University of Michigan - Flint

Ninth Annual Community Exchange
Friday, October 2, 2009
8:30 am - 5:00 p.m.

This annual event is designed to familiarize new and existing faculty with the Flint community to enhance learning, teaching and research on our campus. The day features a bus tour highlighting UM-Flint partnerships, a panel discussion of community leaders, an exercise with faculty and students that are civically engaged through public scholarship, and an afterglow hour for networking with other faculty. University Outreach is currently planning this event, so stay tuned for more information and registration!

The Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) supports faculty of all disciplines as they lead students in applying academic concepts to real-world issues and gain hands-on experience through in-class service-learning projects integrated into course syllabi.

Promoting this kind of learning, CCE assists faculty with academic service-learning support by:

• Identifying community partners and speakers.
• Facilitating partnerships (e.g. scheduling planning/exploration meetings, special events, and tours)
• Arranging logistics (e.g. reserving rooms and equipment, scheduling meetings and service days directly between community partners and students).
• Presenting service-learning projects to students through in-classroom orientation.
• Overseeing coordination, implementation, and evaluation of projects.
• Conducting funding searches.
• Providing a wide range of customized services to make service-learning a success! This includes videotaping events and student presentations, and photocopying handout materials.

To explore service-learning idease or arrange for CCE support for your courses, please contact Mona Younis at myounis@umflint.edu or (810) 424-5481. Tell us what you will need and we will create a customized support package!

In partnership with faculty, the Center for Civic Engagement helps students develop the combination of knowledge, skills, values, and motivation to become civically engaged for life. In addition to helping faculty meet academic goals for their classrooms, the Center for Civic Engagement offers out-of-classroom co-curricular programs and events for building civic skills and critical thinking about salient issues. Examples include American Democracy Project events (POV film series, Annual Civic Skills Conference, New York Times Reading Club, etc.), First Friday of Service, and Alternative Spring Break. Co-curricular programs can be organized by CCE with the needs of your class in mind!

At the same time, faculty participation is integral to Center for Civic Engagement events, such as by moderating reflection sessions for alternative service experiences and connecting co-curricular programming to UM-Flint course curriculum. We encourage faculty to tell students about these opportunities and events, and we keep track of student participation for faculty offering extra credit to their participating students.

To develop co-curricular programming to tie with your course syllabus or to get involved, please contact Gary Ashley at gaashley@umflint.edu or (810) 424-5458. To learn about upcoming co-curricular events, please visit the CCE Upcoming Events page at http://www.umflint.edu/cce/upcoming_events.htm.

The Center for Civic Engagement has a resource library for use by faculty and staff, with books, periodicals, and videos related to service-learning and civic engagement in higher education. This library includes discipline-specific and issue-based resources as well as more general guides.

The Civic Engagment Resource Library is available during regular business hours on the 10th floor of the Northbank Center Building. For more information, please contact Mona Younis at (810) 424-5481 or myounis@umflint.edu.