University's Community Service Efforts Recognized by National Organization

Radford University has earned national recognition for its commitment to community service.

On Sept. 21, 2016, The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) placed Radford University on its 2015 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. The initiative recognized Radford University’s efforts in 2015 in the area of community service programs and raising the visibility of effective practices in campus community partnerships.

The distinguished honor recognizes higher education institutions in four categories: General Community Service, Interfaith Community Service, Economic Opportunity and Education.

Radford is among seven public Virginia institutions in the General Community Service category.

“I can personally attest to the many ways in which a commitment to service — to connecting knowledge and resources to tackle today’s most challenging issues — is one of the defining qualities of a Radford University experience,” said Erin Webster-Garrett, director of the Scholar-Citizen Initiative (SCI). “Across colleges, units and disciplines, the Highlander tradition is one built around our appreciation for and dedication to community and to each other.”

During 2014-15, more than 3,200 Radford University students engaged in academic service-learning and contributed more than 100,000 hours of work in the early education and human service areas alone. They served pre-K through second-grade schoolchildren through art therapy programs; hosted K-12 students and teachers from regional school districts for science enrichment programs; and dedicated more than 3,000 hours of community nursing service in health education and screenings in local school districts and homeless shelters.

Highlighted in the University’s application for the CNCS award are the adoption of SCI as the University’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) to infuse civic-learning outcomes across the curriculum and recognize student excellence in servant-leadership and public scholarship; and implementation of universitywide days of service, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, organized by Student Affairs and the Center for Diversity and Inclusion, and the Holiday Food Drive, organized by the Greek Life community.

Sharing the World

Teachers have the ability to share the world wherever they are.

That is a truth future educators are learning more and more every day at Radford University. Faculty in the University’s School of Teacher Education and Leadership (STEL) often go the extra mile — and in one case, 9,000 miles — to bring that message home.

Each year, a group of adventurous, globe-trotting soon-to-be classroom educators spend nearly a month teaching lessons — English is a high priority — to schoolchildren in southeastern Africa as part of the Malawi Study Abroad Project.

“We have been taking students to Malawi for more than a decade to work in the schools and learn what it’s like to teach in a very different culture and a very different environment, working with students who mostly do not speak English,” said STEL Associate Professor Patti Talbot.

In Malawi, Radford University students work with scores of children — there are sometimes 120 children in a classroom — at the Malemia Primary School.

More recent trips to the school have focused on preparing Radford students to draw from their experiences there and implement a global perspective in their future classrooms.

“They discover in Malawi that all it takes to teach are their voices and a relationship with their students,” Talbot said. “The experience opens their eyes to a whole new world, and they come away with a rich cultural experience that they wind up sharing in their classrooms.”

Watch the video of the Malawi experience at www.radford.edu/magazine