YSU PenguinPulse Community Engagement Newsletter - Feb. 2024

YSU's community engagement connection

Penguins love a reason to wear red, and last Friday gave us an exceptional one.

On Feb. 2, YSU wore red to support the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women campaign to assist in addressing awareness and clinical care gaps of women’s greatest health threat, cardiovascular disease.

Students and faculty tagged their selfies with #NEOGoesRed, and two people won a red Stanley cup through the Office of Community Engagement's Go Red contest that day.

More information on how you can get involved with the Go Red for Women campaign to come!

You have one week left to submit a proposal to present at the annual YSU Community Engagement Symposium this April. The extended deadline to submit is Feb. 15.

Once accepted, presenters will be invited to lunch at the event with community partners.

Students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to consider submitting either individually or as a team to share a topic on community engagement within coursework, research, or practice.

As part of its strategic planning initiatives, YSU is dedicated to becoming a community-engaged campus by applying for the 2026 Carnegie Foundation Elective Classification for Community Engagement. This segment keeps you informed of the process every step of the way.

The application for the 2026 Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement is now available.

What is the Carnegie elective classification?

The writing team for the YSU application has already started the process of gathering data and exemplars and will be continuing to do so this semester.

Please be aware that we may reach out to you for your cooperation and help in collecting material for the application. Your help is appreciated and will move the university forward in this strategic plan initiative.

Image taken from the Carnegie Classifications website

Contributing to the development of informed, active citizens

In the first part of this series, we looked at how YSU students are spending an additional hour on average each week engaging in community service and/or volunteer work compared to their reported hours 10 years ago. Today we're talking about their development in citizenship.

The NSSE survey asks senior students a series of questions about how their experience at YSU contributed overall to their development certain areas. These areas include writing, speaking, critical thinking, analyzing information, acquiring job related skills, working with others, developing a personal code of ethics, understanding people who are different than themselves, solving complex real-world problems, and finally (and most importantly for this newsletter) being an informed and active citizen.

Students are given a choice of responses of very little, some, quite a bit of, and very much. For a majority of the items, few students responded that YSU had very little impact; only 3% of respondents note that YSU contributed very little to their ability to think critically or work effectively with others. However, 12% of students responded that YSU contributed very little to their development in being an informed and active citizen.

With community engagement as an institutional priority, let’s work toward a future where 100% of YSU students report their experiences at YSU contributed very much to being an informed and active citizen.

In partnership with the Office of Community Engagement, the Institute for Teaching and Learning will be sharing more NSSE data this spring related to community engagement through this newsletter. You can access additional NSSE data online at: ysu.edu/yourvoicematters or contact ysuitl@ysu.edu with any requests.

The Engagement Scholarship Consortium is offering the following professional development workshops this spring:

Turning Community Work Into Publications
February 9, 12-1pm Eastern Time
Dr. Diane Doberneck, Michigan State University, will talk about specific steps for developing scholarly publications from your community work.
Register here

Outreach and Engagement Practitioners Network (OEPN) Energy Boost (non-ESC members may attend)
February 15, 2024, 1-2pm Eastern Time
Is Barbie a boundary spanner? Outreach and engagement practitioners are welcome to join for conversations about what it means to be a boundary spanner.
Register here

Preparing for the 2026 Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement
February 28, 2024, 12-1:30pm Eastern Time
Facilitated by Cammie Jones, Director of the Carnegie Elective for Community Engagement, this session will introduce participants to the Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement 2026 application, highlighting changes in content and practices made by the Electives Team, including the addition of a new section on civic and democratic engagement. The Elective Classifications serve as a tool for people-centered systems change in higher education. Utilizing self-study as a tool for institutional reflection and ritual, the Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement assesses institutional principles and practices of public purpose to promote transformation through the co-defining challenges, identifying promising practices, and co-creating goals and outcomes for partnership with communities and campuses that demonstrate the legitimacy of community-engaged practices, partnerships rooted in reciprocity, and outcomes in which the knowledge(s) of those in the community are validated and legitimized. The Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement framework reflects ongoing transformative shifts within our institutions, communities, and how we come together to address institutional- and community-based problem solving for the public good.
Register here

Mapping Engagement for Your Institution
March 14, 1-2pm Central Time
Register here

Laura J. Dewberry, Senior Lecturer, Department of Management and Marketing

Community-Engaged Learning Course: BUS 3720: Nonprofit Leadership

Community Partner: OH WOW! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children's Center for Science & Technology

In her community-engaged learning course Nonprofit Leadership, Laura Dewberry had students work in teams as consultants to offer solutions to organizational challenges posed by a nonprofit client.

In Fall 2023, the class client was Marvin Logan, executive director of OH WOW! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science & Technology. Students started with a site visit then worked to develop recommendations based on a SWOT analysis provided by the client.

"Teams made pitch presentations with their recommendations to Marvin at the end of the semester. All recommendations were supported by evidence with the intention of helping OH WOW! capitalize on a strength, improve on a weakness, take advantage of an opportunity, and mitigate one threat," said Dewberry. "Our client identified the team with the most innovative solutions, and this team was awarded 100% on the assignment."

Dewberry informed that the Fall 2023 course was the last one offered in the traditional, in-person format.

"This consulting assignment has been an integral part of the BUS 3720 course for many semesters," she said. "Switching to a web-based, asynchronous format this semester, the consulting project was removed and substituted for other assignments focused on nonprofit career development and community service."

Dewberry adds that she would love to be able to offer the consulting assignment again in the future with the hope that the format would again change with increased course enrollment.

Marvin Logan, center, client of Laura Dewberry's CEL course Nonprofit Leadership, and winning team, Kayleigh Holler and Gina Maloney.

Volunteers pack groceries and deliver them to people who are unable to leave their homes. There are two aspects of this opportunity; you can do either packing or deliveries, or both.

YSU STEM needs help with various events they are hosting this month, including:

Mill Creek is seeking volunteers to assist us with the Mill Creek Distance Classic Half Marathon & 5-Miler.

Volunteers needed at this Boardman location.

Dorothy Day House serves meals on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evening from 5-6pm.

The YSU Office of Community Engagement is dedicated to creating a community-engaged campus driven by the value from mutually beneficial campus community partnerships. This monthly newsletter is your community engagement connection.

CONTACT THE OFFICE OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT