News from your Key Center
We're advancing civic engagement and service learning. How?
Fall 2007 ACT in Asheville Day. On September 9, our 600 freshmen fanned out for service in the city of Asheville, working with partners including Quality Forward, Riverlink, Asheville City School, and the Asheville Housing Authority. On September 11 our new freshmen will fan out for service in the city. More information and photographs coming soon!
2008 is an election year, and the Key Center is partnering with Student Government in a variety of voter registration, voter education and voter transportation efforts.
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 is a member of 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 previous years that we hope to repeat in 2008-09: 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. We've also sent teams to Huntsville, Alabama, in January 2008 and to St Bernard Parish, LA in March 2008 to help replace destroyed or substandard housing. Details, photos, and some publicity, at this link.
