4/5/2009		Elizabethtown College Recognized for Service
4/5/2009		Scholarship Day Featured Keynote Address by Dr. Paul Farmer
4/5/2009		OSA Launches a Student Activities Research Campaign

Elizabethtown College recently was honored for its focus on service with two national recognitions. For the third consecutive year, the College was named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to America’s communities. In addition, Elizabethtown was included in the 2008 edition of “Beyond the Books, Colleges and Universities Service-Learning” publication.

According to Elizabethtown College President Theodore E. Long, these recent honors are a sign of the College’s continuing commitment to service. “Elizabethtown’s mission is centered on delivering an education for service in the largest sense, and these recognitions confirm once more that this campus is actively engaged in building a better community around us,” says Long. “We are honored to be recognized in this way.”

Launched in 2006, the Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service-learning and civic engagement. Honorees for the award were chosen based on a series of selection factors, including scope and innovation of service projects, percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service, and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses.

According to Director of Civic Engagement Nancy Fritz Valkenburg ’71, these honors are recognition that the College is living its “Educate for Services” motto. “Every year, our programs strengthen and expand to include more service to those in need locally, nationally and internationally. The College participates in both large immersion events, such as ‘Into the Streets’ and the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, as well as on a daily basis with community service work study, academic placements and volunteering in area schools and with nonprofit agencies,” she says. “Elizabethtown students tutor and mentor children and adults regionally from Lancaster to Harrisburg. Many students also participate in alternative fall and spring breaks. Recent projects include helping to rebuild homes damaged by hurricanes and floods in Mississippi and Texas, trips to Indian reservations in New Mexico to make repairs to the homes of elderly and disabled residents, and service-learning trips with faculty to Mexico, Ireland, China, Thailand, Vietnam and Africa.”

In addition, Elizabethtown has been chosen as an AmeriCorps campus and currently has five AmeriCorps Scholars in Service to Pennsylvania participating in service projects. The College’s faculty and staff are very supportive of service to the community and work alongside their students.

Stephen Goldsmith, vice chairman of the board of directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service that oversees the Honor Roll, notes that the service efforts of American colleges are even more imperative now. “In this time of economic distress, we need volunteers more than ever. College students represent an enormous pool of idealism and energy to help tackle some of our toughest challenges,” Goldsmith says. “We salute Elizabethtown College for making community service a campus priority, and thank the millions of college students who are helping to renew America through service to others.”

The Honor Roll is a program of the Corporation, in collaboration with the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation. The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll is presented during the annual conference of the American Council on Education.

Dr. Paul Farmer, recognized humanitarian and a founding director of Partners in Health, was the keynote speaker for Scholarship and Creative Arts Day 2009 at Elizabethtown College. Highlighting Elizabethtown’s annual celebration of student scholarship, Dr. Farmer will offer an address, titled "Rethinking Health and Human Rights."

Dr. Farmer (shown right with a young patient), a medical anthropologist and physician, is the Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Social Medicine in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and associate chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass. In his position as Partners in Health director, he provides direct health care services and undertakes research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. His work draws primarily on active clinical practice and focuses on diseases that disproportionately afflict the poor. Dr. Farmer has pioneered novel, community-based treatment strategies for diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis.

Author or co-author of more than 100 scholarly publications, Dr. Farmer has written extensively about health and human rights and about the role of social inequalities in determining the distribution and outcomes of infectious diseases. He is the recipient of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Award for Humanitarian Contributions to the Health of Humankind from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, the Salk Institute Medal for Health and Humanity, the Duke University Humanitarian Award, the Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association, the American Medical Association’s Outstanding International Physician (Nathan Davis) Award, the Heinz Humanitarian Award, and the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. In 1993, he was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “genius award” in recognition of his work. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1982 from Duke University and his medical degree and doctorate in anthropology simultaneously in 1990 from Harvard University.

Elizabethtown College is constantly changing. Seniors prepare for graduation day, new students are accepted, and new programs and activities spring up on campus. Recently, one College organization started some change of its own by asking the campus community’s advice in identifying potential areas of improvement for its programming. And tonight, April 6 at 9 p.m., Elizabethtown students will have an opportunity to participate in this change at a Town Hall meeting being held in the Event Space.

Highlighted with the creative tagline “Wii Want Your Input,” a research effort sponsored by the Office of Student Activities (OSA) was launched campus wide at the beginning of the semester to get to the heart of the College community’s perception of both OSA and the student-run entertainment group, Students Working to Entertain E-town (S.W.E.E.T.). The effort is being conducted by Director of Student Activities Toni Kupchella and a committee of students comprised of S.W.E.E.T. members Samantha Schneider ’10, Annette Sestito ’10, Greg Shedlock ’12 and Krysta O’Connor ’12; OSA student assistants Heather Rhoads ’11, Amanda Markowicz ’10, Mike White ’11 and Julie Modge ’11; and publicity chair Carmen Fusco ’09. The semester-long project – which will collect data regarding the scope of programming for both OSA and S.W.E.E.T. – has the goal of providing insights into the College community’s needs regarding student activities at Elizabethtown. Through a variety of channels, students, faculty, staff and administration will be able to voice their opinions and needs for this important part of campus life.

As part of this effort, 16 focus group discussions were conducted with students in the College’s residence halls during February. The focus groups – which involved more than 60 students – were prompted with questions about their thoughts and feelings about the scope of student programming and the roles of both OSA and S.W.E.E.T. According to Kupchella, preliminary research findings have shown two reoccurring themes. “There is a willingness among students to pay for more off-campus trips,” she says. “Students also would like to see the return of a concert.” As a reward for attending the focus group, students who participated were given the chance to win a Wii gaming system or $250 cash. Dana Simmons ’09 was the lucky winner.

As previously mentioned, the second of two Town Hall meetings will be held tonight to give campus community members a chance to voice their thoughts and concerns in an open forum setting. Participants can register to win a Wii system or the choice of $250.

The committee also is gathering data through a student survey, which was launched via e-mail on March 30. The survey delves into more detailed questions about students’ expectations and perceptions of OSA and S.W.E.E.T. All students who complete the survey will be eligible for a $50 gift card. The deadline for participation is April 28.

In addition, the research committee is almost finished conducting individual interviews with senior staff and interested stakeholders. Finally, a comment box is available outside of the OSA Office for students to express opinions they may be apprehensive to express in an open forum.

Insights from the research are expected to be released to the community either later this year or early next fall. If you have questions about this project, please contact Toni M. Kupchella at kupchellat@etown.edu.

by Rachel Rohland ’09