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Civic Matters at USM

Symposium of Campus-Community Engaged Work, Fall 2009

Campus Compact Logo.

We are pleased to announce that on November 20, 2009 the University of Southern Maine will host Civic Matters, a symposium of USM community-based projects and research. The highlight will be a service learning forum in the style of a "world cafe," facilated by Maine Campus Compact's director Liz McCabe Park and program director Maryli Tieman. You are invited to participate, as a presenter or as an attendee.

Civic engagement is a nation-wide movement in higher education that seeks to reinvigorate the public purposes and civic mission of higher education. It centers in service learning, "a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities" (National Service Learning Clearinghouse). In other words it refers to community work that is embedded into a course for credit and challenges students to put theory into practice. Civic engagement is also found in co-curricular student work which, although not directly connected to academic courses for credit, produces important civic learning outcomes.

In 2007-08 at USM 2,349 students reported over 45,100 hours of service centered in greater Portland, representing tremendous amounts of meaningful service and powerful growth as scholars and citizens. Much of the work was rooted in service-learning courses. The work at Civic Matters celebrates this movement and provides opportunities to all participants to grow as practitioners, network, and showcase engagement with the community.

Check out the submission guidelines, or submit a presentation. For more information about this event please contact Alicia Sampson at asampson@usm.maine.edu or 228-8092

Schedule

***Civic Matters will be held on the first floor of the Wishcamper Center.***

Please refer to the "Civic Matters Presentation List" for details.