For the fourth straight year, California State University, Stanislaus has received the President’s Higher Education Community Service Award.
CSU Stanislaus was one of only seven California State University campuses to receive the national honor roll distinction.
“This award showcases the excellent work faculty, staff and students are doing in our community. As evidenced by this recognition, CSU Stanislaus is working diligently during these very difficult economic times to be an agent for positive change,” said President Dr. Hamid Shirvani.
The CSU Stanislaus Office of Service Learning works closely with faculty on more than 50 classes per academic year that support over 2,000 students’ learning experiences through community involvement. In addition, participants provide some 30,000 volunteer hours of service.
The award is co-sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the USA Freedom Corps, and the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. The recognition is presented in cooperation with Campus Compact, a national coalition of nearly 1,000 college and university presidents, and supported by all the major national higher education associations.
“We are very excited to have received recognition, again, for the work of our faculty, staff, and students”, said Julie Fox, Director of the Office of Service Learning. “Those engaged in these projects work both with their minds and with their hearts. We are very proud of them.”
Some examples of the University’s community engagement activities include mentoring at-risk youth, a reading readiness program, high school mathematics access program, science education in K-12 classrooms, public policy, healthy families and environmental sustainability. Programs highlighted in the award recognition included:
Annual Head Start Fun and Fitness Camp: Parents and children enrolled in the Turlock Head Start programs from Crane, Cunningham, Wakefield and Osborn elementary schools attend a fitness camp to learn how to stay healthy through fun sports-related activities and healthy eating habits. The CSU Stanislaus soccer field is transformed into different sport “stations” for activities such as dodgeball, soccer and kickball. Under the direction of the Men’s Basketball coach, CSU Stanislaus students teach elementary school students sports-related activities, provide information on healthy eating habits and encourage them to think about higher education in their future.
Chemistry in the Classroom: Upper division students enrolled in the course “Chemistry in the Elementary School Classroom” conduct exciting science experiments with 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders at Osborn Elementary School in Turlock. The CSU Stanislaus students worked with the students from Osborn as they used ordinary household ingredients to make their own play dough and then mold the dough into simple molecular structures. Other exciting experiments used household products to demonstrate acids and bases. Students also performed experiments demonstrating science topics such as phases of matter, physical and chemical properties of matter, temperature dependence of reactions, and graphical interpretation of data using ordinary household products. This innovative program meets the California standards for education.
Make a Splash into Science: Dr. Mark Grobner and CSU Stanislaus biological sciences students worked with over 300 2nd grade students on the Life Cycles Project. CSU Stanislaus students enrolled in the course “Vertebrate Embryology” set up aquariums with tadpoles in 17 local Turlock elementary school classrooms so children could learn about the vertebrate life cycle by following the development of young tadpoles as they mature into frogs. The project culminated with the elementary students visiting the CSU Stanislaus campus over three days to release the maturing tadpoles into Willow Lake and tour the new Naraghi Hall of Science.
CSU Stanislaus was one of only seven California State University campuses to receive the national honor roll distinction.
“This award showcases the excellent work faculty, staff and students are doing in our community. As evidenced by this recognition, CSU Stanislaus is working diligently during these very difficult economic times to be an agent for positive change,” said President Dr. Hamid Shirvani.
The CSU Stanislaus Office of Service Learning works closely with faculty on more than 50 classes per academic year that support over 2,000 students’ learning experiences through community involvement. In addition, participants provide some 30,000 volunteer hours of service.
The award is co-sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the USA Freedom Corps, and the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. The recognition is presented in cooperation with Campus Compact, a national coalition of nearly 1,000 college and university presidents, and supported by all the major national higher education associations.
“We are very excited to have received recognition, again, for the work of our faculty, staff, and students”, said Julie Fox, Director of the Office of Service Learning. “Those engaged in these projects work both with their minds and with their hearts. We are very proud of them.”
Some examples of the University’s community engagement activities include mentoring at-risk youth, a reading readiness program, high school mathematics access program, science education in K-12 classrooms, public policy, healthy families and environmental sustainability. Programs highlighted in the award recognition included:
Annual Head Start Fun and Fitness Camp: Parents and children enrolled in the Turlock Head Start programs from Crane, Cunningham, Wakefield and Osborn elementary schools attend a fitness camp to learn how to stay healthy through fun sports-related activities and healthy eating habits. The CSU Stanislaus soccer field is transformed into different sport “stations” for activities such as dodgeball, soccer and kickball. Under the direction of the Men’s Basketball coach, CSU Stanislaus students teach elementary school students sports-related activities, provide information on healthy eating habits and encourage them to think about higher education in their future.
Chemistry in the Classroom: Upper division students enrolled in the course “Chemistry in the Elementary School Classroom” conduct exciting science experiments with 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders at Osborn Elementary School in Turlock. The CSU Stanislaus students worked with the students from Osborn as they used ordinary household ingredients to make their own play dough and then mold the dough into simple molecular structures. Other exciting experiments used household products to demonstrate acids and bases. Students also performed experiments demonstrating science topics such as phases of matter, physical and chemical properties of matter, temperature dependence of reactions, and graphical interpretation of data using ordinary household products. This innovative program meets the California standards for education.
Make a Splash into Science: Dr. Mark Grobner and CSU Stanislaus biological sciences students worked with over 300 2nd grade students on the Life Cycles Project. CSU Stanislaus students enrolled in the course “Vertebrate Embryology” set up aquariums with tadpoles in 17 local Turlock elementary school classrooms so children could learn about the vertebrate life cycle by following the development of young tadpoles as they mature into frogs. The project culminated with the elementary students visiting the CSU Stanislaus campus over three days to release the maturing tadpoles into Willow Lake and tour the new Naraghi Hall of Science.