The Institute for Civic and Community Engagement (ICCE) has six anchor programs providing high quality and meaningful public service, leadership development, and civic engagement opportunities for SF State students across the university. Whether students are interested in long-term internships or one-day volunteering opportunities, ICCE offers Community Service-Learning (CSL) opportunities that help with coordination of service-learning courses and university-approved community partners. The newsletter offers an update of ICCE’s anchor programs, CSL opportunities, faculty research and scholarship spotlight, and new highlights across campus.

Content:

As we bring our fall semester to a close and gear up for the holidays, there is much to be thankful for. Good friends, the camaraderie of colleagues, learning from mistakes, safety and security, and even our pets! Each of us has our unique joys and challenges; no matter what your status in life, the work of ICCE aims to maintain our multifaceted goals in serving you as best as we can. Civic engagement and service-learning can benefit each of you: students, faculty, staff, and the communities you serve. Students gain new academic knowledge, interpersonal skills, self-confidence, and develop an increased commitment to public service. Faculty, you can enhance the quality of your teaching, find new opportunities for research and channels to share your professional expertise. Community members receive valued service, and some of the best institutional support SF State has to offer. Thanks to our fall Faculty Fellow from the College of Liberal & Creative Arts, Dr. Mariana Ferreira; and I had the good fortune of working closely with another incredible graduate student assistant, Liliana Moore. We had a great fall semester and hope you did, too! (Read more)

Dr. Mariana K. Leal Ferreira ,

College of Liberal & Creative Arts

Getting people together to “revolutionize education” is not that easy. I've known that for a while, as persistent as I am, having taught Community Service-Learning courses at SF State for 15 years. Young people today crave for social change, and it is our job as educators to make that happen. So how to get students, faculty, and staff on campus dedicated to civic learning, activism, and social responsibility? And in the process, reflect on identity, leadership and hone their communication skills? (Read more)

The Observatory: A Hidden Gem on Campus!

by Dr. Adrienne Cool

To find a hidden treasure on the SF State campus, look no farther than the roof of Thornton Hall, where you'll find the SFSU Observatory nestled on the roof. When the Sun goes down (and skies are clear!) doors open to the campus community and members of the public. Managed by SF State student "docents", the Observatory houses four telescopes with which visitors can view the moon, planets, stars, galaxies, and more. Weather permitting, the Observatory is open three nights per week during both the fall and spring semesters; hours vary with the time of year. Seasonal highlights range from the rings of Saturn to the stellar nursery at the heart of Orion. Come see the Moon magnified 100 times where you'll see craters "up close," much like what Apollo astronauts saw an hour before they landed!  (Read more)

The Sierra Nevada Field Campus

ICCE, in collaboration with the College of Science & Engineering and Dept. of Recreation, Parks, & Tourism, hosted an Information Session on Nov. 7th, showcasing SF State’s Sierra Nevada Field Campus (SNFC). Watch this 1-minute promo video! Faculty, staff, and students via coursework and research have an extraordinary opportunity for experiential learning in one of the Sierra Mountain finest field schools. One research project launched in 2017 is the Clover Valley Ranch Meadow Restoration Project. The SF State Institute for Geographic Information Science enjoys collaborating with the Sierra Fund in partnership with our Geography & Environment and Biology departments. Unique research on “geospatial data storage and documentation supporting greenhouse gas benefit monitoring” has been occurring for this important restoration project. Faculty and students involved use the university’s Field Campus as a base-camp while gaining many hands-on skills including data collection and analysis, management planning, collaboration, and outreach and education; those involved work diligently “to improve water availability, reliability, and quantity, facilitate the restoration and resilience of native and culturally relevant high elevation wet meadow vegetation assemblages, and increase habitat integrity and availability.”  (Read more)

*NEW* Entering Service-Learning Hours on Transcripts

As of this semester, course instructors will be able to enter their students’ service-learning (SL) hours through the Faculty Center via their SF Gateway account. SL hours must be entered by Friday, January 3, 2019. If you have any questions about this process, please visit this tracking student hours official transcripts or contact Glendie Domingo at glendie@sfsu.edu.

Placement Sites & Course Designation

For inquiries regarding the information below, please contact Glendie Domingo, Community Partnerships Coordinator at glendie@sfsu.edu .

CSL Faculty

ICCE is ready to support you with your CSL course. Whether you have a designated or non-designated service-learning course, our staff aims to provide you with the resources to support your efforts in providing these high-impact opportunities to your students. Please advise us on the following:

CSL Students

Michelle Chu

Partnerships & Compliance Coordinator

ICCE is proud to introduce Michelle Chu , Partnerships & Compliance Coordinator. Michelle joined ICCE in October of 2019 and is responsible for the risk management processes of all non-clinical and non-credential academic internships in the Colleges of Health & Social Sciences and Liberal & Creative Arts. She holds a B.A. in English Literature, a B.S. in Microbiology, and a Master of Science in Immunology from SF State. 

Risk Management Support

In response to the Executive Order 1064, as of fall 2018, ICCE began overseeing the risk management process for all internships that are associated with a credit-bearing course (excluding clinical and student teaching). Based on the pilot program findings and Senate Policy S17-278 mandates, ICCE in consultation with Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) developed procedures, applicable templates, and best practices for 1) internship planning, 2) placement assessment, 3) internship site visits, 4) placement & orientation, and 5) annual review. 

In AY 2018-2019, ICCE worked with twenty-three departments/programs, onboarding a total of 55-course sections with a total of 622 enrolled students, and received a request of 635 potential organizations to be processed as University-approved learning placement sites.

Spring 2020 academic internship information is available on our website! For further academic internship inquiries, please contact Academic Internship Partnerships & Compliance Coordinators: Eunice H. Kim | eunicek@sfsu.edu for Early Field Work Programs, College of Business, and College of Science & Engineering. Michelle Chu | michelec@sfsu.edu for College of Health & Social Science and College of Liberal & Creative Arts. 

Discover Yourself, Discover Your Future

by Elizabeth Ambrocio

My first experience with service-learning happened during the summer of 2018, which was also the summer after I graduated high school. That summer, I was recruited for this service-learning opportunity through a local organization called the Youth Workers Institute (YWI). YWI is a program designed by SFUSD to give high school and incoming college students the necessary tools/skills that would then help them gain experience in working with children. This program was designed to be completed by interconnecting three different key components/organizations into one summer experience that consisted of 1) YWI workshops/meetings, 2) a CDEV 78 class taught by a professor at the City College of San Francisco Mission Campus, and 3) a local Community Youth Organization willing to take in students as teachers assistants. By having three different groups, that each served a specific purpose, it allowed us (participants in the YWI program) to learn a variety of skills that were crucial to our success in the program. Through the YWI workshops and meetings, we went over the credentials of what it takes to work with underage children, and we were also trained in Healthy Eating and Physical Activity (HEPA), restorative practices, social-emotional learning, behavior guidance, and youth development. The main purpose of our CDEV 78: Supervised Field Experience in Community Youth Organizations course was to give students “Supervised work experience in youth-service agencies to make connections between theory and practice. Observation and evaluation of school-age children and youth, planning of group activities, and the role of adults in youth programs will be examined in this course. This course fulfills the requirements for Community Youth Worker Certificate and up to 3 units for CSU”. Lastly, through a local community youth organization, we were able to apply the concepts that we learned in class and practice them with the children. (Read More)

Mapping My Service-Learning Experiences

by Belen Lopez

I have taken three service-learning courses during my time at SF State, and I have seen that it has been hit or miss when it comes to concepts being formally introduced in those courses. I feel that it is common to have service-learning be shaped as a semester-long project, with reflection papers that serve as benchmarks throughout the course. I think that in order to best reflect on the service-learning experiences, it is important to speak on each of them separately. My first service-learning class was an under division GE class. The teacher provided a list of possible service-learning sites and set up a day, where as a group we would go out and try to meet with as many community partners as possible. We had some conversations on expectations she had of us while out meeting the partners. While this helped find a community partner, it did not introduce the importance of service-learning nor the partnership that was being developed. I feel that it is pivotal for the class to introduce the concepts of service-learning and community partners because this class is primarily for first-year students and sophomores, meaning that they might not have experience with these concepts. Students participating in service-learning must understand what that means in order to get the most out of their experience. I feel like this would make the difference between intentional and transactional experiences.  (Read More)

Service-Learning and Understanding It's Importance

by Kathryn Wren

In my four years at SF State, I have not had the opportunity to do direct experience with service-learning. The one experience in which I interned with Mayor Ed Lee under the Department of Communications was not directly tied to any class in my Political Science major. However, after studying service-learning as a Fellow through the Institute for Civic and Community Engagement, I have been able to gain an understanding of how necessary it is for students to have a combination of learning, service, and reflection tied together in a class setting. In my completion of readings in Service-Learning Essentials by Barbara Jacoby, I took time to reflect on my internship at the Mayor's Office and it was in this reflection that I realized how much I enjoyed my work, but in no way felt it connected to anything I was learning in the classroom. This disconnect between my service and my education made me think more deeply about what kind of education I was receiving. It was through a conversation with Professor Kassiola of the Political Science Department that I came to understand how my major is centered upon theory-based learning. My intention in writing this reflection of service and practice is not to discredit a theory-based learning style. The goal is primarily to address that to have a well rounded academic background, complimentary service, and reflection is necessary. Since becoming a Fellow with ICCE, my ideas on service have grown exponentially because before becoming a Fellow, I had never taken into consideration that service and learning were interconnected. Before becoming a Fellow, I had a small understanding of how knowledge is gained out of service, but I had not thought of that knowledge as being academically charged. In my own experience of having a major that focuses on theory as the primary basis for its classes, not using service-learning as a tool in addition to the foundation of theory-based knowledge creates a gap in a student's learning experience. (Read More)

For more student reflections, visit our website or follow our story at #iconnectSFSU on all our social media platforms. If you are interested in more information about ICCE programs, please contact Jose R. Lopez at   jirlopez@sfsu.edu.

Civic & Community Engagement Awards

Save the date for the Civic & Community Engagement Awards on Thursday, April 16, 2020, from 5:30-8:30 pm at the Seven Hills Conference Center.

ICCE is now accepting nominations for the annual Civic & Community Engagement Awards Ceremony. Help recognize students, faculty, staff, and community partners who have made outstanding contributions to their communities through service and community-engaged scholarship.  

 

Nominations are sought for the following categories:

 

The deadline for submissions is Friday, February 14, 2020. For more information about award criteria, guidelines, nomination forms, and to RSVP, visit our website.

Spring 2020 Internship & Service-Learning Fair

ICCE is having our bi-annual Internship & Service-Learning Fair on Tuesday, February 4th and Wednesday, February 5th from 10 am - 1 pm at the Cesar Chavez Student Center. All are invited to meet our community partners and explore the opportunities they offer. Students interested in areas such as education, social work, recreation, health, youth development, and many other fields, are recommended to attend. Our partners are ready to talk about the work they do in the community and how SF State can contribute! Visit our website for most current information and updates.

ICCE is committed to expanding our partnerships in the Bay Area and surrounding communities. Our efforts to address community-defined needs are rooted in our mission and deeply ingrained in what we do. In fall 2019, we welcomed 59 new community partners. ICCE has also expanded our list of partners to include for-profit entities. A portion of them are below.

Recreation & Parks

Business

Government

Museum & Galleries

Support Services

Arts & Culture

It is with great pleasure that ICCE announces the awardees of the 2020 Call to Service Initiative grants. To learn more about the available grants and awardees, please visit the ICCE Call to Service grant web page. Congratulations to all recipients!

Add Service Learning to a Course

College Ethnic Studies

Partnerships in Service-Learning

College of Health and Social Sciences

Civic Engagement/Civic Learning

College of Business

Service-Learning Student Assistant(s)

College of Health & Social Sciences

Eisman Award for Engaged Scholarship  

College of Health & Social Sciences

Institute for Civic & Community Engagement (ICCE)

Email:  icce@sfsu.edu - Phone:  415-338-6419  - Fax:  415-338-0587