Project EXCEL

This chapter outlines the initial findings of Project EXCEL, a collaborative partnership that explores how institutions of higher education (IHEs) can better serve surrounding communities and schools seeking to enhance and diversify the teacher education population. The possibilities for teachers, teacher candidates, and partnerships in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and the surrounding metropolitan areas show the next steps for Project EXCEL. The findings serve as an opportunity for other IHEs to consider for partnerships and recruitment.

Empowering DC's Future Through Information Access

This chapter describes the various ways that Learning Resources Division at the University of the District of Columbia (LRD) provides various services to the community it operates (i.e., Washington, DC). UDC is the only public university in the District of Columbia. Serving the greater community, therefore, has been a major part of the university mission and a central part of LRD's service mission. Specifically, the chapter considers the service LRD provides to community users through reference, RAIL, information literacy, collection development, the jazz archives, the foundation center, and the university archives.

English at Your Service

This chapter discusses civic engagement and service-learning in higher education at an urban, land-grant, Historically Black College/University, with a particular focus on the challenges and benefits of service-learning for commuter students. After a discussion of service learning and how it exemplifies the Kolb learning model and effective educational practice, the chapter presents illustrations of civic engagement and extracurricular community-based learning in an English BA program through its two student organizations – The Literary Club and Sigma Tau Delta-Alpha Epsilon Rho. The chapter also provides an example of how service-learning has been implemented in a General Education program and specifically in a writing course. The chapter highlights the partnerships with community organizations that have developed, presents reflective testimonials about the impact of these experiences, provides recommendations for strengthening community-based learning, and concludes that service-learning/community-based learning results in a sense of community for all participants.

Service Learning as an Approach to Combatting the Triad of Interrelated Diseases in the District of Columbia

The maintenance of good health and wellness for individuals and communities depend on the provision of opportunities to prevent health problems and improve their basic health and well-being. The traditional learning approach in the nursing profession is based on individual and curative models of care. However, combating the interrelated triad of heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension that affect a large percentage of younger and older adults in the District of Columbia calls for a paradigm shift of learning toward a collective and social approach such as service-learning. The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate how interprofessional and multi-disciplinary practices are used to tackle health issues and explain how the pedagogical approach, with social and preventive directions, led to the development and sustainable community partnerships in all eight wards of the District of Columbia.

Criminal Justice Senior Theses, Capstones, and Internships on Recidivism Reduction Advocacy Strategies

Each year, thousands of inmates are released from jail and prison. This chapter provides a model for HBCU faculty and students to conceptualize the coordination of services for those who have been incarcerated. The model proposes that faculty and students consider five types of actors: (1) advocacy group coalitions; (2) public agencies; (3) private employment entities; (4) faith-based nonprofits; and (5) philanthropists, secular nonprofits, and foundations. The model proposes that housing, healthcare, and employment are proximal goals that reduce recidivism, a distal goal. Additionally, the model proposes that local advocacy coalitions become prime-movers seeking maximum feasible participation through a series of self-reliance initiatives. Further, the model provides the names of data bases that can provide advocacy coalitions with performance measures to judge their own effectiveness. Senior students in Section 2: Crime, Justice, and Security Studies are taught this model in their research methods, program evaluation, and senior paper classes.

Local Food and Fitness

The 11th Street Bridge Park is an ambitious project that will connect Washington DC Wards 6 and 8 by replacing a retired bridge across the Anacostia River. The new 11th Street Bridge will be the city's first elevated public park built on the piers of the old bridge. The Bridge Park will feature local food, recreation, health, and the arts. The UDC College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability, and Environmental Sciences (CAUSES) is a key partner in the project and has worked with community groups to anchor the bridge park through community gardens, food production workshops, and nutrition classes. Over 200 raised bed gardens have been built, and Ward 6 and 8 residents have learned to grow and prepare food. While the Bridge Park builds a physical bridge, the community work of CAUSES brings the social and cultural aspects of the project into focus. This chapter describes the transformative work of empowering urban residents to grow food and to use their local expertise in collaboration with CAUSES land-grant specialists to improve their economic condition and adopt healthier lifestyles.

Building an Urban Food System Through UDC Food Hubs

The Landgrant College of the University of the District of Columbia embodies the university's unique mission as the only exclusively urban land-grant university in the United States. With most of the world's population now living in urban areas, this mission is relevant to cities worldwide. The UDC urban food hubs reimagine our food system as diversified, urban, and encompassing food production, food preparation, food distribution, and waste and water recovery. The hubs utilize bio-intensive hydroponic and aquaponic systems and green roofs to maximize productivity on small urban spaces; kitchens as business incubators and training facilities for food processing and nutrition education; waste and water reuse through composting, rain water capture, and green infrastructure. Each of these components offers opportunities for business startups and capacity building. The hubs also re-connect urban neighborhoods to nature. This chapter describes the urban food hubs, their locations, and the training, wellness, and leadership opportunities they offer to UDC students and DC residents.

The Science Behind Support

This chapter explores the graduate Secondary Science Teacher Preparation Program (TPP) at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC). The program addresses several critical needs in urban education and science teacher preparation using a combination of approaches that, when considered in light of one teacher candidate's experiences, serve to meet documented deficits among current TPP frameworks. The experiences of one teacher candidate are described and analyzed in light of the research literature, specific aspects of the UDC TPP that are assisting in filling existing deficits and supporting underrepresented minorities in science teacher education are discussed, and needs for future consideration, research, and program implementation are presented.