Dr. Anne Hunsaker Hawkins works with families in a pediatric HIV clinic. Kenneth Smith--Creative Visual Resources, Hershey Medical Center

Penn State will host the fourth annual national Outreach Scholarship Conference this fall. With this important upcoming meeting on the calendar, Penn State Outreach magazine took the opportunity to interview three faculty members from different fields about why they engage in outreach and how it informs their research.

A Small Good Thing
Dr. Anne Hunsaker Hawkins, professor of humanities at the Penn State College of Medicine at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, is involved with a pediatric HIV clinic.

"As faculty in a medical center, I felt I was obligated to learn about patient care," said Hunsaker Hawkins. As she became familiar with the workings of the pediatric HIV clinic, she began to do some social work with the caregivers of the children. "It was a powerful experience," she said. "I saw the suffering of the children on one hand and the love and attention the caregivers gave on the other."

As an academic, Hunsaker Hawkins wrote a book about the clinic with the aim of drawing attention to this societal issue.

"The media doesn't give much attention to this particular group of AIDS patients--children born with the infection," she said.

Hunsaker Hawkins, whose research in the College of Medicine focuses on patients' experience of illness through narratives, added, "This book was the first time I wrote about patients rather than reading their narratives."
   
Hunsaker Hawkins said once she completed the book, "A Small Good Thing: Stories of Children With HIV and Those Who Care For Them," (W.W. Norton, 2000) she explored the ethics involved when writing about patients.

"I felt obligated to the families. I couldn't just disappear. I kept the relationship going," she said. She continues to meet with the families and organizes an annual picnic with families and clinic staff.

Dr. Jacqueline McLaughlin in Costa Rica

Nurturing Pennsylvania's Biology Teachers
Dr. Jacqueline McLaughlin, assistant professor of biology at Penn State Lehigh Valley, recently took her third trip to Costa Rica, where she brings students to help them understand the importance of biodiversity and become lifelong advocates.

"I was watching the Atlantic green sea turtle come to shore to lay her eggs. These massive reptiles come back to the same beach where they were born to nest," she said. "With pollution, egg poaching and other barriers, their chances for survival are minimal." McLaughlin knew then she wanted to be a teacher of teachers to move forward her mission.

McLaughlin believes if she can bring teachers down to places like Tortuguero and work with conservation groups, she can start bridging the connections: "We can train our high school teachers in conservation biology on an international and interdisciplinary level so they can return to Pennsylvania classrooms and better educate our youth on sustaining what's in our own backyard," she said.

McLaughlin brought the first group of teachers to Costa Rica this summer as part of her project, Connecting Humans and Nature in the Costa Rican Environment (C.H.A.N.C.E).

She added, "I've done everything possible to break out of the box to enhance the teaching of biological concepts. The classroom is too small to teach about biodiversity. One has
to experience nature and all its extremes to comprehend its magnitude and importance."

Dr. Mary Hutchinson discusses community projects with writing students.

Building Writing Skills and a Community
Dr. Mary Hutchinson teaches writing courses at Penn State Lehigh Valley, using service learning to enhance the experience.

"Service learning is different from a student having an internship with a company," said Hutchinson. "It reflects an involvement with the community and the community's needs."

For her business-writing course, Hutchinson first meets with local nonprofits to find out what they need--such as a brochure or a PowerPoint presentation. She then matches up the students with the nonprofits.

Hutchinson wrote a paper on the results. She found that service learning allows business students to view the world through a lens other than a corporate one.

In her basic writing course, students choose a community project to work on and build a research paper around that. For example, if a student chose to work with Habitat for Humanity, they might write about homelessness.

"The service learning helps develop their writing skills. They come to see the importance of communicating well, which helps them connect to the community," she said, adding: "It's tremendous for me because the assignments are real. The students are practicing a model that they don't always see. And the community gets some of its needs met."