Introduction For the past eleven years, the Service-Learning Program has focused on integrating service into the academic and intellectual life of the College and enhancing Bates’ connection to the community. With the establishment of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships, our resources and energy have been focused on the development of service-learning connections that are intellectually rigorous and meet community-defined needs. This past year, service projects that were done as part of an academic course ranged from students who researched and planned a traveling exhibit for Museum L/A as part of a history course to Biology students who helped eradicate invasive plant species from the community bird sanctuary. We continue to encourage students to take part in community-based research. This year, exciting research took place through a variety of departments. As examples, a senior presented to a national conference of District Attorneys research she had done for the local Family Drug Court; Geology students did analyses of lakes along the Maine coast for the Phippsburg Land Trust; and an American Studies major worked with a local multicultural family literacy program studying how different cultures and their literacy traditions fit into the American definition of literacy. We have worked hard to develop trusting partnerships with the community and have taken pleasure in seeing these deepen and grow over the years. We hope that the quality of the knowledge and work that our students provide these organizations has improved with greater attention paid by the College to learning goals and partners’ needs. More consideration has been given to moving from a short-term, “call back” model of community projects to deeper, longer-term, more integrative partnerships, which make possible the co-creation of public resources and the development of innovative educational practices on a new scale. We invite you to learn more about the service-learning and volunteer work that Bates students undertook this past year by reading this report (you will find the service- learning section listed by department at the front). Ultimately, the success of the Center rests with the willingness and desire of many faculty to integrate community engagement into their teaching, the eagerness of Bates students to engage in the larger iii world, the support we receive from the College and other generous donors, and the generosity of the members of the Lewiston-Auburn community and beyond, who have been so welcoming to Bates students. The Center is very grateful to all of these people for making our work possible. Holly Lasagna Director, Service-Learning Program Harward Center for Community Partnerships Fall 2006 iv Statistics for the Center for Service-Learning 2005-2006 30,423 documented hours of service were given by Bates students through service-learning projects (this figure does not include hours of volunteer service). 11,840 of these service-learning hours were given in connection with the public schools. 561 students participated in academically-based service-learning from the fall of 2005 through the summer of 2006. 34 courses included a service-learning component; in addition, there were numerous independent study projects, senior theses that involved service-learning and community- based research. 16 different departments and programs in the College were involved in service-learning projects. 30 faculty members were involved in some type of service-learning. Of these faculty: 13 were full professors; 4 were associate professors; 8 were assistant professors or instructors; 5 were lecturers. 10,020 documented hours of volunteer service were given by Bates students during the academic year. Of these, 2,370 were hours of mentoring done in the local schools. Over 250 students participated in a volunteer activity that required a consistent time commitment and over 610 volunteered in a one-time opportunity. Approximately 80 community agencies and institutions were involved with Bates service- learning projects. A sample of these organizations would include: • Abused Women’s Advocacy • Even Start Family Literacy Project Program • Acadia National Park • Franco American Heritage • Androscoggin Children’s Center Advocacy Center • Governor's Office of Health • Androscoggin Land Trust Policy and Finance • Androscoggin River Alliance • Growsmart • "Antipodes” art gallery in • Guatemalan National Museum of Kotonah, NY Natural History • Auburn Housing Authority • Hall-Dale Elementary School • Auburn Public Schools • Head Start • B Street Health Clinic • Healthy Learners • Blake Street Towers • Hillview housing complex • Broadreach Inc. and the • Kivulini Women's Rights Caribbean Conservation Organization Corporation • Leavitt Area High School • Carrie Ricker Elementary School • Leeds Central School • Center for the Prevention of Hate • Lewiston Adult Learning Center Violence • Lewiston District Court • Chilkat Guides Ltd. • Lewiston High School Aspiration • Community Concepts Program • Dirigo Place • Lewiston High School Parenting • Dunn Elementary School Center • EcoAfrica Consultants Ltd. • Lewiston Housing Authority • Eiteljorg Museum of American • Lewiston Public Library Indians and Western Art, • Lewiston Public Schools Indianapolis • Libby Tozier School • Empower Lewiston • Lots to Gardens v • Maine Campus Compact • Town of Phippsburg • Maine Department of • Toxics Action Center Transportation • Trinity Church Jubilee Center • Maine Equal Justice Partners • Troika Drafts • Maine Ethics Commission • U.S. Environmental Protection • Maine Geological Survey Agency • Maine People's Alliance • U.S. Forest Service • Maine Rivers Alliance • Visible Community • Maine Senate Majority Office • Volunteer Lake Monitoring • Maine Task Force of Citizenship Association Education • Winthrop Grade School • Maine Women's Policy Center • Wisdom's Center • Many and One Coalition • YMCA Daycare Program • Margaret Murphy Center for • Youthbuild/ACE Children • Maria Mitchell Associates • Minot Elementary School • Mt. Vernon and Wayne Elementary Schools • Multi-Purpose Center after- school program • Museum L/A • Muskie School of Public Policy • New Beginnings • New York Department of Environmental Conservation • P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center of the Museum of Modern Art • Poland High School • Readfield and Manchester Schools • Renaissance House • Sandcastle Preschool • Spindleworks • St. Joseph's School • Stanton Bird Club (Thorncrag Bird Sanctuary) • Student Conservation Association • Tanglewood 4-H Camp • The Child Health Center 6 Course-Related Service-Learning American Cultural Studies Fieldwork in American Cultural Studies, ACS 220, Margaret Creighton In Margaret Creighton’s Fieldwork in American Cultural Studies course, students did individual service projects in the community in addition to interviewing retired mill workers for the Museum L/A Oral History Project. The service- learning aspect of the course placed students in culturally and economically diverse settings that informed their academic work in the classroom. Placements included: Youthbuild/ACE Dirigo Place New Beginnings Trinity Church Jubilee Center Blake Street Towers Wisdom’s Center Even Start Family Literacy Program Thesis Research Megan Manning ’06 examined how different cultures and their literacy traditions fit into the American definition of literacy. The student spent significant time in at Lewiston Even Start, a multicultural family literacy program. Anthropology Encountering Community: Ethnographic Fieldwork and Service-Learning, ANTH s10, Heather Lindkvist This intensive methods course examined the cultural history of the Lewiston area, in particular how the mills have shaped the local community and have influenced the interactions among various ethnic groups. During short term, 7 students were involved in collecting community stories with the Oral History Project at Museum L/A and Trinity Jubilee Center. Students interviewed retired mill workers as well as community members who visited the Jubilee Center soup kitchen and documented their stories through writings, photographs and presentations. The information from the Jubilee Center will be used to evaluate the needs of those served as the Soup Kitchen expands into a day center. Funds from the Harward Center supported a reception at Museum L/A for those interviewed as well as a barbeque for participants at the Jubilee Center. Cultural Production and Social Context in Jamaica. AA/AN s28, Charles Carnegie Bates students traveled to Jamaica during short term and while studying at the University of the West Indies helped implement beautification projects during a community Labor Day celebration. Art and Visual Culture The Art Department had four students who interned off campus as part of an internship course in museum studies offered through the Department. • Emily Wallar ‘06 interned at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She did curatorial work including research on exhibits. • Nichole Scott ’06 interned at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis. She participated in a variety of museum education projects. • Carmen Gomez ’06 worked for a gallery in Katonah, New York, called Antipodes. Her responsibilities involved curatorial work, exhibition installation and cataloging. • Jacob Bluestone ’07, a studio art major, taught photography to five Poland High School students and then mounted an exhibition of their work. “In Our Hands, Through Our Eyes,” March 26-April 9,