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| navigate: home: magazine: fall 2001: article | |
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Recognizing exemplary outreach teaching, research and service These Penn State faculty members are sharing research with individuals, organizations and communities to make life better | ||||||
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Demonstrating his commitment to the integration of teaching, research and service, Dr. Saad Andaleeb incorporates community engagement into nearly all of his research and teaching activities. He applies his marketing research methodologies to serve the needs of many community organizations and businesses, and he designs academic service-learning projects that teach his students to do the same. Among his outreach research projects are a marketing study of motivational patterns of blood donors for America’s Blood Centers, a service quality assessment of public and private hospitals in urban Bangladesh, and a study of the use of the Internet by insurance agents. In his marketing classes, Andaleeb’s students have applied their knowledge to case studies of community businesses and organizations in need of marketing, including the National Fuel Gas Corporation, Rape Crisis Center, Seniority Health Care and Erie Day School. Student projects include studies of customer satisfaction with the services of restaurants, banks and libraries, as well as a study of baggage-handling problems at Southwest Airlines in Cleveland, Ohio. In addition to his engagement with his local community, Andaleeb has demonstrated outreach that is national and global in scope. He is the founder of the Journal of Bangladesh Studies and serves as an expert for Democracy Watch, Bangladesh, providing assistance with polling on a variety of social, political and related issues. He is also the initiator of a landmark study of popular attitudes toward professional and elite groups in Bangladesh, especially politicians and bureaucrats. This is the most extensive study of opinion in Bangladesh since it won its independence in 1971. |
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Through an ongoing service-learning project, Dr. Mary S. Mander combines the best academic practices in teaching and community service. Her service-learning initiative, Literacy in the Community, offers undergraduate students the opportunity to learn about communications and culture in both the classroom and the community. Working in partnership with the Mid-State Literacy Council, she engages students in two of her upper-level communications courses to tutor adults with low literacy or learning needs in English as a Second Language. While the students learn about literacy and communications in the classroom, they also participate in discussions with the community members they tutor. From this dialogue, the students gain greater insight into the social and political factors that serve as barriers to the development of communication skills and literacy. The community, in turn, gains a new source of knowledgeable and enthusiastic tutors and an increased capacity to provide literacy training to adults throughout the region. According to Monica Matthews, executive director of the Mid-State Literacy Council, “This combination of academia and community service has been an outstanding opportunity for Penn State students and an incredible boost to the services we provide... Dr. Mander gave the students the resources and support they needed to succeed. Because of her efforts, the partnership between the University and the literacy community is a reality.” |
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Dr. John T. Neisworth’s scholarship recognizes the links between behavioral research and the everyday challenges of educators, health professionals and families. He is committed to producing outreach teaching and research to address these urgent needs. Neisworth serves as academic director of the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Certificate Program. Developed at the request of the Pennsylvania Department of Education, this program teaches special education teachers, counselors and psychologists current skills and techniques for effectively identifying and treating autism and other behavioral disorders. The four ABA courses are designed to help professionals prepare for the national board exam for certification as a behavior analyst. More than 400 professionals from three states have enrolled in the graduate-level program since its inception in 1998. Neisworth has extended the program’s reach to sites statewide, strengthened the links between content and standards of the national certifying exam and involved other College of Education faculty in program development and delivery. Parallel to the ABA program is the Summer Autism Conference and Institute, a six-day national conference. He is the academic coordinator for several credit courses offered during the institute. The conference reaches more than 800 practitioners and parents with the latest interdisciplinary research and education in autism and related fields. In addition, it serves as an important site of dialogue and synergy among researchers, practitioners and families of autistic children. |
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Dr. Charles Cantalupo, a scholar of African literature and an author himself, believes that the advancement of African languages and literature contributes to the advancement of democracy and equality in Africa. He served as the leader of a major outreach effort to promote and support growth in these areas — Against All Odds: African Languages and Literatures into the 21st Century. He envisioned and co-chaired the conference, held in Asmara, Eritrea, in January 2000. The event brought together more than 750 African and Africanist writers, artists, linguists, scholars, cultural activists, students, politicians, business leaders and citizens from 20 African countries and from around the world. Conference sessions included performances, presentations, exhibitions, workshops and speeches by such noted presenters as Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki, Kenyan novelist and playwright Ngugi wa Thiong’o and prominent Egyptian feminist novelist Nawal El Saadawi. Cantalupo’s leadership was critical in obtaining international support for this international outreach initiative from the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the World Bank, UNICEF and many other international organizations. As a result of the conference, international leaders have established a permanent Against All Odds secretariat and endorsed the Asmara Declaration on African Languages and Literatures, which was drafted and approved by participants during the conference. Penn State, the event’s major university sponsor, now also enjoys a more prominent position in Africa. The next Against All Odds conference and festival is planned for Cape Town, South Africa, in August 2003. |
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