Summer Pilot Course at LAC Receives Empower
Lewiston Gift
Left to right: USM Professor Michelle Vazquez
Jacobus, program participant Jonathan Caldwell, Empower Lewiston’s
Michelle LeFebvre and Empower Lewiston’s Neighborhood
Coordinator Barbara Rankins.
July 2004
Assistant Professor Michelle Vazquez Jacobus of the University
of Southern Maine at Lewiston-Auburn College received a gift
of $2500 from Empower Lewiston to offer again her service-learning
course, “Youth, Community and Higher Education”
during the 2005 spring semester.
This service-learning class pairs USM/L-A students with area
youth, “aiming to build a sense of community, esteem,
and leadership in all participants,” said Vazquez Jacobus.
The program was piloted last summer, and was so successful
that it inspired Empower Lewiston to donate $2500 to ensure
that it be continued. Empower Lewiston is a grassroots non-profit
organization located in the B-Street Community Center at the
corners of Birch and Bates streets in downtown Lewiston. It
was formed when Lewiston received a grant from the USDA for
its Enterprise Community.
Michelle LeFebvre, President of the Empower Lewiston Board
said, “it is a great program we want to support, because
it is geared toward the youth of this area, and we are focusing
our efforts on youth programs this year.” Vazquez Jacobus
agreed that “the missions [of both] mesh well.”
The gift allowed the program to buy needed supplies and pay
a stipend for program coordinator Amanda Beal, a former LAC
student.
Service-learning at USM/L-A combines service with coursework
to enhance student learning. The goal is to involve students
in organized community service that addresses local needs,
while developing their academic skills, sense of civic responsibility,
and commitment to the community.
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