11th Annual Institute
On February 8-9, 2007 Service-Learning practitioners gathered from around the state at the 11th annual Institute: Service-Learning and Civic Engagement. The Institute was held at Schoolcraft College in Livonia Michigan. For a complete list of conference participants - click here.
2007 Institute Sponsors
Michigan Campus Compact
Michigan Community Service Commission
Schoolcraft College
State Farm Insurance Company
The 2007 Institute welcomed several keynote speekers:
Opening Plenary Speaker ~ Dr. James Toole
Dr. James Toole is President of Compass Institute and Teaching and Research Fellow at the University of Minnesota in the School of Social Work and College of Education and Human Development. His professional passions include leadership development, organizational change, spirituality and service, global health, and service-learning. James has worked nationally in 45 states with schools, non-profits, foundations, correctional facilities, and state departments of education and has taught at every level from pre-school and kindergarten through graduate school. His main mentor is his four-year-old daughter Christiana who teaches him daily about joy, engagement, patience, and fun.
Lunch Plenary Speaker~ Dr. Dan Butin
Dr. Dan Butin is an assistant professor of education and founding faculty of the doctoral program in educational leadership at Cambridge College. He is the editor of Service-Learning in Higher Education: Critical issues and Directions (2005, Palgrave) and Teaching Social Foundations of Education: Contexts, Theories, and Issues (2005, Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers). He is the guest journal editor of "Future Directions for Service-Learning and Higher Education" for the web-based International journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education and "Service-Learning and Social Justice Education" for Equity & Excellence in Education. Dr. Butin is an editorial board member of the journal Educational Studies.
Closing Plenary Speaker~ Jon Stehle
Jonathan Stehle, originally from Butler, Pennsylvania, attended Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, PA where he graduated with a major in history and a minor in physics. While attending W&J, Jon worked for Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas as part of the Research Experience for Undergraduates program. Jon is currently at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public International Affairs where he is earning his Masters of Public International Affairs with a major in Securities Intelligence Studies and a minor in Global Political Economy. This past summer, he participated in the Public Sector Financial Management Fellowship hosted by the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government. Jon was sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service. While working for the CNCS, he assisted in the development of the 2008 CNCS Budget and began this research project on the economic impact of service-learning. Jon is currently head coach for both the Taylor Alderdice High School Varsity Lacrosse team and the Plum High School Freshman hockey team.
Youth Track Keynote Speaker~ Heather Margolis
In March 2006, Heather Margolis was selected as the Director of Strategic Initiatives for the National Service-Learning Partnership. In this capacity, Heather spearheads the Partnership’s innovative practice and models work supported by State Farm® Companies Foundation, with a special emphasis on the Good Neighbor Service-Learning Initiative as well as the service-learning/community development work with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a signature State Farm® grantee. Prior to joining the Partnership, Heather served as Director of Education for City Year Philadelphia. Heather played a lead role in helping City Year Corps members integrate service-learning activities into the core curriculum, particularly in the areas of civic education, literacy, and math. Heather also worked closely with corporate partners and non-profit community based organizations. Heather is a teacher by training and earned her Masters in Social Studies and Education from New York University and taught world history at World Communication Charter School in Philadelphia. She instructed a service-learning course as an adjunct professor at Temple University in Philadelphia.
The Institute offered several featured clinics, among them were:
Sustaining the Service-Leader: The Forgotten Element in the Service-Learning Cycle
How do service-learning leaders find balance and vitality in our own lives? How do they sustain themselves in the long run for this work? This is a missing ingredient in most professional development settings. In this interactive workshop, participants will explore four journeys and multiple pathways for tending one's spirit. They will participate in several activities for renewing the spirit including art, meditation, juggling for non-jugglers and support circles.
Dr. Jim Toole, Compass Institute
Justice-Learning: The Curious Relationship Between Service-Learning and Social Justice in Higher Education
Building off a forthcoming special issue “Service-Learning and Social Justice Education” for the journal Equity and Excellence in Education, this talk will address the points of tension and similarity between the movements of service-learning and social justice in higher education. Specifically, it will examine the political and pedagogical implications of using service-learning as a form of social justice education given contemporary debates surrounding political “bias” in the academy and David Horowitz’s “Academic Bill of Rights.” The talk will argue that, ultimately, service-learning must avoid the debilitating pro- and con- discussions to foster a third way of truly engaging students’ development of and understand about social justice as a local and lived condition.
Dr. Dan Butin
Among the many sessions at the Institute were:
Making Service-Learning Appropriate for Everyone: Engaging Disadvantaged Youth, Alternative Education
As an effective pedagogy for our students, service-learning addresses the basic psychological needs of at-risk youth. Richard Sagor (1993) identified five needs including feelings of competence, belonging, usefulness, potency and optimism. All are systematically addressed through the preparation, action, reflection, and demonstration steps in this practice. This theoretical framework will be demonstrated by a panel of students sharing their S-L experiences.
Lynn Malinoff, EdD, Wayne Westland Community Schools and Suzie Staley,The Henry Ford Youth Mentorship Program
New and Fun Strategies for Beginning and Sustaining Service-Learning
Learn fun strategies to begin or sustain service-learning back home. This workshop will focus on existing tools that many schools have been using for service-learning, while learning how to tie in a fun model that your students and teachers can team-up on to take it to the next level.
Kari Pardoe, Director of Michigan LEAGUE
Learning from Each Other: Co-ops, Internships, and Service-Learning
How can the learning outcomes, pedagogical methods, and practices of different forms of experiential education enrich and inform each other? What opportunities exist for collaboration and research across co-op, internship, and service-learning programs? Participants will consider similarities and differences among programs and explore ways to expand student learning outcomes.
Shannon Spencer, Bowling Green State University
For a complete list of 2007 Institute Workshops - click here
For a complete list of 2007 Institute Roundtables - click here