The Key Center for Community Citizenship and Service-Learning
Serving to Learn…Learning to Serve…
News from your Key Center. We're advancing civic engagement and service learning. How?
 Fall 2007 ACT in Asheville Day. On September 11 our new frehmen will fan out for service in the city. This year's partnership is with the Asheville Housing Authority. Students will be installing environmentally improved lightbulbs and otherwise improving the conditions of life for those in public housing. For a selection of photographs and links to press coverage for ACT in Asheville Day 2006, follow this link.
During summer, 2007, fifteen faculty members teaching LSIC 179 and 379 classes participated in a project to increase and enhance the use of service-learning as a powerful pedagogy in those classes. The results will be assessed during fall semester. The archive of their syllabi can be found here.
UNCA has now joined North Carolina Campus Compact (link to website here; national Campus Compact here). This is a crucial step toward our goal of becoming a fully engaged campus. Our membership also makes available somestudent placements in NC-ACTS!, a program under which students commit to 300 hours of public and community service during an academic year and receive a $1000 educational award. Are you interested? More information on that program here.
The Key Center is once again organizing the Rollie Williams Mentoring Program. We'll recruit mentoring fellows to work with the I Have A Dream foundation and its children at Pisgah View Homes. Interested students should contact Merritt Moseley.
Successful programs from last year that we hope to repeat in 2007-08: In December, 2006, the Key Center sponsored a trip by 18 UNCA students to work with Hands On Gulf Coast in Katrina recovery work. Some pictures are here. In January 2007 the Key Center arranged a trip for nine students and two faculty members to Atlanta for the M.L. King Service Summit. Some photos are here. In March 2007, the Key Center, in collaboration with the UNC Asheville Habitat group, sponsored an alternate spring break trip for 50 to work with Habitat in New Orleans. Thanks to our supporters--UNCA Student Affairs and Academic Affairs and the UNCA Parents Assocation--for making the trip possible. Details, photos, and some publicity, at this link.
Mission and Purpose
The Key Center for Community Citizenship and Service-Learning seeks to maximize the engagement of UNC Asheville students (and staff) with the community. To this end it encourages UNCA students to undertake service projects in the Asheville area, to reflect on what they learn through service, and to draw connections between what they learn in the community and what they learn in the classroom.
The Key Center helps UNC Asheville students and professors find meaningful projects ranging from a few hours in length, to short-term projects lasting a few days or weeks, to long-term internships with local service organizations and schools.
UNCA students work at more than 100 area agencies and schools on a wide range of service-learning projects including:
- Tutoring basic skills such as reading and math in local schools
- Serving as mentors to at-risk youth
- Working on environmental projects
- Helping women and children who are victims of domestic violence
- Teaching English as a second language
- Helping local food banks and shelters for the homeless
- Working with children and adults with disabilities
- and many other projects…
We want to forge partnerships with non-profit groups and schools in the community.
We want to help UNCA students and professors reach out to serve the community. We are eager to work with you.
Merritt Moseley
Key Center Professor
moseley@unca.edu
828-251-6583
Mary Chakales
Associate Director of Student Activities
and Integrative Learning
mchakales@unca.edu
232-2417
Key Center Interns:
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