MDC's Center for Community Involvement Celebrates Success of First Student Empowerment Project
Miami, Wednesday, May 07, 2008 - Miami Dade College (MDC) was recently awarded a second consecutive service-learning grant for nearly $70,000 from the State Farm Youth Advisory Board. The college’s Center for Community Involvement (CCI) will host an event to acknowledge students, community partners and educators who participated in the 2007-2008 Student Empowerment Project (STEP), which was made possible through the initial grant. The event will take place at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 13, at MDC’s Wolfson Campus, Room 3210.
MDC was one of 45 organizations to receive a service-learning, youth-led grant across the United States and Canada awarded by the State Farm Youth Advisory Board. Nearly 400 grant requests were received by the Board for 2007-2008. MDC was selected in the “access to higher education/closing the achievement gap” category. The college’s Future Educators of America student organization, School of Education and CCI used the funds to create STEP, a student-led Service-Learning Infusion Project, to address issues of access and achievement.
To help commemorate the success of the first grant-funded project, Sam Joseph, director of America SCORES Miami, will deliver a keynote speech at the recognition event. Honorees will include 60 high school students from Edison Senior High, Miami Senior High and Miami Norland Senior High, and college students from MDC’s School of Education who participated in the STEP project for eight Saturdays, as well as teachers, administrators and community partners. In addition, MDC School of Education Students who earned the newly created Certificate of Competency in Service-Learning will be honored.
“There is no doubt in my mind that service-learning is an incredibly effective way to help young people achieve personal and academic goals, as well as inspire them to become more informed, involved and effective citizens,” said Joshua Young, director of the CCI at MDC. “Our May 13 recognition event will highlight these emerging leaders and hopefully will be a catalyst to expand service-learning in the k-12 system and in other teacher education programs.”
The State Farm Youth Advisory Board, ages 17 to 20, were chosen through a competitive process to lead and manage this $5 million per year signature service-learning initiative. The Youth Board identified the challenges, issued competitive grants and will now provide technical assistance, communication and oversight to site grantees. The grants funded, student-led service-learning projects are in the United States and in the Alberta, New Brunswick and Ontario provinces of Canada.
- WHAT: State Farm end-of-year recognition event
- WHEN: Tuesday, May. 13, 6:00 PM
- WHERE: MDC Wolfson Campus, 300 N.E. Second Ave., Room 3210
For more information and to RSVP for this event, please call 305-237-3848, or e-mail kparkes@mdc.edu.
Media-only contacts:
Juan Mendieta, 305-237-7611, jmendiet@mdc.edu, MDC communications director
Sue Arrowsmith, 305-237-3710, sue.arrowsmith@mdc.edu, media specialist