Education Commons^™

High Impact Practices (Hips) Assessment Model: 2015-2016 Pilot Mid-Year Report, Lynn E. Pelco, Janice Baab

Division of Community Engagement Resources

A systematic institutional assessment model was developed to investigate the impact of high impact educational practices (HIPs) on undergraduate student success at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). The proposed VCU HIPs Assessment Model provides a systematic framework for assessing the impact of high impact educational practices on VCU undergraduates. Recommendations for institutionalizing the VCU HIPs Assessment Model are made.

Smashing Silos: Community Engagement Maps - A Vivo Extension, Tessa Mckenzie, Audrey Trussell, Valerie Holton, Stephen Guilford, Jonathan Deshazo

Division of Community Engagement Resources

This poster was presented at the VIVO 2016 Conference in Denver, Colorado.

Crafting And Enhancing Communications To Support Community-University Partnerships In Higher Education, Audrey Trussell

Division of Community Engagement Resources

This presentation was facilitated at the Coalition for Urban and Metropolitan Conference in Washington, D.C., in October 2016.

Enhancing Impact: Aligning University Engagement Efforts With Community Needs, Jennifer Early, Valerie Holton, Kevin Allison, Catherine Howard

Division of Community Engagement Resources

This presentation was delivered at the Coalition of Urban Metropolitan Universities Conference in Washington, D.C., in October 2016.

Incorporating Community Engagement Language Into Promotion And Tenure Policies: One University's Journey, Lynn E. Pelco

Division of Community Engagement Resources

This presentation was given at the 2016 Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities Conference in Washington, D.C.

Professional Development For Community-Engaged Research And Teaching: An Integrated Model For Administrators, Instructors, Researchers And Community Partners, Lynn E. Pelco, Jennifer Early

Division of Community Engagement Resources

This presentation was given at the 2016 Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities Conference in Washington, D.C.

Safety And Protection Of Minors: Developing Policy And Best Practices To Protect Youth On Campus, Catherine Howard, Christina Carter, Meghan Resler, Jaqueline Kniska

Division of Community Engagement Resources

This presentation was given at the 2016 Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Conference in Washington, D.C.

Empathy Activators: Teaching Tools For Enhancing Empathy Development In Service-Learning Classes, Robin Everhart, Katie Elliott, Lynn E. Pelco, Deborah Westin, Rowena Briones, Emily Peron

Division of Community Engagement Resources

On February 5, 2016, 25 educators from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and the University of Richmond (UR) gathered in Richmond, Virginia, for an annual service-learning workshop. This year’s workshop featured Robin Everhart, PhD, VCU assistant professor of psychology, as keynote speaker. Jumpstarted by Everhart’s research on student empathy, workshop participants explored the concept of empathy and collaboratively developed strategies for integrating empathy into the service-learning experience. This document grows out of Everhart’s presentation and group discussions during that workshop and represents a collection of ideas generated.

So You Walk The Walk, But Do You Talk The Talk?: Crafting And Enhancing Communications To Support Community Engagement In Higher Education, Audrey Trussell

Division of Community Engagement Resources

With community engagement rapidly gaining prominence in higher education, more faculty and administrators are being tasked with communicating about community engagement activities. Communications must be developed to support the institution’s mission while remaining true to principles of mutually-beneficial partnerships. This session explored best practices for developing and implementing a university communications strategy for community engagement. This presentation was given at the Gulf South Summit in Savannah, Georgia on April 14, 2016.

Build It And They Will Come: Infrastructure To Support And Advance Community Engagement And Regional Impact, Valerie Holton

Division of Community Engagement Resources

This presentation was facilitated by Dr. Valerie Holton on April 16, 2016 at Florida Atlantic University.

The Role Of Partnerships In Achieving The Vision: Tracking And Assessing Community Engagement, Valerie Holton, Kathleen Shaw

Division of Community Engagement Resources

This presentation was given at the Virginia Association for Management Analysis and Planning in Richmond, Virginia on October 20, 2016.

Empathy Activators: Strategies For Developing Empathy In Service-Learning Students, Katie Elliott, Robin Everhart, Lynn E. Pelco

Division of Community Engagement Resources

This poster presentation explores the link between service-learning and the development of student empathy. It will share the initial research results of a pilot study on student empathy, service-learning, and key ingredients for cultivating empathy. It also offers instructors concrete ideas for teaching tools that activate student empathy.

Core Competencies For Undergraduate Community-Engaged Researchers, Grant Wolfe

Community-Engaged Research Resources

Undergraduate community-engaged research (UCEnR) is a growing trend which VCU has proactively pursued by providing grants for UCEnR projects and assimilating UCEnR into interdisciplinary curricula. However, a definitive sense of core competencies for undergraduate community-engaged researchers has not yet been established. To that end, this literature review answers the question, "What skills should UCEnR students have?"

Faculty Development For Service-Learning: One Size Does Not Fit All, Lynn E. Pelco, Catherine Howard

Division of Community Engagement Resources

This conference presentation describes the development of the professional development continuum currently being used at Virginia Commonwealth University to build the faculty’s capacity for teaching high-quality service-learning courses. Our professional development continuum was developed over the past 5 years by the staff of the VCU Service-Learning Office and was informed by program evaluation data, the principles of adult learning theory, and an “exposure-experience-expertise” developmental framework. The continuum targets instructors at varying levels of service-learning knowledge and experience so that faculty instructors with more service-learning experience participate in different professional development opportunities than do instructors who are new to the pedagogy.

Innovating The 21st Century: Developing A Mobile App To Collect Student Service Activities To Assess Impact, Jennifer Jettner

Division of Community Engagement Resources

No abstract provided.

Learning Through Serving: Why University-Community Collaboration Is An Educational Imperative, Erin Marie Burke Brown, Sierra Croker, Taryn Dollings, Kaitlyn Donahue, Rachel Dyer, Omequa Eaddie, Rebecca Kellerman

Division of Community Engagement Resources

The objectives of this presentation were to: (1) understand how universities impact communities; (2) discuss importance of university-community collaboration; (3) review best practices for university-community collaboration; (4) explore ways to positively impact communities through university-community collaboration; and (5) learn ways to combine academic and professional goals through civic engagement.

Conversational Community Spanish: Case Studies In Cross-Sector Collaboration, Eleanor Sharp, Laura Pilati, Anita Nadal

Division of Community Engagement Resources

No abstract provided.

Pilot Inventory Of Community Partnerships: Iarslce Conference 2013, Valerie Holton, Kate Agnelli

Division of Community Engagement Resources

Partnerships with community organizations create increased opportunities for universities to promote community-engaged research, teaching, and service. Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) mission states that the university is committed to "sustainable, university-community partnerships that enhance the educational, economic, and cultural vitality of the communities VCU serves." In recognition of its efforts, VCU is among a small number of institutions to be designated as very high research activity and community-engaged by the Carnegie Foundation. It is also a recipient of a NIH-funded Center for Translational and Sciences Award, which promotes community-engaged research.

In pursuit of the university’s goal to become a national model …

A Logistic Regression And Discriminant Function Analysis Of Enrollment Characteristics Of Student Veterans With And Without Disabilities, Yovhane Metcalfe

Theses and Dissertations

The postsecondary enrollment of student veterans has increased with the troop draw down in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the generous amendments made to the Post 9/11 GI Bill. Acquired disabilities remain a reality for this population as they transition into the civilian world; consequently, previous literature cites the role of disabilities amongst student veterans. Also, prior research often aggregates these two groups without a thorough understanding of the ways in which they differ. This study compared student veterans with disabilities to student veterans without disabilities in order to understand the enrollment and demographic factors on which they differed, …

Service-Learning In English Language Courses, Audrey Short, Susan Dudley, Lynn Pelco

Division of Community Engagement Resources

No abstract provided.

Bridging The Gap: Using Service-Learning Teaching Assistants To Foster Effective University-Community Partnerships, Erin Burke Brown, Lynn Pelco

Division of Community Engagement Resources

The objectives of this presentation were to: (1) describe the VCU Service-Learning Teaching Assistant (SLTA) Program; (2) discuss the benefits of integrating defined student leadership into service-learning courses; and (3) share best practices and resources.

Comparison Of Event History Analysis And Latent Growth Modeling For College Student Perseverance, Richard Samuel Mohn Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Event history analysis is the most prevalent modeling technique used to model event occurrence with longitudinal data (Cox & Oakes, 1984; Menard, 1991; Singer & Willett, 1993, 2003). An alternative is to model longitudinal data within the SEM framework, known as latent variable growth modeling (McArdle, 1988; Meredith & Tisak, 1990), which can provide a more robust framework. Whether or not a student remains in college presents an appropriate context within which to examine the modeling of event occurrence with longitudinal data. The purpose of the study was to compare event history and latent growth modeling as for predicting change …

Institutional Transformation: A Case Study Of An Urban Midwestern University, Jane M. Grassadonia

Theses and Dissertations

This study is a case study of an institutional transformational change effort in an urban research university. The study's focus is on the impact of The Milwaukee Idea on faculty and students as the soul of the university. Literature on transformational change in higher education focuses on the processes for launching this type of change and the role of formal change leaders. Less is known about the impact of transformational change on faculty and students. Relevant literature on change and institutional culture informed this study, including Kotter (1996), Wilber (1998), Cutright (2001), Peterson and Spencer (2000), Kezar and Eckel(2000), and …

Career Path Influences And Identification Of College And University Presidents: A Study Of The Presidents Of The Member Institutions Of The Virginia Foundations For Independent Colleges, Carolyn Elizabeth Whittier

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to learn how men and women who do not have an initial career goal of becoming a college or university president end up in such a position.The study was to gather information on the internal and external influences on that career path, and how each participant fits within presidential career patterns presented by Wessel (1991).A qualitative case study method was used for this study. The participants were chosen based on their institutions' membership in the Virginia Foundation forIndependent Colleges (VFIC), thus all participants were from private institutions in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Twelve of …

Factors Leading To Successful Attainment Of Doctoral Degrees In Education By African American Women, Antoinette Michelle Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative research study determined what factors influenced or hindered the successes of eight African American women who earned doctorates in the field of Education within the past 10 years. The researcher gathered and shared the stories of African American women doctoral degree completers in their own words. Interviews were conducted using the Polycom H.323 videoconferencing system in the School ofEducation at Virginia Commonwealth University.The participants in this study collectively attributed more than 15 factors to helping them complete a doctoral program. Some of the success factors cited include self-determination, knowledge of self and purpose for earning a doctorate, spirituality, …

Structured Faculty Mentoring In Higher Education: A Descriptive Analysis Of The Perceptions Of Junior And Senior Faculty, Jennifer J. Smith-Slabaugh

Theses and Dissertations

Studies have shown that mentoring is a viable form of professional development.Faced with large numbers of retirements and a projected increase in student enrollment, the issues of recruitment, retention and revitalization of current faculty are at the core of this study. There is little empirical research on the phenomenon of structured or formal mentoring in higher education from the perspective of both the mentee and the mentor.The purpose of this study was to identify, describe, and analyze the perceived benefits that both senior or more experienced faculty mentors and junior or new-to-the institution faculty mentees at a large urban research …

Increasing The Academic Pool Of Minority Students For Higher Education, Diane J. Simon

MERC Publications

The review of the literature on "Increasing the Academic Pool of Minority Students for Higher Education" was conducted in response to a request from the Virginia Department of Education R.F.P. #92-3 Team. The paper examines the factors that have an impact on increasing the number of minority students prepared to attend and succeed in college and reviews a number of successful programs, many of which are supported by business and industry. In addition to these two basic areas of inquiry, the R.F.P. #92-3 Team requested that the problem of increasing the minority student pool for college be examined in the …

Report Of The Commission To Plan For The Establishment Of A Proposed State-Supported University In The Richmond Metropolitan Area [Edward A. Wayne, Chairman], Virginia. Commission To Plan For The Establishment Of A Proposed State-Supported University In The Richmond Metropolitan Area.

VCU University History Books

After the 1965 Bird Commission recommended the creation of a state university in Richmond, the state legislature named a commission to develop an implementation plan headed by Edward A. Wayne Sr., president of the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank.

Their recommendation, supported by the Governor and General Assembly, was the creation of Virginia Commonwealth University. Wayne was named vice-rector of the first Board of Visitors of VCU, and the University's Wayne Medal honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions or provided exemplary service to VCU.

This is the full text of the 1967 report, entitled "Report of the Commission to plan …