alicia Ruedo-Aceda incorporates service learning into her spanish translation course by having her students work with the nonprofit to translate important documents for their immigrant clientele.

We are so grateful for her impact and how her students are able to make contributions in their community through service learning. 💛

Address

Arlington, TX

Telephone

+18172722124

Website

http://uta.edu/csl

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