Faculty/Staff Community Service-Learning Awards
Michigan Campus Compact annually recognizes outstanding community service and service-learning by faculty and staff of our members. The Faculty/Staff Community Service-Learning Award is given to one person from each campus who engages or influences students to be involved in community service or service-learning through modeling, influence, or instruction.
Each member campus has the opportunity to nominate one recipient who engages or influences students to be involved in community service or service-learning through modeling, influencing or instruction. This special recognition of contributions to campus and community highlights the very best in higher education. The recipient is determined by your campus; your President or Chancellor's office received a nomination packet and are asked to designate someone on the campus to coordinate the selection process. Some institutions coordinate this process through their community service or service-learning office. Others utilize a campus committee to select from those nominated within the institution.
Click here for the 2009-2010 Faculty/Staff Community Service-Learning Award Nomination Form
To see a list of previous recipients, click here.
| Watch this video of SVSU Faculty Brian Thomas accepting his 08-09 MCC Award. His service-learning project involved students creating raised bed gardens- enough to provide fresh vegetables for 40 people |
2008-2009 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
Dr. Charles “Kim” Cummings ~ Kalamazoo College
Charles “Kim” Cummings (BA, Harvard, 1962; PhD in Sociology, Washington University, 1976) joined the Sociology Department at Kalamazoo College in 1972, and has not for one moment ceased to enrich the institution and the lives of students and community residents. An inspiring teacher, researcher, scholar, activist and champion of social justice, his vision and persistence have created lasting world changes for the better, as he has infused it with his energy, idealism, practical approaches, and courage. As higher education increasingly focuses on global citizenship, the “big questions” about which a diverse democracy requires us to think critically, the rewards of innovative pedagogy, the value of crossing borders, and the importance of collaboration to solve pressing social problems, it is coming to the place from which he started.
Dr. Cummings’ professional commitment to community development is reflected in all of his endeavors, including his service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia, South America, followed by Associate Director of Peace Corps Venezuela. He has been involved with the City’s Community Development Advisory Board, Family and Children’s Services, Partners in Education Program, Senior Services, Kalamazoo Schools Citizens Committee, Vine Ventures, the Mayor’s “Rediscovering Our Neighborhoods” Committee and Arcadia Creek Task Force and Project Team. Dr. Cummings co-founded several institutions: Building Blocks, the West Main Hill Neighborhood Association, and also helped establish the Gateway Coalition.
His contributions to Kalamazoo College include innovative approaches to teaching and learning, substantial and foundational contributions to the creation of The Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Institute for Service-Learning, a focus on student voice and empowerment, and leadership among his peers in community-based learning, especially in the use of structured reflection. Under his chair and directorship, HDSR has served and prepared hundreds of Kalamazoo College students as a springboard to careers for the common good. Student projects have included community-based research on the local Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Project and a clinic based analysis of blood lead levels among Medicaid-enrolled children.
Introduction of Kim Cummings at the 2009 Faculty/Staff Award Ceremony
Kim Cummings' Award Remarks at the 2009 Faculty/Staff Award Ceremony
To learn more about the Faculty/Staff Awards, please contact Shelley Long.