Schoolcraft College
Presidential Statement on Civic Engagement - Conway Jeffress, President of Schoolcraft College
At Schoolcraft College, our mission is to provide transformational learning experiences designed to increase the capacity of individuals and groups to achieve intellectual, social, and economic goals. We interpret "transformational" broadly, choosing not to limit the transformation to the learner alone. Instead, we invite the learner to engage-and indeed change-his or her community.
One way we do this is through service learning. Each semester, Schoolcraft offers 30 courses with service learning projects as part of the instructional experience. During these classes, students apply what they learn in the classroom in a real-world setting. They may tutor local elementary schoolchildren in a pre-student teaching class, help children raise money for a worthy cause in a child development class, or help run a reality store where middle school children learn about salaries and budgeting in a math class.
Service learning classes offer the best of both worlds. They build relationships between academic theory and real world applications, and benefit both students and the community. They also foster a sense of civic responsibility and kindle an interest in lifelong learning.
Schoolcraft's engagement with the community does not end there. Our Continuing Education Services program, which serves approximately 19,000 learners each year, includes a component focusing on non-instructional health and fitness activities, many of which serve the community's older residents. Now this program is exploring new community service programs, activities, and specialized clubs that will extend the College's reach into the community even further.
Another initiative this year is the expansion of our Youth Entrepreneur program, a project from our Business Development Center that teaches high school students how to start their own businesses. We also have a Women's Resource Center that collaborates closely with community service agencies and utilizes dozens of community volunteers to help foster the success of students who need support. And, our Student Activities Board includes many groups that get involved in community initiatives, such as Habitat for Humanity.
The newest, and by far the most far-reaching, effort to foster community engagement at Schoolcraft is the opening of VisTaTech, scheduled for January 2003. VisTaTech-which stands for vision, talent, and technology-will feature flexible, technology-rich learning and work spaces that can be reconfigured to meet the needs of nearly any group, company, or community that wishes to partner with the College. The kinds of learning experiences and collaborative work projects that will happen in VisTaTech will be limited only by the imagination of the partners involved.
The result will be new relationships between the College and its constituents, with the constituents being co-creators in the designing of a better future for themselves and their communities.