Thirteen Montana College Students Selected For 2021-22 George M. Dennison Scholarship
Montana Campus Compact (MTCC) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2021-22 George M. Dennison Scholarship Award.
This year we received an exceptionally strong set of applications from our affiliated campuses across Montana. All of our civically-engaged college student applicants represent George M. Dennison’s vision of building strong, equitable, and just communities through volunteerism, civic engagement, and service. Each student’s application spoke to an impressive range of service activities to address unmet needs within their communities.
“It makes me incredibly hopeful for the future of our state, country, and world that today’s college students not only care so deeply but that they take action and work hard to address real issues, all while keeping up their studies,” said Josh Vanek, Executive Director with Montana Campus Compact.
George M. Dennison was president of the University of Montana from 1990 to 2010 and was a co-founder of Montana Campus Compact. The Dennison family has generously donated funds, and MTCC's seventeen institutions each provide matching funds locally, to award a total of thirteen $1000 scholarships. ...
Montana Campus Compact is proud to report that our 2022 Martin Luther King Jr. National Day of Service Read for Peace event made a large impact across the state.
Our AmeriCorps Leaders in collaboration with AmeriCorps VISTAs, and AmeriCorps Seniors, served over 1,100 students, engaged in over 150 volunteer hours with the help of over 100 community members, and raised over $1,000 for books that were donated to elementary schools and organizations around the state.
We would like to give thanks to Imagine Nation Brewing in Missoula for promoting social justice-focused volunteer opportunities, Barnes and Noble in Missoula for hosting our Book Fair to raise funds for the books used in the event, and to Missoula Aging Services and AmeriCorps Seniors and Experiential Learning and Career Success at the University of Montana for recruiting volunteers for the Missoula event.
Thank you,
Montana Campus Compact Team
FUNDING AND GRANTS
Funding Available: Summer AmeriCorps Placements for Montana College Students
MTCC's network office is excited to announce the availability of funding for its campuses to support full-time, ten-week AmeriCorps placements for the summer of 2022.
Through its AmeriCorps (AKA "domestic Peace Corps") program, MTCC places college student members with colleges, universities, nonprofits, city and county offices, and schools to support youth programming, summer nutrition, college access projects, and more.
Students receive a living allowance and AmeriCorps Education Award following service, moreover they do amazing work to make our communities safer, smarter, and healthier and support the public mission of higher education.
Please contact VISTA Program Manager, Callye Foster at foster@mtcompact.org or, AmeriCorps Program Manager, Dannette Fadness at fadness@mtcompact.org with questions.
The priority deadline for applying to host summer AmeriCorps members is March 6th, 2022.
Civic-Minded College Students Recognized with Volunteer Award
Feb 3, 2022
HELENA, MT – The Montana Student Volunteer Award is presented through a partnership between the Governor’s Office of Community Service and Montana Campus Compact campuses.
Honorees of this annual award are college students across the state who demonstrate dedication to service in their communities while pursuing a college degree or certificate.
This year, 14 student volunteers across Montana will be recognized by their school during virtual events and ceremonies. Additionally, each winner will receive a certificate signed by Governor Gianforte and their college's or univerity's CEO.
Nominations for the Montana Student Volunteer Awards open at the beginning of the fall semester and close in December. For information about individual award ceremonies, contact the college’s Campus Compact advisory committee member or Josh Vanek at vanek@mtcompact.org.
Registration continues for the Community Building Institute through the month of January. Join us for this series of five webinars in early February that will help you to better understand the steps you should take to achieve sustainable change with community input.
Staff, faculty, and administrators with a Montana Campus Compact affiliate campus should use the code ‘MTCC’ to receive discounted registration.
Students at MTCC affiliate campuses can register for free. For more details contact Eli Bowe at bowe@mtcompact.org.
FEATURED ARTICLE
Higher ed's role in civic learning and democracy’s future (opinion)
Carol Geary Schneider writes of civic learning, the equity shortfall, and colleges’ role in nurturing the habits of mind and heart and practical problem solving our troubled democracy so urgently needs.
Just after World War II, when the United States’ commitment to democracy, the international community, and the public good was at a peak, the six-volume 1947 Truman Commission report on higher education gave a huge boost to the community college movement and to integration, as well.
Less famously, this major report on higher education’s future also seized the moment to define, “from among the principal goals for higher education, those which should come first in our time.”
The commission cited three overarching goals for higher education:
Education for a fuller realization of democracy in every phase of living;
Education directly and explicitly for international understanding and cooperation; and
Education for the application of creative imagination and trained intelligence to the solution of social problems.
When was the last time you heard anyone in 21st-century policy circles make such a clear and direct connection between what students should learn in higher education and the “fuller realization of democracy” in our world and time? ...
Chase Campbell is an AmeriCorps Leader serving with Broader Impacts Group in Missoula, Montana.
Listen to a day in the life of her service year! ...
FEATURED BLOG
Paying It Forward
By Hilary Rosa
This is my second year of service at the University of Montana Food Pantry. This is also the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic, and things are not looking up for the majority of people- not even close. Everywhere I look, people are struggling to make ends meet. Homelessness is on the rise, people are angry. There seems to be a lot of talk from our leaders, but not much action to back it. The problems we are facing seem insurmountable given our current trajectory. The world seems a much colder place lately- and not just because it’s winter in Montana.
As an AmeriCorps VISTA, I interact with marginalized people on a daily basis. I get to know the faces behind the statistics of food insecurity, hunger, and homelessness. I do what I can to provide them with immediate relief, with the understanding that immediate relief is just a bandaid on top of a giant, festering wound. Our food system is broken.
For one thing, most food travels 1,500 miles from its origin to make it to your plate, making it incredibly CO2-intensive. In addition, nearly one-third of all available food in the United States goes to waste. Modern agricultural practices are depleting soils of important nutrients and contributing to a loss of biodiversity around the world. As a single person at a single organization, I can only do so much to tackle the issue of food insecurity. But my contributions are not insignificant.
At the University of Montana, an estimated 63% of students struggle to meet their food, housing, and other needs. When faced with a choice between paying rent and putting food on the table, many students will go without meals, as food is the most flexible part of their budget. Cost, time, access to cooking equipment and facilities, transportation, and dietary restrictions are all barriers to meeting nutritional needs. ...
The Newman Civic Fellowship recognizes and supports community-committed students who are changemakers and public problem-solvers at Campus Compact member institutions. Fellows are nominated by their president or chancellor on the basis of their potential for public leadership.
Through the fellowship, Campus Compact provides students with training and resources that nurture their assets and passions and help them develop strategies for social change. The year-long program, named for Campus Compact founder Frank Newman, includes virtual learning opportunities and networking as part of a national network of engaged student leaders and an optional in-person convening.
We view the Newman Civic Fellowship as a core component of our strategy to build a national network of engaged student leaders who can support one another in building transformational partnerships between campuses and communities.
Nominations must be submitted by February 1, 2022.
MTCC, in partnership with the Governor's Office of Community Service and Reach Higher Montana has announced the opening of the 2022 round of Youth Serve Montana Scholarships.
These $1200 scholarships are awarded to incoming college freshmen, current high school seniors, who have completed at least 50 hours of volunteering in the prior 12 months and who plan to attend an MTCC Affiliate campus.
A Better Way Forward: Innovation with Equity at the Center
March 29-31, 2022 | Online
Compact22 is Campus Compact's all-virtual 2022 national conference. It is the largest and most inclusive national conference focused on the role of higher education in building healthy communities and fostering a just and equal democracy.
Sessions explore topics such as civic engagement, community-engaged research, civic- and service-learning, institutional change, university-community partnerships, and more.
Compact22 provides resources, professional development, networking opportunities, and inspiration to community engagement professionals, engaged faculty, community partners, student civic leaders, and campus senior leaders to help them create the positive change we seek.
"If we get back to normal we will have failed. We come together to imagine a better way forward, mobilizing the power of higher education to drive innovation, build connections, and create a new normal centered in equity and justice."
Campus Compact’s 2021-2022 national webinar series
Campus Compact’s National Webinar series returns for 2021-2022 with more to support and inspire you. Topics touch on issues of relevance to faculty, staff, students, and their partners in education and community building. Be sure to tune in to each session for information, tools, and resources to help you in your work.
Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement - The mission of the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement is to serve as the premier peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal to advance theory and practice related to all forms of outreach and engagement between higher education institutions and communities.
Journal of Service-Learning in Higher Education - The Journal of Service-Learning in Higher Education is an online, international, peer-reviewed journal for the dissemination of original research regarding effective institutional-community partnerships. Our primary emphasis is to provide an outlet for sharing the methodologies and pedagogical approaches that lead to effective community-identified outcomes.
Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement - Partnerships recognizes that successful engaged learning depends on effective partnerships between students, faculty, community agencies, administrators, disciplines, and more. The articles in this peer-reviewed journal focus on how theories and practices can inform and improve such partnerships, connections, and collaborations.
Podcasts
Campus Compact Podcast - Bring higher education community engagement on the go with Compact Nation Podcast! Tune in bi-weekly for conversations with leading community engagement professionals and discussions of new research and innovative work in the field.
Hidden Brain - Hidden Brain explores the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior and questions that lie at the heart of our complex and changing world.
The Way Forward - The Way Forward features conversations between an array of academic leaders and faculty innovators. The conversations range from visions of engaged, "outside-in" universities committed to their communities, to proposals that center "wicked problems," not disciplinary 101's, at the heart of general education, to stories of successful institutional transformation in the face of fiscal, racial, and health crises.
Stuff You Should Know - If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime, and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Tiny Spark - A podcast that takes a hard look at non-profits, international aid, and philanthropy. Tiny Spark investigates the business of doing good. In-depth interviews and shoe leather reporting from across the globe.
Resources and Toolkits
Benefits of Civic and Community Engagement Primer - The Primer on the Benefits and Value of Civic & Community Engagement in Higher Education, was created by the NC Campus Compact Community of Practice, Inquiry & Learning (COPIL). COPIL is comprised of practitioner-scholars interested in being part of the ongoing inquiry that is helping to establish promising practices of civic and community engagement and to build a knowledge base around it.
Campus Compact Knowledge Hub: Community-Engaged Teaching and Learning In the Time of COVID - Campus Compact’s Fusion Course aims to provide critical training and support for faculty as they adapt to online teaching and offers instruction for how to integrate community engagement methodologies into existing curricula to improve the quality of course delivery and foster student engagement.
Civic Action Plan Library - Civic Action Plans from Campus Compact’s 30th Anniversary Action Statement initiative. We are consistently updating the CAP Library as new plans are submitted, so check back often to view the bold approaches our member campuses are taking to further the public purposes of higher education.
Community-Based Global Learning Collaborative - Through a network of educational institutions and community organizations, The Collaborative advances ethical, critical, and aspirationally de-colonial community-based learning and research for more just, inclusive, and sustainable communities. The Collaborative is hosted in the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship at Haverford College, and funded through member contributions.
Daily Chatter World Newsletter - Campus Compact is proud to partner with DailyChatter to provide independent, non-partisan, global news for free to our member institutions. We hope that this daily newsletter provides a deeper understanding of global issues and inspires more nuanced conversations about what’s happening in the world around us.
Virtual Volunteer Resource Collection - To help students, we have compiled a collection of virtual volunteering opportunities – this resource includes non-profits, search engines, news articles, research papers, videos, and software links.
Training
Campus Compact Virtual Dialogue Training - Campus Compact is pleased to share this offering for faculty, community engagement professionals, and others interested in using the deliberative dialogue method as an educational tool for building student capacity to engage in thoughtful, constructive, and critical discussions of public questions.
YouTube
Campus Compact Webinar Series - Campus Compact’s webinars take the great and varied work happening on the ground around the country and bring it straight to your desk.
TED Talks - TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment, and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events to help share ideas in communities around the world.
Story to Share? Send it to Us!
The MTCC Network Office wants to share your good news! Especially those pieces related to campus-community partnership, civic engagement, service-learning, volunteerism, and democracy.
Email your story ideas, or ready-made pieces to Pete Buchanan at buchanan@mtcompact.org to get them included in the monthly newsletter, regularly seen by education and community leaders across Montana.
