Civic and Community Engagement Commons^™

Kickact: The Implementation & Evaluation Of A Youth Empowerment & Leadership Program, Crystal M. Denny

Capstone Collection

KickAct is a program that combines martial arts and performing arts to empower youth and engage them in creative social change. Youth experience a lack of community engagement and partnership with the adult. Many youth face additional challenges, ranging from lack of support in school to violence at home, that can negatively impact their life. KickAct is designed to provide youth with the necessary skills and experience to thrive as active participants in their communities. Due to inconsistent attendance and participation, it was not possible to determine whether the workshop format was a successful method for youth empowerment. However, the …

Proceso Identitario: La Vinculación Entre La Autoadscripción De Jóvenes Chinos-Argentinos En Buenos Aires, Argentina Y Las Oportunidades Laborales, Experiencias Educativas Y La Conservación Del Idioma Chino, Cassiopeia Lee

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this research is to analyze the identity processes of Chinese/Taiwanese-Argentinean young people in Buenos Aires, Argentina and connect their self-identifications with experiences and decisions related to education, careers, and cultural preservation. The narrative of Chinese and Taiwanese immigrant experience in Argentina traditionally focuses on the role of these immigrants in the supermarket sector of the economy, emphasizing conflict between the immigrant community and Argentinean natives and the isolation of the Chinese community perpetuated by the role the children of these immigrants played as translators and workers especially during the years between the 1970s and the 1990s. This …

Exploring Social Cohesion In South Africa Within The Context Of Post Apartheid Racial-Disparity, Peter Schneider

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study explores the state of social cohesion in South Africa amongst a small group of young people of different races. Social cohesion encompasses a variety of aspects, but this study focuses on racial social cohesion, which can also be thought of as racial integration. This study questions the importance of social cohesion in any society, examines the barriers to social cohesion in South Africa, explores potential solutions to those barriers. It also compares between racial disparity and economic inequality as potential causes of racial segregation. Social cohesion is a strong indicator of the general well being of a community …

Both A Borrower And A Lender Be: A Look At The Local Economy And Credit Culture In The Tarap Valley In Dolpa, Nepal, Alexa Adams

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Being in such a remote location, the Tarap valley in the Dolpa district of Nepal has only recently experienced the influences of a modern, cash-based economy in full force. Historically, the economy of the Dolpo-pa in Dho Tarap was almost entirely rooted in agriculture, animal husbandry, barter, and exchange. While these themes are still incredibly important foundations of the economic practices and systems in the valley, the introduction of Yartsa gumbu, the highly valuable caterpillar fungus used in Chinese medicine, has transformed the local economy of the region and propelled it into the arms of a consumeristoriented and cash-based economy. …

Tibetan Football:Perspectives From The 2016 Gyalyum Chenmo Memorial Gold Cup, James Karsten

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project uses a narrative account of the 2016 Gyalyum Chenmo Memorial Gold Cup,as a springboard into the multifaceted world of Tibetan sports in exile society, both past and present. As Tibetan exile society started to grow, the combination of growing settlement football clubs and a desire to honor the passing of HH the Dalai Lama’s mother, led to the founding of this club tournament. As football became more popular, the creation of an international Tibetan team came to be an important expression of national identity, and a useful method of raising awareness for the Tibetan cause. Despite this proliferation, …

Standing Up To Gender Violence: Soccer Coach Ewan Seabrook Offers Skills, From Colby To The Nba, Abukar Adan

Colby Magazine

Seabrook has a national profile for leading gender-violence prevention training for collegiate and professional athletes, from Colby to Major League Baseball and the NBA. And he knows a bystander’s actions can be powerful. His goal? To get athletes to see themselves as “bystanders who are invested in their teammates’ lives and who … have a social obligation to help them and intervene,” he said.

On White Guilt., Emma R. Okell

SURGE

I didn’t always realize what white guilt was, only that it existed. It’s not as cut-and-dry as it seems. It actually took me years to understand it, which is why I was not surprised when at the Town Hall Meeting back in January, one person asked a question about how to be an ally. Specifically, I found myself reflecting on her concerns regarding “white guilt” (44:01 – 45:25). I wanted to respond, but from the audience it felt out of place, and as it is, my response took two months of putting my thoughts together. [excerpt]

Alumni Survey Fall 2015, Uno Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

Community Engagement

The alumni survey provides the university information on the lives of students one or more years after graduation and their opinions about various topics concerning their time at UNO and beyond. In the past, UNO used an external vendor, ACT, to conduct the alumni survey. The survey was long, the cost was high, the response rate was extremely low, and, ultimately, the vendor discontinued the survey. UNO decided the best route was to create and administer their own alumni survey.

Alumni from 2010 and 2012 were surveyed by UNO in Fall 2015 in an effort to learn which cohort would …

Whose Story? His-Story., Meghan E. O'Donnell

SURGE

The essay instructions finally landed in front of me. I passed the extra sheets on and quickly glanced over the page, hoping that the prompt would be inspiring. There were two open-ended options from which to choose: military and social/political aspects of the war. My eyes first fell upon the social option and I pondered using this opportunity to shed light on the experiences of women during the war. I’d done this before – used assignments to explore history’s untold stories – and found it interesting. Then, in a fit of frustration that erupted out of nowhere, I thought to …

Fearless Friday: Sherfy Battlefield Garden, Emma E. Korowotny

SURGE

In this edition of Fearless Friday, we’re highlighting one of the newer service projects that Gettysburg College is involved with: Sherfy Battlefield Garden. This summer will mark the fourth planting season at Sherfy, which was developed in 2013 by Hannah Grose ’13. The garden is located just off of Emmitsburg Road by the house that, in 1860, belonged to Joseph Sherfy and his family. Bullet holes mar the brick walls of the farmhouse, testifying to the fighting that occurred all over the fifty acres of Joseph Sherfy’s farmland on the last two days of the Battle of Gettysburg. Sites of …

In God We Trust, Andrew C. Nosti

SURGE

Almost everywhere I turn I can hear someone saying, “America is a Christian nation!” likely yelled or grumbled with impressive, and sometimes concerning, aggression. I can’t go through a week without this phrase popping up, usually closely accompanied by the notion that America’s founding has roots in Christian principles. [excerpt]

The Kazaks Of Istanbul: A Case Of Social Cohesion, Economic Breakdown And The Search For A Moral Economy, Daniel Marc Auger

Dissertations and Theses

This research is focused on understanding the ways in which the community orientation of the Kazak ethnic community in Istanbul, Turkey have contributed to their economic success which in turn encourages strong community, and the nature of their community-based support networks for providing material and cultural support. It examines the role of social capital and cohesion in maintaining the community with its positive implications for the continued building of wealth or sourcing of funding on a community level. The theoretical concepts relevant to this project are based on the ideas that the shared values of a community are a positive …

Cultivating Leaders Of Indiana, Annagul Yaryyeva, Jennifer Sdunzik

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

"Cultivating Leaders of Indiana" was developed to establish connections between the Purdue student body and the Frankfort community. By engaging high school students in workshops that focused on local, national, and global identities, the goal of the project was to encourage students to appreciate their individuality and to motivate them to translate their skills into a global perspective.Moreover, workshops centering on themes such as culture, citizenship, media, and education were designed to empower our project participants to embrace their sense of social value and responsibility not only in their immediate communities but also globally.

The Rattler (Volume 104, Issue 4, Edition 1), St. Mary's University

The Rattler (Previous issues)

Founded in 1919, The Rattler is the student voice of St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. The newspaper documents campus life, academic and social issues, student opinion, and local and national events as they relate to the University community. Content typically includes news articles, editorial commentary, arts and culture coverage, sports reporting, and advertisements.

Youthbuild Savannah: Helping At-Risk Young People, Rebuild Their Communities And Their Lives, Shauna-Lee Ruglass

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Hear best practices from the YouthBuild Savannah program and learn about how they recruit at-risk youth, keep them engaged during 9 months of programming and what pathways are made available to participants, once they graduate. Current YouthBuild students and/or graduates will share their stories of transformation and you will learn about YouthBuild USA, Inc. the national support center for the YouthBuild movement.

Youth workers, government officials, foundation staff, corporate and non-profit employees are all welcomed to join and learn about America’s best kept secret, the YouthBuild program.

Tile History: A Brief Presentation, Virginia Raguin

Documentation

Slide presentation used to introduce the art and history of ceramic tiling to participants who worked on Lungs of the Planet, a tile mural created as a collaborative art project by students in the Natural World Cluster of the Monserrat First Year Program at the College of the Holy Cross. The project was led by Virginia Raguin, Distinguished Professor of Humanities at the College. Particpants included students, faculty, staff and community members.

The presentation includes photographic examples of ceramic tiling in architecture located in Jerusalem and Istanbul.

Tying Knots With Communities: Youth Involvement In Scouting And Civic Engagement In Adulthood, Young-Il Kim, Sung Joon Jang, Byron R. Johnson

Faculty Publications - Department of Sociology

Using data from a nationally representative sample of American adult males (N = 2,512), this study examines (a) whether duration of membership in the Boy Scouts of America is associated with adult civic engagement and (b) whether five characteristics of positive youth development (confidence, competence, connection, character, and caring) account for the relationship between duration of Scouting membership and adult civic engagement. The results from structural equation modeling indicate that duration of participation in Scouting is positively associated with four indicators of civic engagement: community involvement, community volunteering, community activism, and environmental activism. Among the five positive characteristics, confidence …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Partners In Quitting, A Text Message-Based Smoking Cessation Program, Rachael Schoenbrun

GW Research Days 2016 - 2020

This presentation will discuss the implementation of Partners in Quitting, a new text message-based smoking cessation program. It will also provide preliminary data on client engagement rates, program effectiveness, and program challenges. Partners in Quitting is an outreach program that has been implemented at Bread for the City, a large DC hub for free health and social services. Partners in Quitting provides an evidence-based, easily accessible, and comprehensive smoking cessation program to the clients of Bread for the City.

Re-Building Coal Country: A Church/University Partnership, Carl Milofsky, Brandn Green

Faculty Journal Articles

This paper describes a developing partnership between a church-based service learning center and a university initiative to build a field station in a low-income community in the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania. It is a case study of how secular and religious institutions have been collaborating to achieve the shared goal of improving social conditions in specific communities. The theoretical focus of the paper is on how a change from a “glass is half empty” to a “glass is half full” perception of the community opens new possibilities for change. This paper concentrates on the story of one partnership as …

Bandidos Mexicano, Diego A. Rocha

SURGE

Twin day sounded like an innocent enough theme for Homecoming spirit week at a high school. It was just people wearing matching clothes, taking some pictures, and laughing a bit.

But that day, six girls walked to class in bright ponchos, giant sombreros, and stick-on mustaches, wielding fake green cards to boot. They were followed by a seventh with “Border Patrol” scrawled in black marker on a sign taped to her back. [excerpt]

Using Photography As A Creative, Collaborative Research Tool, Ailsa Winton

The Qualitative Report

Drawing on debates in the complementary fields of participatory, youth and visual research methods, the paper discusses an experimental photography project carried out as part of a broader study with young people in Mexico City on spatial experience, belonging and exclusion. The paper describes the mechanics of the project, considers the kind of data it produced, and discusses the different outcomes for participants and researcher, including its difficulties and limitations. It finds that the creative, collaborative approach used has potential for opening the research process to embrace creative, reflexive, complicated “selves,” but warns that this outcome is not automatic: collaboration …

Fearless Friday: Taylor Bury, Taylor B. Bury

SURGE

This week, SURGE is pleased to feature Taylor Bury ’16 as Gettysburg’s Fearless Leader!

Taylor is a senior at Gettysburg College. She is a Biology Major from York, Pennsylvania. She has been involved with Student Senate since her first year on campus, rising through the ranks to serve as its President. [excerpt]

Between Crazy And Fine, Annette Aguilera-Gonzalez

SURGE

As a young Latina, I grew up hiding the fact that I met with a therapist and that I suffered from depression and anxiety. Conversations about mental well-being or taking steps to cope with anxiety were non-existent in my community of friends and family. It was always a taboo topic, an area that we never touched. People were labeled as “crazy” and serious situations were swept under the rug. Seldom was I offered empathy or support. [excerpt]

The Rattler (Volume 104, Issue 3, Edition 1), St. Mary's University

The Rattler (Previous issues)

Founded in 1919, The Rattler is the student voice of St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. The newspaper documents campus life, academic and social issues, student opinion, and local and national events as they relate to the University community. Content typically includes news articles, editorial commentary, arts and culture coverage, sports reporting, and advertisements.

Beyond Beyoncé’S Halftime Show, Rebecca S. Duffy

SURGE

In the weeks following the Super Bowl there has been quite an uproar regarding the halftime show featuring Beyoncé, Coldplay and Bruno Mars. All over Twitter, Facebook, blogs, news outlets, and in political commentary we were faced with the argument, “It’s wrong that Beyoncé used the Super Bowl to advance her own political agenda.” But to all those angry/hurt/confused about Beyoncé and her “right” to interrupt the Super Bowl with commentary on race relations, consider this: Is football, or any form of entertainment for that matter really independent of political, economic and racial issues? Is the NFL immune to the …

Evidence For The Role Of Resource-Sharing Networks In Coalition Development, Margaret Mcgladrey, Angela Carman Drph

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research

Background: Accreditation bodies and sponsors of community health projects increasingly require the use of health coalitions in community health planning efforts to ensure buy-in, leverage resources, and distribute health information. Despite a substantive body of research documenting the characteristics of successful health coalitions, little is known about how team dynamics in these coalitions evolve.

Purpose: The goal of this study was to employ social network analysis techniques to evaluate whether coalitions’ relative stages in Tuckman’s stages of team development model were associated with specific patterns of advice-, information-, and resource-sharing among the eight coalitions participating in a region-wide …

Fearless Friday: Kelsey Deraffele, Kelsey A. Deraffele

SURGE

SURGE is honored to feature Kelsey DeRaffele ’16 for Fearless Friday!

Kelsey is a senior Sociology major. She’s originally from Golden’s Bridge, NY and has spent her time at Gettysburg College getting as involved as she can. Kelsey was the president for the Autism Speaks club for three years. [excerpt]

Fearless Friday: Erin Meachem, Erin M. Meachem

SURGE

In this round of Fearless Friday, SURGE is honoring the work of Erin Meachem ‘16!

Erin is originally from Queensbury, New York and is currently in her senior year at Gettysburg, majoring in English and Spanish. She has been heavily involved with student senate, serving as the senator for the Class of 2016 over the last three years. Erin currently works as the Student Liaison for the Career Development Center, advertising career development events to people who participate in student senate. In addition, she worked as the Peer Learning Assistant for a First-Year Seminar last semester and helped First Years …

The Rattler (Volume 104, Issue 2, Edition 1), St. Mary's University

The Rattler (Previous issues)

Founded in 1919, The Rattler is the student voice of St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. The newspaper documents campus life, academic and social issues, student opinion, and local and national events as they relate to the University community. Content typically includes news articles, editorial commentary, arts and culture coverage, sports reporting, and advertisements.

No Justice Given, Alison P. Lauro

SURGE

I’ve spent a considerable amount of time analyzing privilege and looking at how systems in the United States often work to further oppress the vulnerable, while keeping the privileged in power. I have taken note of how my light skin, middle-class background, and young, abled body has given me opportunities and advantages others don’t have. But, I hadn’t thought too deeply about the privileges that come with being a natural born, American citizen. I’ve stood up to salute the flag every day in school, watched fireworks on the fourth of July, and generally felt proud to be an American; but, …