Mark Van Doren, the noted literary scholar, once remarked, "The college is meaningless without a curriculum, but it is more so when it has one that is meaningless." Many current critics of undergraduate curricula in America assent to the crucial need for programmatic renewal in our colleges and universities. They bemoan the cookie-cutter…

The following study analyzes the nearly 20-year curricular evolution of civic engagement at a small liberal arts university in the southeastern United States, the College of William and Mary; in doing so, the researcher qualitatively examines the nature of scholarship in service-learning courses over a period of the last five years to lay…

The authors contend that service-learning courses at urban universities can and should play a vital role in the greening of higher education and the promotion of sustainable urban environments. They describe one model outreach program that provides continuing education for middle school teaches and several undergraduate-level courses from…

This article describes a critical service-learning initiative in which college students of Spanish taught in an after-school Spanish class for young heritage language (HL) speakers at a local elementary school. We contextualize the program within broad curricular revisions made to the undergraduate Spanish program in recent years, explaining how…

Active, experiential learning is an important component in information systems education, ensuring that students gain an appreciation for both practical and theoretical information systems concepts. Typically, students in active, experiential classes engage in real world projects for commercial companies or not-for-profit organizations. In the…

This study examined the civic outcomes of the Sustained Dialogue model. Qualitative interviews investigated the perceived impacts of dialogue experience on post-graduate civic life, generating an inventory of 29 dialogue civic outcomes across five domains: 1) cognitions, 2) behaviors, 3) attitudes 4) skills, and 5) hopes and plans for the future.…

This paper examines a burgeoning network of organizations that is inventing new forms of community renewal and citizenship education. Their names vary--some call themselves public policy institutes, others centers for civic life--yet they share a common methodology, one aimed at tackling tough public issues, strengthening communities, and…

Service-learning courses within a university setting help students to better understand their roles as members of civil society. This article examines the evolution of an urban stream cleanup project that has been part of a world regions geography course for six years. After connecting course goals with the current best practice literature on…

Describes the author's psychology class, in which she required students to do service work with a resident in a nursing home. Reports that students met for a minimum of eight hours with the resident and wrote both a history of the person and a reflection on the project. States that half of the students decided to continue volunteering after the…

An oral history project on the coal mining heritage of southwest Virginia's New River Valley developed from a partnership between Radford University and a grassroots community group interested in cultural preservation. Publication products, benefits to participating college students, and reasons for the project's success are discussed. Contains 26…

An evaluation of Chesapeake Bay Foundation's environmental education programs provides context for this study exploring the role of student self-determination in service-learning. Research questions include (1) How do self-determination-related characteristics of service-learning programs affect students' attitudes toward service-learning (ASL),…

The burgeoning literature on youth civic engagement points to many different ways in which youth can contribute to the democratic life of communities, institutions, and the larger polity: voting, advocacy, service learning, community-university partnerships, and youth organizing, to name just a few. Hampton, however, represents a case where the…

To alert the community to the impact of a proposed parkway that would divide the largest remaining greenspace in Charlottesville (Virginia), an architect, a photographer, and students from a private high school dedicated to ecology and art lined the proposed route with tires. The project garnered a lot of publicity, and to date the parkway has not…

This paper describes a project in which faculty collaborated with two agencies to facilitate student learning about communication with elders. Data on student learning was collected via survey, focus groups, and reflective writing. Survey results showed that the five most important benefits students rated themselves as gaining from the…

This document contains two papers on excellence in business and education leadership. "Corporate Leadership in Improving Student Achievement" (Edward B. Rust, Jr.) explains why business must remain involved in education and discusses the following efforts of the State Farm Insurance Company to assume a leadership role in educational…