Issue date: 1/27/05 Section: News

Media Credit: Joan Arches CPCS students in Professor Joan Arches´ Strategy and Proposal Development course facilitate small group discussion at their Engaging Student Voices forum last fall. [Click to enlarge]

Applying the theoretical knowledge of the college classroom to the post-graduate real world may prove to be an easier transition for some College of Public and Community Service students. Last semester students enrolled in Professor Joan Arches' Strategy and Proposal Development course that coupled the insights of their texts and classroom lecture with practical knowledge as they set out to assess student involvement with UMB's proposed Community Outreach and Research Center (CORC).

Arches, along with her students, presented their process and findings to members of UMass Boston and visiting educators at the Center for Improvement of Teaching Conference held last Friday afternoon in McCormack Hall.

"This project really was student-driven and student-run," said Arches, who also acts as co-principle investigator of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Outreach Partnership Center grant that spurred the creation on the CORC.

The CORC was described by Dr. Rob Beattie, Director of the Environmental Studies Program and co-principle investigator of the grant as "sort of a portal... Where members of the community, be it community groups or individuals could come and find out about the kinds of resources that the university offers both educational research services activities, and it will be a center at which university faculty and staff could make connections with community groups or with one another."

In conjunction with the Urban Mission Coordinating Committee, Arches and Beattie took part in the Urban Connections Forum this past October in order to galvanize faculty, staff, and administration around the project.
As their contribution to the project, Arches' students focused on student involvement in the creation of the CORC. One week into their coursework the class wrote and then received a grant to facilitate their work. After classroom brainstorming sessions the class planned and executed a student forum to address issues involved in the types of service learning projects that could emerge in creating this meeting point for community organizations, faculty, and students.

Continued...

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