NC Campus Compact
Campus Box 2257
Elon, NC 27244
Phone: 336-278-7278
Email: nccc@elon.edu
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News
 Read the latest edition of Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement, North Carolina Campus Compact’s peer-reviewed, online journal, hosted by the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
In this spring 2018 issue of Partnerships (Vol. 9, No. 1), we feature three articles addressing important social issues. Stasinos Stavrianeas of Willamette University describes how a service-learning project undertaken by a college nutrition class generated new research that improved primary school nutrition. Chyrisse Heine of La Trobe University examines how providing speech pathology interventions in Cambodia not only offered tangible benefit there, but also increased for students a global awareness of health disparities and policies. Jacquelyn Lee and co-authors, all from UNC Wilmington, document how applied learning pedagogy, including community engagement, was integrated into the ethos of the university in ways that target increasing social responsibility and an involved citizenry to benefit a myriad of social issues throughout the community.
In addition, this issue includes an essay co-authored by Lisa Jakubowski of Brescia University College and Martin McIntosh of Regional HIV/AIDS Connection that reflects on a controversial service-learning placement to illustrate how agency partners can be powerful activators for transformative experiences and outcomes.
Finally, we offer reviews of three recent books relevant to scholars and practitioners of service-learning and civic engagement:
1) The Community Engagement Professional in Higher Education: A Competency Model for an Emerging Field, edited by Lina Distillo, reviewed by Ryan Nilsen and Laura Fieselman of UNC Chapel Hill and Dane Emmerling of Duke University.
2) Knowledge for Social Change: Bacon, Dewey, and the Revolutionary Transformation of Research Universities in the Twenty-First Century, by Lee Benson and co-authors, reviewed by Charles Brewer of UNC Greensboro.
3) Language Beyond the Classroom: A Guide to Community-Based Learning for World Language Programs, edited by Jann Purdy, reviewed by Adrian Wurr of Gulf University of Science and Technology.
Partnerships is free and available online. Read the full issue.
North Carolina Campus Compact has several upcoming programs and events for faculty, staff, and member campuses, including our Engaged Faculty Scholars program, our Midterms Matter Mini-grants to support student voter engagement, and the Civic Engagement Administrators Conference. These supports can turn your civic engagement buds into blooms.
Apply now to be an Engaged Faculty Scholar
Application deadline: May 18
Project Term: July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2019
The Engaged Faculty Scholars program is a a unique, one-year opportunity for faculty interested in public scholarship, engagement and service-learning. Each Scholar is expected to work toward two goals:
- Promote and deepen the scholarship of engagement at the scholar’s own institution
- Assist in building the infrastructure for faculty engagement on another NC Campus Compact member institution
Up to two faculty members may be selected. Only faculty from member institutions may apply. Benefits of the program include: $1500 stipend paid upon completion of the service term; up to $500 travel reimbursement for visits to the partner campus, up to $500 for professional development, and at least one free civic engagement publication. Learn more | Access the application
Midterms Matter Mini-Grants for Student Voter Engagement
Application deadline: May 15
Project Term: June 1 – December 1, 2018
To strengthen campus supports for voter education and electoral participation during the 2018 midterm elections, NC Campus Compact will award $1,000 mini-grants to select member campuses. Mini-grant funds may be used to provide student leader stipends, facility rentals, transportation, food, supplies, materials, printing, technology services, speaker fees, or other programming expenses related to student voter engagement activities. All supported activities should be non-partisan and inclusive. This program is supported by the national Campus Election Engagement Project. Learn more about the CEEPNC initiative | APPLY for a mini-grant
The Compact is also coordinating a 2018 NC College Voter Summit. Save the date: Saturday, September 15! Open to students, faculty, and staff leading non-partisan campus voter engagement, the summit will focus on training, best practices, and idea exchange. See re-caps of our 2017 Summit and 2016 Summit to learn more.
Community Engagement Administrators Conference
June 12, 2018 at Elon University
Registration closes May 31
This one-day session will give participants tools, strategies, and information to design, initiate and/or enhance systematic mechanisms for monitoring and auditing community-engaged activities across your institution. Featuring Anne Weiss, director of assessment for Indiana Campus Compact. Anne is a Ph.D. candidate in Higher Education Administration at Indiana University and a Visiting Scholar with Tufts University’s Institute for Democracy and Higher Education. She is also editor of a forthcoming book, Assessing the (Often) Hidden Outcomes of Community Engagement.
Cost is $100/pp for member campuses ($130/pp for non-member campuses)
Learn more | Register
SUMMER & FULL-YEAR Service placements with the NC Afterschool Corps
For current students: Our Afterschool Corps SUMMER ASSOCIATES program offers a 9-week AmeriCorps VISTA service experience working with an out-of-school time/summer learning program that serves low-income children and families. Activities may include leading lessons and enrichment activities or organizational / program development like fundraising or communications. Placements available in Durham, Greenville, High Point, Pembroke, and Pfeiffer. Start date: June 11 / End date: August 12. Apply ASAP (or by April 30). Learn more about SUMMER VISTA positions
For graduating seniors and alums: Our Afterschool Corps FULL-YEAR positions are a chance to gain experience leading projects that support youth and connect colleges to communities. Full-year members will attend a pre-service orientation July 16-19 and start their year of national service on July 20. Placements available across the state, and applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. (Apply by May 1 for priority consideration.) Learn more about FULL-YEAR VISTA positions
 pink, spring, blossoms
 On April 9, NC Campus Compact invites friends and allies to take part in our first-ever Day of Giving. Your support will grow the HPU Challenge Fund for North Carolina Campus Compact, a special interest endowment fund created to help sustain the Compact as it works to advance civic and community engagement in higher education.
Since 2002, North Carolina Campus Compact has helped colleges and universities build on their commitments to educate students for civic and social responsibility, to partner with communities for positive change, and strengthen democracy.
Your donation will keep us moving forward as we expand efforts to foster connections between campuses, share information and resources, recognize outstanding work, and champion civic and community engagement in higher education.
The HPU Challenge Fund for North Carolina Campus Compact was launched with a $200,000 gift, announced by High Point University President Nido Qubein at the 2017 NC Presidents Forum. The fund is administered by the Alamance Community Foundation, a regional affiliate of the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro.
Donations to the fund are tax-deductible and can be made online by credit card. Your online donation will generate a receipt to your email address. (Please check your junk folder if the receipt does not appear in your inbox.)
To give by check, make check payable to “Alamance Community Foundation” AND write “NC Campus Compact” in the memo line. Mail your gift to:
NC Campus Compact, Campus Box 2257, Elon, NC 27244.
Thank you for supporting North Carolina Campus Compact and the public purposes of higher education! Learn more about the Day of Giving.
Guest post by Asia King, NC State University student and recipient of a 2017 Marshall Alternative Break Scholarship
“If you’ve come here to help me, you’re wasting your time. But if you’ve come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
— Lilla Watson, Australian Aboriginal Elder
I often tell people I have never had a “real spring break.” I have been lucky to participate in four Alternative Service Break experiences, and as participants it sometimes feels as if we receive so much more out of ASB than we give back. However I know going into ASB that I am there with a purpose. I want to share so much with the community. I want to tell them that I see them, I hear them, and I stand beside them. Raising awareness is such an important part of the ASB journey. What we learn during our time in the community is not as important as what we do with it.
 Asia King (left) joined fellow NC State students on an alternative break service trip to Guatemala this spring. My fourth and final spring break (of my undergraduate career) has been one that is difficult to digest as ASB has held such a huge space in my heart throughout my college career. I was able to serve as team leader for North Carolina State University’s Alternative Service Break Program to Guatemala focusing on Women and Gender Issues. In partnership with the Center for Student Leadership, Ethics, and Public Service and the Women’s Center our trip worked to unpack the gender roles and traditional views on gender that impact our lives daily. We worked with organizations such as the Comité Campesino del Altiplano which works to advocate for the rights of indigenous farmers by seeking global, social, economic, political and cultural change as well as ALAS de Mujeres which focuses on providing access to family planning resources as well as changing the stigma around using family planning methods.
When people ask me to explain the reason behind Alternative Service Break, it is a truly difficult for me to put words to the experience. It is hard for me to explain the warmth I feel from the community members who invite us into their homes. Hard for me to explain the power of being a participant in the Women’s March and seeing the Transgender community represented. Hard for me to explain my feelings of frustration, guilt and sadness that regardless of what I do I cannot change the past and how it has affected these individuals. Hard for me to sum up that in a week I can be completely unraveled and put back together by the concept of ASB Magic. Overall ASB is more than a resume builder. More than a week. More than an experience. ASB is a journey, it’s self-reflection, its love, its power, its community and its where I have found myself and the passion within me for social change.
NOTE: Photos courtesy of Asia King. Asia is a senior majoring in business administration at NC State University. She received a 2017 Marshall Alternative Break Scholarship, which provides $250 to support participation in an alternative break program where the student takes a leadership role. The Marshall Scholarship application is open to all students in the NC Campus Compact network who attend the annual CSNAP Student Conference, where scholarship winners are announced. Learn more about the Marshall Alternative Break Scholarship here.
Guest Post by Natasha Kinto
I am Natasha Jones Kinto (Lumbee), a Campus Compact AmeriCorps VISTA. My host site is The Lumbee Tribe Boys & Girls Clubs and I am partnering with The University of North Carolina at Pembroke. I prepared myself for my VISTA service by reviewing my VAD, The Lumbee Tribe Boys & Girls Clubs (BGCA) mission and purpose and afterschool programs in general. I began my service year in August, just a few weeks after the new school year began. The Pembroke Boys & Girls Club, my home base, was getting a new floor so furniture was rearranged daily. The BGCA Staff were busy with daily lessons while preparing for an audit and the First Annual Lumbee Days held at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. I met the other VISTA who was also assigned to the Clubs, was given a work space and instructed to begin the work listed on my VAD; day one had begun. I had feelings of being overwhelmed with the large workload and unfamiliar setting but the BGCA Staff were welcoming and accommodating. My fellow VISTA and I settled into our stations and developed an outline and a plan of action.
The VISTA Online Orientation, including the video chats and assignments, were beneficial in showing me how to break my VAD objectives and activities down into manageable tasks. I was able to conceptualize projects and develop concrete deliverables. I focused on what I knew, which was making observations, interviewing staff and getting organized. I visited each of the seven Boys & Girls Clubs where I met staff, members and volunteers. I gathered enough information to allow me to work independently and created online shared file storage for my work. I created a list of potential volunteers and donors for the seven Boys & Girls Clubs which serves as a current and future resource. I was also able to focus my attention on the larger VISTA mission of fighting poverty. I knew that my work should be sustainable by future VISTAs, BGCA Staff and/or volunteers with the goal of addressing poverty.
My once in a lifetime experience as a VISTA came quickly in September as I was invited to attend Lumbee Days in Washington, D.C. with the Lumbee Tribe and the Boys & Girls Clubs. I treated the trip as an immersion experience and spent five days and four nights with approximately seventy-five club members and thirty club staff, as well as local leaders. We rode buses, participated in a Wreath Laying Ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia and explored D.C. on foot. We spent two full days at the Museum of the American Indian sharing the story of the Lumbee People with the world. The D.C. trip allowed me to reconnect with former colleagues and make new alliances.
Many local leaders, educators, story tellers and crafts people have voiced support of the initiatives of the Boys & Girls Clubs. Through my VISTA assignment, I have gained first-hand knowledge of tribal government, including protocol and etiquette. I have learned of the many struggles that our tribal members face, such as health gaps, access to services and educational needs. The VISTA program has provided me with an opportunity for growth and personal development as I have worked to address poverty in my community. During the second half of my year of VISTA service, I will complete my VISTA tasks. I will also finish my portfolio project and presentation so that I may showcase my efforts and how they will benefit my community. With the information that I have gained, I will continue to provide the needed services to my community, even after my VISTA service year is over. I encourage anyone who is interested in community service to consider the Campus Compact AmeriCorps VISTA program.
We are NOW RECRUITING FULL-YEAR MEMBERS for service terms beginning July 16! Learn more: bit.ly/goNCAfterschoolCorps
Campus Compact, a Boston-based non-profit organization working nationwide to advance the public purposes of higher education, has announced the 268 students who will make up the 2018 cohort of Newman Civic Fellows. There are 12 fellows from colleges and universities in our North Carolina Campus Compact network.
The Newman Civic Fellowship is a one-year fellowship for community-committed college students from Campus Compact member institutions. The fellowship honors the late Frank Newman, one of Campus Compact’s founders and a tireless advocate for civic engagement in higher education.
In the spirit of Dr. Newman’s leadership, Campus Compact member presidents and chancellors are annually invited to nominate one community-committed student from their institution for the fellowship. These nominees are individuals who have demonstrated an investment in finding solutions for challenges facing communities throughout the country and abroad.
Through the fellowship, Campus Compact provides a variety of learning and networking opportunities, including a national conference of Newman Civic Fellows in partnership with the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. The fellowship also provides fellows with pathways to apply for exclusive scholarship and post-graduate opportunities. Fellows from North Carolina Campus Compact will receive complimentary registration to attend the annual CSNAP Student Conference. The 2018 CSNAP Conference will be held at Fayetteville State University on November 9-10.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to celebrate and engage with such an extraordinary group of students,” said Campus Compact president Andrew Seligsohn. “The stories of this year’s Newman Civic Fellows make clear that they are bringing people together in their communities to solve pressing problems. That is what Campus Compact is about, and it’s what our country and our world desperately need.”
The Newman Civic Fellowship is supported by the KPMG Foundation and Newman’s Own Foundation.
Congratulations to the 2018 Newman Civic Fellows from North Carolina Campus Compact member schools:
East Carolina University – Haley Creef
Elon University – Fiona Zahm
High Point University – Douglas McCollum
Meredith College – Leslie Arreaza
North Carolina Central University – Jordan Thomas
Pfeiffer University – Kristina Everhart
University of North Carolina at Asheville – Daniel Suber
University of North Carolina at Charlotte – Sreevidhya (Vidhya) Balasubramanian
University of North Carolina at Greensboro – Terrell Saunders
Wake Forest University – David Ajamy
Western Carolina University – Fiona Buchanan
William Peace University – Maiah Overton-Ashford
NC Campus Compact has recognized two outstanding administrators as our 2018 Civic Engagement Professionals of the Year. Charlotte Williams of Lenoir-Rhyne University received the “Sustainer Award” for her 19 years of civic engagement leadership, and Tamara Johnson of UNC Charlotte received the “Emerging Leader Award” for the significant contributions she has made to campus civic engagement in just five years. Both Williams and Johnson were honored at the 2018 NC Presidents Forum, held at Meredith College on February 9.
 The 2018 Civic Engagement Professionals of the Year: Tamara Johnson (left) of UNC Charlotte and Charlotte Williams (right) of Lenoir-Rhyne University. For nearly two decades, Charlotte Williams has been an architect of Lenoir-Rhyne University’s community engagement programming.
 Charlotte Williams accepts the Civic Engagement Professional of the Year “Sustainer” Award at the President Forum held on Feb. 9 at Meredith College. Williams first came to Lenoir-Rhyne University (LR) in 1999 as a visiting assistant professor and coordinator of the human and community services (HCS) program. Today she serves as Associate Dean for Engaged and Global Learning, and she continues to coordinate the HCS program. Participation in the program has doubled during her tenure. Through her teaching, administration, and civic leadership, Ms. Williams has touched the lives of countless LR students and local citizens.
Williams supports co-curricular service as well, promoting the annual Hands On Hickory event and serving as an advisor to the Circle K club. For several years, she served as the university’s liaison to NC Campus Compact, supervised Lenoir-Rhyne’s AmeriCorps VISTA member, and managed an NC-ACTs grant which provided community service scholarships to students. In 2014, she was honored with the university’s “Outstanding Student Organization Faculty Advisor Award.”
Ms. Williams also models civic leadership. Last fall, she was appointed by the Governor to serve on the NC Human Relations Commission. Previously, she was elected and served two terms on the Hickory Board of Education, and she has served on numerous non-profit boards, including the boards of the United Arts Council of Catawba County, Catawba County Habitat for Humanity, and Cognitive Connection, a local substance abuse program. In 2008, she received LR’s “Community Service Award.” She was also honored by the Hickory Schools Foundation with the “Outstanding Community Partner Award, 2014-15.”
Ms. Williams received her bachelor’s of social work from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and her master’s of arts from the University of Chicago. Earlier in her career, she worked for the City of Chicago as Assistant Commissioner of Planning and as Assistant Deputy Mayor for Community Services.
Over the course of her relatively short tenure at UNC Charlotte, Tamara Johnson has shaped the civic engagement landscape and mapped new pathways that connect students and community.
Her official position – “Research Associate for Academic Planning and Analysis” in the Office of Academic Affairs – belies her significant civic engagement responsibilities.
 Tamara Johnson accepted the Civic Engagement Professional of the Year “Emerging Leader” Award from Leslie Garvin, executive director of NC Campus Compact. As the coordinator of the university’s North Carolina Campus Compact working group, Johnson oversees efforts to enhance the practice of community-based learning. In 2015, she was instrumental in establishing UNC Charlotte’s biennial Engaged Scholarship and Community Partnership Symposium. She led committees that organized gatherings for campus and community members around key local issues: Hunger in Charlotte in 2016 and Housing Affordability in 2017. Last fall, she was a key ally for a student-led project to bring Charlotte-Mecklenburg police to campus for a conversation with students and community members about police-involved shootings. Johnson is currently leading UNC Charlotte’s development of a Civic Action Plan. The plan aims to create a set of strategic initiatives that align teaching, research, and service around an urgent community need: economic mobility.
“Tamara acts in ways that catalyze change by serving as the momentum and connection in a system that is decentralized and prone to silos,” says UNC Charlotte Provost Joan Lorden.
Johnson is also committed to student engagement. Since 2014, she has chaired the 49er Democracy Experience, a group of students who seek to engage peers in elections and democratic action. Their collective efforts in 2016 engaged hundreds of student voters and helped UNCC be recognized as a “Voter Friendly Campus.”
Working with colleagues in the Dean of Students office, Johnson also co-founded and co-leads UNC Charlotte’s Bonner Leaders program, which welcomed its first cohort in the fall of 2016. A four-year campus-community collaboration that uses federal work-study funds to subsidize public service, the program places students at local non-profit partners.
Johnson also teaches as an adjunct faculty member in the Global Studies department. In 2015 and 2016 she led summer study abroad trips to Cape Town, South Africa, where she once served as a Peace Corps volunteer.
Johnson received her bachelor’s degree in geography and international studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she later completed her Ph.D. in geography. Before arriving at UNC Charlotte in 2012, she was an instructor at UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, and the University of Cape Town.
UNCC story on Tamara.
(Photos by Andrew Krech)
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