Sub-categories in this issue

• Youth & Tutoring
• College Access

Types of Service   short-term  |  ongoing school year  |  summer

SHORT TERM (One time volunteer opportunities)

• International Kidsfest
• Read Across America Day + other Literacy Awareness Week activities (i.e. book drive for Books for Africa)
• World Savvy

ON-GOING (Semester long commitments)

Weekly-volunteers

The Youth and Tutoring Organizer plans and coordinates trainings, workshops, and events, works with community partners to organize volunteer opportunities, and assists in the volunteer management efforts of site-based coordinators.

• Group volunteer sites (we bring 5 - 8 students to volunteer together).
  • Division of Indian Work
  • Linwood-Monroe Arts A+ (k-8)
  • West 7th Community Center
• Individual Sites (students go on their own).
  • Ramsey Jr. High
  • Groveland Elementary School
  • Linwood-Monroe Arts A+ (k-8)
  • Division of Indian Work

Off-Campus Work Study

The program is designed to create institutional partnerships between Macalester and local community organizations. The focus of the program is to encourage students to serve as a bridge between the local organization and Macalester, enabling both to build on the varied resources of the other. Community organizations receive assistance from a college student approximately 8-10 hours per week.

• Jean Lyle Children's Center
• YouthCare
• Project for Pride in Living
• Youth Farm & Market

Bonner Sites

• Expo Elementary - 2 Bonner first-year students serve as tutors and classroom assistants in Kindergarten and First Grade classrooms
• Linwood-Monroe Arts A+ - 9 Bonner first-year students serve as tutors and classroom assistants in K-8 classrooms
• Avid program - Ramsey Jr. High, Highland Jr. High

SUMMER

Academic Work   courses  |  service-learning  |  CBR and policy research   |  departments and institutes

Department of Educational Studies

EDUC 194: Urban Education in Challenging Times - Seminar for Bonner Scholars designed to support introductory explorations of challenges and opportunities facing large, complex public service systems (urban public education) and varied 'pedagogies of engagement' (cooperative learning, peer teaching, service learning, policy design, public scholarship).  All students enrolled in the course are assigned to work study placements in St. Paul Public Schools and participate in guided reflection sessions sponsored by the Civic Engagement Center throughout their initial year on campus.  

EDUC 200: Experiences in Education - Students complete 30-40 hour service learning placements in local schools.

EDUC 230: Youth Development in a Changing World - Students complete 30-40 hour service learning placements with local youth development organizations. 

EDUC/AMST/POLI 280: Re-envisioning Education & Democracy - Students complete community based research (survey) on the role of public education in a democracy and then use the results to guide the development of education policy design projects and public intellectual essays.

EDUC 460: Education & Social Change - Students complete 'reform compositions' (capstone projects) involving community-based and/or policy research.

EDUC 480: Urban Education in Theory, Policy & Practice - Students complete 100 hour guided internships in public school classrooms.  The capstone project for this course is an action research project negotiated with their supervising teacher. 

Public scholarship produced by Educational Studies students is posted at www.macalester.edu/educationreform, which is designed to service as a service to the broader community.

Education & Training   forums  |  workshops  |  reflection activities

Forums

•  Taste of Tutoring - This is a very informal outreach event geared towards recruiting students to start volunteering a sites that Macalester already works with.

Workshops & Trainings

• Tutor Trainings for our volunteers and off-campus student employees help keep them up to date on appropriate tutoring/mentoring techniques as well as introduce them to local issues/community leaders.  These are scheduled around the same time each month, and we usually offer some sort of dinner food.  Each tutor training has a brief presentation and then an informal discussion between the speaker and the students follows. 
  • October - Tutoring Students with Disabilities, featuring Macalester College's Associate Dean of Students, Lisa Landreman.
  • November - Tutoring Tips! - Youth and Tutoring Issue-Based Coordinator, Holly Vander Schaaf
  • February - Introduction to the St. Paul Public School District, Special Assistant to the Superintendent, Jeremiah Ellis, presented.
  • March - Literacy as a Social Justice Issue - Executive Director of the Minnesota Literacy Council, Eric Nesheim, spoke.
  • April - Minnesota Minority Education Project - an overview of their 2008 report findings as well as an introduction to the work this organization does. (Presenter has yet to be designated)
  • May - American Indians in Public Education today - Tami Johnson, a counselor for the American Indian Program (a part of SPPS) will speak.

Reflection Activities

Reflection activities vary across different volunteer sites.  Some legitimately call for more or less reflection.  We use reflection throughout our civic engagement program to generate an atmosphere of service learning to encourage our volunteers to think deeply about the work they are doing, as well as to encourage intentional work in the community the students are working in.

•  Weekly volunteer groups - site based leaders coordinate reflection for volunteers.  Usually, reflection occurs in the van en route to and from the site. 
•  Bonner students attend weekly reflection sessions where they have a chance to engage what they are seeing at their respective sites, and to make connections with their Urban Education seminar. 

Campus and Organizational Capacity-Building   training  |  fundraising  |  resource development

Research, Policy Analysis, Deliberative Democracy   evaluations  |  policy research  | issue forums  |  advocacy

• EDUC/AMST/POLI 280: Re-envisioning Education & Democracy - Students complete community based research (survey) on the role of public education in a democracy and then use the results to guide the development of education policy design projects and public intellectual essays.

• EDUC 460: Education & Social Change - Students complete 'reform compositions' (capstone projects) involving community-based and/or policy research.

• EDUC 480: Urban Education in Theory, Policy & Practice - Students complete 100 hour guided internships in public school classrooms.  The capstone project for this course is an action research project negotiated with their supervising teacher. 

   

  Public scholarship produced by Educational Studies students is posted at www.macalester.edu/educationreform, which is designed to service as a service to the broader community.

Contacts   staff  |  faculty  |  students  |  community partners (local, regional, national)

Staff

Ruth Janisch Lake

Consuelo Gutierrez-Crosby

Faculty

Ruthanne Kurth-Schai - Professor & Chair Educational Studies

Students

Holly Vander Schaaf - Youth & Tutoring Organizer