Andrew Larson – Civic Engagement Professional at North Park University
Andrew Larson spent two years as an ILCC VISTA at North Park University in Chicago. Now, as a newly minted full-time staff member, Andrew is helping North Park expand its successful Catalyst 606_ _ program!
Meet Marina LoCasto – Our New Assistant Director!
We’ve got exciting things coming down the pipes at Illinois Campus Compact, starting with our new Assistant Director, Marina LoCasto! She’ll soon become a familiar face for all of our member campuses as she takes hold of our VISTA program. Before you see her on your campus, learn more about her background and what drives her towards civic leadership. 1. Can you tell us a little bit about your background? I am originally from Chicago and grew up in the Oak Park area. My family moved to Italy when I was in middle school so I had a rather unusual upbringing,…
Webinar Resource: Engaging Students in Bi-Partisan Dialogue in and out of the Classroom – Summer Webinar Series
Building Bipartisan Campus Discourse On July 18th, Illinois Campus Compact and Wisconsin Campus Compact hosted Todd Price and Eric Giordano for a webinar on promoting bipartisan campus discourse. At a time when trust in higher education institutions as well as news media institutions is faltering, it is important to once again affirm the campus as a place for productive conversations between people of different strains of thought. Teaching students how to convey ideas through logic and argument in a venue as diverse in thought as a campus will better prepare them to be the civic leaders a vibrant democracy requires. The…
North Park University’s Catalyst 606_ _ Program | Chicago as the Classroom
Rich Kohng, Director of Civic Engagement at North Park, leads a biking tour of the lake shore as part of the Catalyst Semester. Summer is here, and with it comes the typical lull felt on every campus around the country. At North Park University in Chicago, however, this summer will prove to be a busy one for the Urban Hub department. This Fall, they will expand their successful Catalyst 606 _ _ experiential learning program across campus as they seek to transform the common understanding of higher education and its public purpose. What is Catalyst 606 _ _ ? The…
Webinar Resource: Online Service-Learning – Summer Webinar Series
On June 22, Illinois Campus Compact hosted an Online Service-Learning Webinar in partnership with Wisconsin Campus Compact. This webinar explored ways that online courses can be structured to bring service-learning to the ever-growing digital classroom. Below you will links to the resources presented in the webinar. These resources include power-point slides covering the topic, example syllabi and the recording of the webcast itself. Online Service-Learning Webinar Resources PowerPoint – Example Syllabi – ActiveCitizen syllabus 2016 EDPOL 114 2016 Spring sl Syllabus EDPOL 114 Spring 2016 Introductory Group Project EDPOL 609 Community Partnerships Syllabus Spring 2015-1 Research – Sandy & Franco Grounding Service-Learning…
Illinois Campus Compact VISTA Experience – Dan Dankert’s 3 Steps to a Successful Service Year
As Dan prepares to move on from our VISTA program, we sat down with him to learn more about what he thinks are three important steps to getting the most out of the Illinois Campus Compact VISTA experience.
Monthly Civic Engagement Resource Roundup
Campus Compact’s monthly civic engagement resource roundup is curated by Minnesota Campus Compact. Learn more about MNCC’s work here. Articles, Books and Journals “Colleges Should Put Their Money Where Their Ideals Are” by Sandra Goldmark “It’s Actually Not About the Student: Rethinking the Power of Educational Technologies for Engaged Teaching and Learning” by Dan Butin “Placemaking and the University – Opening the University to the Community” by John Tibbit “So You Want to Reform Democracy” by Joshua Tauberer “What Iowa Needs Now: Civic-Minded Professionals” by Emily Shields of Iowa Campus Compact “Universities and Their Cities” by Scott Jaschick interviewing Steven…
Midwest Campus Compact Conference Recap
We want to thank everyone who came out to the Midwest Campus Compact Conference to make it a great success! We were happy to have fantastic weather to make the always beautiful Loyola campus in Chicago all the more beautiful. Doing Democracy Throughout the two-day conference, we discussed new strategies and tools to increase the impact of asset-based community development programs in higher education. The Midwest Campus Compact Conference offered us the space to explore how to better serve our communities by reaching out and finding untapped assets. Innovative students, staff, faculty and other civic-minded leaders led conversations about their…
Writing as Engagement – Student News at UIUC
Fostering an independent student news source is one of the most visible contributions to civic engagement education that a college or university can make. An individual’s ability to keep current with news and access a public forum to lend their voice to discourse is vital to inclusive civic engagement. While attending an institution of higher education, students have a unique opportunity to learn how to act as a stakeholder of a community. For many, campus life is the first taste of truly having a vested interest in the development of their community. And yet, for most the campus experience is…
Civic Technology – A Community Asset to Build Upon
You can read/download the research done by MySociety referenced in this blog post here. On Tuesday, The Chicago Community Trust held its annual On the Table event, which shines a spotlight on issues of community interest and provides a platform for collaborative analysis. The conversation was led by community organizations around Chicago including the YMCA, the Chicago Public Library and many others. Over the course of the day, thousands of civic-minded problem solvers met to discuss unique problems our society faces, and how to address them through civic action. Civic Technology as a Community Asset We attended Microsoft’s On the…
ILCC Welcomes University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign
We are proud to announce that the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign has joined with Illinois Campus Compact to advance the public purpose of higher education. UIUC’s support is vital as we continue to cultivate a culture of civic engagement on campuses across Illinois. As the largest campus in Illinois, UIUC will prove a useful knowledge resource for all of our member institutions. With such strong ties to the Urbana-Champaign community and such a broad array of civic-minded programming, UIUC’s accumulated civic experience will be invaluable to our collaborative efforts. Uniting Sister Cities Although UIUC is a new member of…
Building an Inclusive Knowledge Structure for Community Engagement – Nadinne Cruz
On April 11th, Illinois Campus Compact hosted Nadinne Cruz, former director of the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University, at University of Chicago for a workshop on engaging the diverse communities that surround colleges and universities. Throughout the day attendees learned more of Cruz’s unique background as a proponent of greater equality and civil rights in the Philippines during Ferdinand Marcos’ time in power. After contending with political repression in the Philippines, Cruz brought her unique perspective on civic engagement to higher education in the United States. Although we enjoy a culture of broad political acceptance in the…
Dr. Christine Sobek on Civic Engagement at Waubonsee Community College
Last month, Dr. Chrstine Sobek, president of Waubonsee Community College, penned a column for the Daily Herald about the role of Civic Engagement in Community Colleges. Read more below, and learn more about Waubonsee’s mission here. Civic engagement is the cornerstone of a healthy democracy. As a community college leader, I am inspired to see the fruits of civic engagement unfold not only as we engage within our community, but also as we watch our students transform into leaders on our campuses and within our communities. The definition of civic engagement is working to make a difference in the life of…
Reflections on the Thomas Ehrlich Award by Andrew Furco
The following letter is a guest post by Andrew Furco, Associate Vice-President for Public Engagement and Professor in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development at the University of Minnesota. Andrew Furco is the 2012 recipient of the Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award. By Andrew Furco Receiving the Thomas Ehrlich Award in 2012 was truly an honor. This award, in particular, has meant a great deal to me. I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Ehrlich in 1992, while a graduate student at UC Berkeley working on my dissertation on service-learning. And meeting him was a turning point for me — one that changed the course of…
STEM Highlight – Illinois Institute of Technology’s Global Leaders Program
This past weekend, Illinois Institute of Technology held the annual Community Innovation Project (CI Project) presentations for their Global Leaders Program. IIT’s Global Leaders Program lends the institute’s considerable tech resources and renown to influence talented young Chicagoans to aspire towards a future made better through skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.
Meet Illinois’ 2017 Newman Civic Fellows!
Five students from across Illinois were nominated by their College and University Presidents for the 2017 Campus Compact Newman Civic Fellows Award for their outstanding work in civic engagement leadership. These students are among 273 nominees from Campus Compacts across the nation. Illinois’ Future Leaders This year, Illinois is represented by five incredible student-leaders. These students were nominated by their University President because their contributions to campus and community life stood out. To learn more about these outstanding students and to read excerpts of their nomination letters, click their names below: Bianca Mena of Dominican University Lindsey Earl of Illinois…
ILCC is hiring a full-time Assistant Director!
Illinois Campus Compact (ILCC) is looking for a full time Assistant Director. This position will work closely with our AmeriCorps VISTA program, ILCC member programming, and provide administrative support for the organization. The Assistant Director provides leadership in the development and implementation of programs, events, and member services as well as monitors progress toward the organization’s mission and strategic objectives. Other essential responsibilities include writing communications, evaluative reporting, providing technical assistance to member campuses, supervising additional staff and interns, and developing partnerships with other organizations. For more information and to apply click here and search for Job Code 2573. Feel free…
Illinois Campus Compact is now hiring team members for our 2017-2018 VISTA service year.
VISTA members with Illinois Campus Compact work to advance the public purpose of higher education by connecting campus and community in Illinois. They create opportunities for service based experiential learning and civic engagement, interrupt the cycle of poverty by supporting low income and first generation college students, and create college readiness in underserved communities by working with tutoring centers.
2017 Restorative Justice Funding Application
Illinois Campus Compact is pleased to be offering financial assistance to schools that would like to pursue further opportunities to explore Restorative Justice on their campus. The goal is to help enable a school’s team to better discuss, address, and implement restorative justice practices on their campus. This money can be used to bring in outside trainers to your campus, send students, staff, or faculty to a restorative justice training, or to enhance existing programs on your campus. Institutions may apply for up to $2,000. To access the funding application and a list of recommended trainers, please click here. Please…
Provide Feedback on the CNCS President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll Application
Feedback opportunity open between January 26th and February 17th We are soliciting feedback on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll application and process that will be aggregated into one recommendation to be submitted to CNCS on behalf of Campus Compact. We invite anyone at any institution who has completed an application for the Honor Roll in the past to provide feedback through 1 or ALL of the following opportunities: Feedback Option #1 – Google Document>>: provide specific written feedback, where we have posted the actual questions from the Honor Roll application.This option is available from 1/26 – 2/17. Feedback…