Communications, Journalism Professor Receives Service Learning Award
Associate professor of communications and journalism Claire Sullivan recently received a faculty award from a statewide coalition of 18 Maine higher education institutions dedicated to promoting service learning and community engagement.
The Maine Campus Compact gave Sullivan the Donald Harward Award for Faculty Service-Learning Excellence, which recognizes faculty members who integrate public service into their teaching and advocate service learning and community action. Donald Harward is the founder of the Maine Campus Compact and a former board member of national and Maine Campus Compacts.
Sullivan has been integrating public service and applied principles into her courses at UMaine for nearly two decades.
“Rather than working with community partners based on a need that fits the course, Claire allows the community partners to determine and present their need to the class,” the Campus Compact said in a news release. “Students then have the opportunity to develop products ranging from brochures to videos and websites with ongoing feedback and approval from community partners.”
Sullivan also helped obtain a grant to sponsor a learning circle of faculty, directors, students and community partners, which meets bi-monthly to discuss ways to promote service learning on campus. She co-chairs the Faculty Senate Service and Outreach Committee, which works to create a uniform definition and principles of service learning for the university.
Other award winners were Charles Dorn of Bowdoin College, Elizabeth Jabar of the Maine College of Art, Heather Lindkvist of Bates College and Ben Towne of the University of Southern Maine.
Contact: Claire Sullivan, (207) 581-1936