Pre-Conference workshops
Sessions are scheduled for Wednesday, April 13 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. There will be a welcome lunch included in the $65 pre-conference registration, prior to the workshops, from 12 p.m. (noon) – 1:15 p.m.
Nuts and Bolts 101 to Infinity and Beyond: The Service-Learning Directors Workshop
Experienced practitioners who manage service-learning and/or community engagement programs and centers will lead an open discussion on the complex roles and responsibilities of leading such a program/center. The panelists will share information on building relationships on campus and with community partners, finding program support, informing faculty research, and facilitating faculty, student, and community interactions. Panelists will begin by sharing their experiences, challenges and successes, and advice. An interactive discussion among participants will follow. This preconference workshop is intended to provide orientation and insight for new or aspiring service-learning directors, and support for “grizzled veterans.”
Panelists:
Christy Kayser Arrazattee, Director, Center for Community and Civic Engagement, University of Southern Mississippi
Tim Stewart, Director of Service-Learning, Belmont University
Kristin Harper, Director, Bunting Center for Engaged Study and Community Action, Birmingham-Southern College
Writing and Publishing your Community-Engaged Work
Nationally renowned engaged scholar KerryAnn O’Meara will work with participants on the process of submitting their work for publication in journals. Topics include setting aside the time for writing and creating writing groups, finding examples, developing strong abstracts, journal selection, how to be resilient when papers are rejected, and working with critical feedback to revise and resubmit. Participants will walk away from this workshop having planned next steps for their writing projects, written an abstract, and identified possible journals for submission.
KerryAnn O’Meara serves as an Associate Editor for the Michigan Journal of Community-Service Learning, is a former Associate Editor of the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement and serves on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Higher Education. She has published over 33 peer reviewed articles and many book chapters, monographs, an edited book and scholarly magazine articles.
SLCE Future Directions Workshop
Gulf South Summit participants have two opportunities to engage with Patti, Sarah, and undergraduate contributor Gabrielle Hickmon to learn about and engage with this project, adding our ideas and questions to this ever-broadening conversation about the future of our work as well as drawing on it to enhance our practice.
Participants will tap our own experience as practitioner-scholars to articulate priority directions for the future of SLCE, bringing our ideas into conversation with those shared to date through the SLCE-FDP. We will review the project’s website in advance, reading the Introduction and Framing essays and selecting a thought piece for small group discussion. Having shared our thinking with one another and contributed to the online dialogue, we will consider the possible content of and processes for generating a “national strategic plan” or set of guidelines for the movement to help us advance toward our envisioned futures. And we will explore potential connections between our thinking about the future of SLCE and broader contemporary forces within and beyond higher education. Participants will leave the session with specific ideas for how we might continue as contributing members of the SLCE-FDP learning community and incorporate the project into our own contexts.
Excursions
The local organizing committee will host small-group dinner rounds Wednesday and Thursday night so that participants have opportunities to meet one another while exploring downtown Greensboro. Sign-up sheets for dinner rounds will be available at the Registration table Wednesday and Thursday.
A once-in-a-lifetime excursion to Ossabaw Island will take place on Friday 2:00 – 8:00 pm, following the conference. We’ll travel by Savannah Trolley to Bull River Cruises for a 30-minute boat trip out to this scenic and historic barrier island. The Ossabaw Foundation will provide us with a 2-hour guided walking tour of the island, covering both natural and cultural history. We will then go by boat to the Pin Point Heritage Museum, which celebrates Pin Point – an historically isolated and self-sustaining Gullah Geechee enclave. After a museum tour and presentation, and a box dinner on the grounds, we will return by trolley to the conference center. 33 participants are welcome on a first-come basis. To register, please check Ossabaw Excursion on the Registration form. Fee is $125, all inclusive.