Skidmore College is committed to offering students the opportunity to enhance their liberal arts education through community volunteer opportunities.  While helping to meet community needs, volunteer experiences also help students to develop into informed, responsible citizens.

The Office of Community Service Programs identifies volunteer opportunities in the community and initiates service programs. The Office also coordinates student efforts to meet the volunteer needs in the public and private sector, and helps coordinate placements for service-learning classes.

The Director of Community Service Programs advises Benef-Action, the SGA sponsored student volunteer club and coordinates programs with the Schuylerville School District for Expanding Horizons.

Announcements

Report from Responsible Citizenship Task Force

How well does Skidmore cultivate civic-minded in our students?  When do we ask our students to articulate how they will use their education to make a meaningful contribution to the world?  This report is an overview of civic engagement education at Skidmore and a guide to fulfilling the letter and the spirit of Goal III of the strategic plan. The report begins with a conceptualization of civic engagement in higher education and then moves to recent concrete activities.  There is much to celebrate in this review, but the report concludes with a set of recommendations about how to enhance student civic engagement in support of our strategic plan.

Request for Civic Engagement Proposals

The Responsible Citizenship Task Force invites applications for funds for Skidmore campus projects that seek to advance Goal III of the College's Stategic Plan.  Goal III of Skidmore's Strategic Plan states that "we will prepare every Skidmore student to make the choices required of an informed, responsible citizen at home and in the world."  This funding program, supported by the President's Discretionary Fund, will support projects that increase students' civic engagement.  Applications may be submitted by Skidmore students, faculty, or staff.

$10,000 Davis Projects for Peace Grant- ONE Skidmore project WILL win

International Education Week is an appropriate time to announce that for the fourth consecutive year, Katherine Wasserman Davis and the Davis Foundation are funding one-hundred $10,000 Davis Projects for Peace grants to be completed in the Summer of 2010.  Skidmore students are eligible to apply for this grant and because of Skidmore's support of the Davis United World College Scholars Program, at least ONE project from Skidmore will be funded, possibly two.

You may know and remember past winners and their projects:

2007- Joseph Kaifala '08 (program implemented in Sierra Leone)

2007- Jazzmina Moore '09 (Tanzania)

2008- Peter Brock '09 and Meghan Morris '09 (Nepal)

2008- Xxx "Spencer" Xiangjiandangzhi '11 (Tibet)

2009- Elana Hazghia '10 and Verena Bunge '11 (Guatemala)

While Skidmore projects to date have all been completed outside of the United States, Projects for Peace can occur anywhere in the world the proposal identifies.  The requirements outlined by the Davis Foundation are very broad and leave room for a great deal of creativity.

Attached is a flyer you are welcome to display around your office, division, or department to encourage students to explore this opportunity (even as a black and white flyer it can be noticed).  I have a one-page information sheet I will email any interested student.  It explains the steps and timeline to submitting a proposal to the campus selection committee. Deadline is FEBRUARY 1, 2010.

To learn more about this program or read proposals and reports from past years, please see:

www.davisprojectsforpeace.org

Students can also learn more about the most recent project by attending tonight's IEW program:

Davis Projects for Peace Presentation, "Peace Through My Eyes" by Elana Hazghia.

6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Ladd 206.