In this Issue: Happy Birthday to CoRAL! Consortium Survey Raises Voice Featured CBO: College Bound Inc. Featured HE: Trinity University Got Newsbits?

Here at CoRAL, we took advantage of the Washingtonian summer lull to move ahead on curriculum innovations, student projects and community research and prepare for implementation of fall program initiatives. Five members of the 2004 Faculty Fellows Learning Circle were awarded teaching mini-grants for their proposals to incorporate a service-learning component in their curriculum for this semester. Mini-grant recipients include GWU sociology professor Gregory Squires for service-learning pedagogy in "Poverty, Place and Race: The Sociology of Urban Inequality"; AU's Karen DiGiovanni for "Service Learning in Teacher Education"; UMd anthropology professor Judith Freidenberg for "Advanced Field Training in Ethnology: Immigrant Life" and TU's English professor Jacqueline Padgett for "First Year Seminar on Girlhood Narratives." FFLC Program Director Marie Troppe brought together a multidisciplinary working group of faculty, students and service-learning staff to develop a survey instrument to measure the effects of student participation in service-learning courses on a range of academic and civic outcomes. The resulting Student Engagement Assessment Questionnaire is an on-line pre/post-test administered to students enrolled in service-learning courses on eight DC-area campuses. Over 200 students will take the survey during the first two weeks and the last week of classes; pre- and post-data will allow comparisons of students' opinions of community-based learning and any changes that might have occurred during the semester. Program Director Deanna Cooke led a dedicated group of scholars and activists in summer sessions of the Partners in Urban Research Seminar, assigning tasks on bibliographic research and project development to address the research question of "How can the cultural makeup of the community and student body be used as assets for student achievement?". The Student Engagement and Leadership Fellows Program got a new name and a new Director, Karyn Cassella. Meanwhile, SELF students took a much-needed break from their impressively busy undergraduate lives, but have returned this fall energized and ready to implement their Peers Helping Areas Students Engage in Service (PHASES) high school project.

In this issue, we call attention to a tentative bill that can heavily impact volunteers and the work being done to address their concerns. Our featured CBO is College Bound and our featured institution of higher education is the newly re-christened Trinity University. We hope the stories include in this issue spark interest and serve as examples of the amazing work being done by all of our network partners. We wish you a warm and colorful autumn!

	Happy Birthday to CoRAL!
Happy birthday to us, happy birthday to us! The CoRAL Network officially completed its first fiscal year on October 1st, 2004. We look forward to the continued growth and strengthening of our network as we progress into our second year. Thanks to all of our community and university partners for their relentless efforts in building bridges and furthering service learning initiatives throughout our community! And we would especially like to express our appreciation to Learn & Serve America of the Corporation for National and Community Service for their generous support that makes it all possible!

	Consortium Survey Raises Voice
Protecting children and youth from sexual abuse is a growing concern nationwide. In response, the District of Columbia City Council will soon consider a bill to require criminal background checks and fingerprinting for all DC youth agency employees providing direct services to children under 18 years of age. According to the provisions Bill 15-607, the "Child and Youth Safety and Health Omnibus Amendment Act of 2004", any "applicant" under consideration for employment, as well as all volunteers, including parents, who work or volunteer services in agencies, schools or programs for minors would be required submit to Metropolitan Police Department administered fingerprinting and FBI background checks. A public hearing was held in January 2004 on the permanent legislation that would either expire or become law this fall 2004. No organization representing the concerns of the volunteer community testified, even though thousands of volunteers dedicate countless hours to local community-based organizations and programs throughout DC. A significant pool of volunteers is comprised of students from DC-area universities. Meanwhile Heads Up, DC Reads, National Student Partnerships, For the Love of Children Neighborhood Tutoring Program, Calvary Bilingual Multi-cultural Learning Center and hundreds of other community organizations throughout the city depend on their volunteer workforce to deliver direct services to the community and keep operating costs down. If the bill becomes permanent, who would pay the estimated $55 cost for fingerprinting and background checks each person each year? Non-profits, whose budgets are stretched thin? Volunteers, who are often students or low-income residents with more time than money to spare? Beyond funding, there are issues of time constraints and bureaucratic redtape. Due to backlogs of requests, fingerprinting and background check clearance can take several weeks. Volunteers will also be required to provide written authorize to the Mayor to conduct a criminal background check, to sign an affirmation that the volunteer has not been convicted of a crime, is not on probation before judgment, or has not been found guilty by reason of insanity for any sexual misconduct, intra-family offenses, or other felony. The bill would also require agencies receiving volunteers to supply to the Mayor lists of their volunteers within 30 days of October 1, 2004. Many community service coordinators are concerned that the legislation could potentially discourage volunteers and university campus offices overseeing volunteers because of the great volume of paperwork and time. In an effort to represent and raise the concerns of the volunteer community, the Consortium of Universities designed a questionnaire that the CoRAL Network adapted for online dissemination to community-based organizations and campus offices of community/service-learning at local universities. Before permanent legislation is adopted, the Consortium of Universities hopes to use the information gathered from more than 45 organizations to present a case for the volunteer community before the DC City Council. Protecting youth from sexual predators is of paramount importance, but there must be a way to keep supervision standards high without limiting the significant contributions of volunteers. The goal of the survey is to ensure that a practical course of action is adopted that includes input from community-based organizations and volunteers. Consortium of Universities Homepage >> »

	Featured CBO: College Bound Inc.
Striving to foster awareness of academic potential and fuel the desire of its participants to pursue a college education, College Bound has served as a springboard to higher education for hundreds of DC metropolitan area students since it was founded in 1991. Anchored by its after-school Academic Mentoring Program, which partners students one-to-one with an area professional volunteer for each academic year, College Bound also offers an SAT preparation program, financial literacy workshops, Fall and Spring college visit tours, career nights, and a scholarship program that awards $6,000 scholarships each year to ten graduating high school seniors. Drawing their participants from public or public-charter schools, students accepted into the programs are in grades 8th-12th with average academic records but with a dedication to enrolling in and completing college. As Ebony Lea, the Programs Coordinator and a College Bound graduate, explains: "Our students are expected to make a commitment to improving their high school performance and are given the support and encouragement needed to actively engage themselves into utilizing the resources available to them to get into college. Our goal is to make them realize going to college is a possibility that they have the power to make a reality." This past year, students represented 34 schools in DC, Maryland, and Virginia, with the largest majority (91.2%) living in DC. To conduct an assessment of programs and services on past participants, College Bound linked up with a research partner through the CoRAL Network to collaborate on an in-depth study. With the Urban Institute, the study reached 20% of the former College Bound students dating back as far as 1994. Of students surveyed, 65% stated that College Bound had been very helpful in terms of academic enrichment. As for feedback from current participants, Maurice, a student at Eastern Senior High School, says that "College Bound has greatly improved my awareness of college preparations and has taught me the importance of preparing for college early. I have enjoyed working with my mentor and learning about adult life and business in the world. I look forward to learning much more and pursing my career with a great drive and focus. Without the help of College Bound, I probably would not be as ready for the next step in preparing for college as I am now." College Bound's volunteer base consists of DC-area professionals. Volunteers wishing to mentor a student in the 8th or 9th grade must at least be juniors in college while those partnered with students in grades 10th-12th must have a four-year college degree. Meeting with College Bound students for two hours each week, these volunteer mentors step in to help students navigate the complexities of getting into college. Besides helping students with homework, college searches, and applications, mentors also work with them on College Bound's math or language arts curriculum at one of four College Bound sites throughout the District of Columbia. In May 2004, the Academic Mentoring Program concluded its academic year with 125 students. However, College Bound estimates they had to turn away at least 35 students last year due to lack of partners to maintain their one-to-one match. This academic year, College Bound hopes to successfully recruit enough dedicated volunteers to enable them to serve at least 150 students who are bound for academic success. Think you can help make a difference? College Bound is waiting to hear from you. Become a Mentor! Learn More @ College Bound Homepage >> »

	Featured HE: Trinity University
Kisha Kantasingh (far left in photo), Class of 2005, didn't expect to launch her college experience skimming across the Chesapeake Bay wetlands with her classmates, uprooting non-native plants and collecting trash along the banks of the Anacostia River. As part of Trinity University's required interdisciplinary Freshman Year Seminar, Kantasingh participated in a community project to monitor aquatic vegetation and research how humans affect the physical and biological characteristics of the Bay. Looking back, Kantasingh says, "That community-based learning project made me realize what a positive impact I could have in my community. That class inspired me to continue to find ways to make a difference." Today, she serves as a tutor for Heads Up, Inc.'s after-school enrichment programs at Plummer Elementary School in Ward 8. Unique among other DC-area universities, Trinity's community-based learning seminar is required for all incoming first year students. Taught by a diverse interdisciplinary team of professors, the course engages students in the community by allowing them to choose a community-based organizational (CBO) partner and reflect on their service or research experiences. According to Dr. Minerva San Juan (Philosophy), "Most of our students have loved it. About two-thirds of students who took the first year seminar in fall 2003 kept volunteering with their community partner after the courses were completed." In 2003-3004, the number of service learning courses jumped from 1 or 2 in previous academic years to 13. This surge resulted in students dedicating over 2000 hours of service to the community. While most is accounted by direct service to the community, courses with community-based research components are also offered. Dr. Roxana Moayedi (Sociology) notes that community-based research helps students to develop skills in gathering and analyzing data and to think systematically about social problems. Last year, her students participated in an asset mapping project for the Perry School Community Service Center Inc., in which they created a database of 189 programs and services that are available for the North Capitol community. In another Sociology course, students collaborated with the National Student Partnerships and interviewed almost 400 landlords in order to create a public database of Section 8/Voucher and low-income housing availability in the District of Columbia. The First Year Seminar's community-based learning component is an enriching experience for faculty as well. Dr. San Juan thinks that "community-based learning has really enhanced my teaching experience because it allows students to learn how to reflect and the practicality of their real-life experiences enriches their writing skills. It makes it easier for me to teach since they become deeper thinkers and more articulate." Being a comprehensive yet small university, Trinity's appeal to students has been in its nurturing environment and the interpersonal relationships it fosters between faculty and students. Beyond teaching and research endeavors, faculty also serve as advisors and mentors. Given her wide range of responsibilities, English professor and department chair Dr. Jacqueline Padgett was, at first, cautious of not over-extending herself when she accepted a fellowship in CoRAL's 2004 Faculty Fellows Learning Circle. Through common readings, group discussions, and syllabi and curriculum development workshops, Dr. Padgett and her colleagues deepened their understanding of community-based learning and research and incorporated this knowledge in their curriculum and teaching for courses offered in Fall 2004. Marie Troppe, Program Director for Faculty Development at CoRAL, shares that by the end of the inaugural Learning Circle seminar, Dr. Padgett had "become one of community-based learning's best advocates." Dr. Cynthia Chance (English) and Dr. San Juan will represent Trinity in the 2005 cohort of the Faculty Fellows Learning Circle next spring semester. Faculty at Trinity are also developing a workshop for faculty at the University of the District of Columbia on to how develop and implement service learning courses. The CoRAL Network PI and Faculty Director of the Community-based Learning Center on campus, Dr. Moayedi, shares that they "are looking forward to collaborating and learning from [our] colleagues at UDC" and that "the CoRAL Network has played an important role in the development of learning communities within and across our campuses and I hope that this sense of cross-campus community continues to grow." The Community-based Learning Center, co-funded by the University and CoRAL, assists professors and students in partnering with Ward 8 CBOs serving Trinity's surroundings neighborhoods. According Dr. Moayedi, the shift this academic year to limiting community-based learning partnerships to a single geographic area "minimizes transportation costs for our students, many of whom are holding down full-time or part-time jobs, and allows students to become more engaged with the university's own neighborhood and the issues faced by community neighbors." In conjunction with the community-based learning initiatives propelled by the faculty and students, outreach to the community is also in full-force at the institutional level at Trinity. The University has partnered with Marriott International, Verizon, and the U.S. Department of Labor to help build technology-focused programs that include a high-tech training component for underemployed local residents. The School of Education has also partnered with America Online to provide technology training exclusively for teachers in the D.C. public school system. The new Trinity Center for Women and Girls and Sports, which opened in Fall 2003, includes recreational and educational services for community residents. President Patricia McGuire stated in a Washington Post article that "a decade ago, Trinity might have built a smaller gymnasium just for itself; then again, 10 years ago, we could barely afford basketballs. Trinity's rebound coincides with the economic recovery of the District, and our future is clearly tied to the city's continuing improvement. For urban institutions such as Trinity, joining forces with our city-in the citizens we educate, in the institutions with which we partner, in the academic programs we develop, and in the cultural and recreational opportunities we provide-is essential to effective higher education in the future." Being engaged in the community is perceived as a mandate set forth by Trinity University's founders. Established in 1897 by the Sisters of Notre Dame, Trinity is one of the nation's first Catholic higher education institutions for women. The Sisters of Notre Dame declared their mission to be to "continue a strong educational tradition, take a stand with poor people, especially women and children, in the most abandoned places. [For each] of us to commit her one and only life to work with others to create justice and peace for all," and founded Trinity in the nation's capital to rival the quality of education accessible only to men at that time in Washington. Today, Trinity University continues the mission of the Sisters of Notre Dame through its commitment to "prepare students across the lifespan for the intellectual, ethical and spiritual dimensions of contemporary work, civic and family life." Dr. San Juan adds that "the Catholic tradition of social justice teachings all rearticulate service to the community. All social justice questions of leadership and morality are core values of the university's mission. Community-based learning is an amazing way of furthering Trinity's mission." Trinity undergrads like Kisha Kantasingh, and the Heads Up children and families whose lives she touches at Plummer Elementary School, couldn't agree more. Trinity College Becomes Trinity University! Read the Official Press Release >> »

	Got Newsbits?
Since July 2004, we have been sending out weekly 'Newsbits' featuring upcoming opportunities, events and news for the CoRAL Network community. Newsbits is currently received by over 500 Network affiliates throughout the National Capital Region. If you would like to share any announcements from your organization or campus with the CoRAL Network community, send a brief blurb to cbenitez@coralnetwork.org by close of business each Thursday for inclusion in the following Monday's Newbits. Got something longer than a blurp to share? Article pieces related to service learning and community work are also welcomed for inclusion in our newsletters. (Issues: Early Fall, Late Fall, Early Spring, Late Spring, and Summer).