ACE Annual Report Page 1

Academic Community Engagement Annual Report 2011-2012

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TSIENAcollegeACADEMIC COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT 2011-2012 ANNUAL REPORT

Office of Academic Community Engagement515 Loudon RoadLoudonville, NY 12211-1462

Published by the Siena College Office of Academic Community Engagement

EDITORS AND DESIGNERS

Jennifer SimekVISTA Leader and Coordinator of ACE Public Relations

Briavel SchultzVISTA Fellow and Coordinator of ACE Strategic Communications

ACADEMIC COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT STAFF

Dr. Mathew Johnson ’93Director of Academic Community Engagement,Associate Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies

Lori BarringerAssistant Director of Academic Community Engagement, Operations and Special Projects

Gretchen MielkeAssistant Director of Academic Community Engagement, Bonner Service Leaders

Yalitza Negron ’08Assistant Director of Academic Community Engagement, AmeriCorps VISTA Fellows

Dr. Ruth KasselAssistant Director of Academic Community Engagement, Academic Service Learning

Professor John Harden, Esq.Lecturer, First Year Seminar, Academic Coordinator of Academic Community Engagement

April Risley ’12Coordinator of Academic Community Engagement Quality Assurance and Youth Programs

ACE Annual Report Page 3

Dr. Mathew Johnson ’93Siena College Director of Academic Community EngagementAssociate Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies

The Office of Academic Community Engagement (ACE) has had a monumental year of growth and success in our effort to further develop our commitment to build a world that is more just, peaceable, and humane. Just before the Fall 2011 semester, we hired a new Assistant Director of ACE, Lori Barringer, who now oversees our operations and special projects. Shortly thereafter, we moved from Hines Hall to the St. Thomas More House. The new space has made it possible to accommodate our growing ACE staff and an increased level of students, post-graduates, and faculty and staff engaged in our programs. This year we are proud to say that we have seen our highest levels of participation across all of our programs and projects.

This year, Siena College introduced its 2011-2016 Strategic Plan and ACE is an integral part of the college’s new plan to build on the success of the first Academic Excellence Plan by implementing a new Academic Excellence Plan that is focused on student engagement. In each ACE program, connecting academics to service is fundamental to learning about key social justice issues in our communities. Our community partnerships offer a wealth of resources and vital information about the communities in which we live and work. By building campus-community initiatives our students and program participants increase their academic knowledge by critically thinking about solutions to real world issues. ACE offers the chance for students to become engaged local, national, and global minded citizens.

This year, ACE lead the development of the High-Impact Initiative. The initiative brings together teams from participating campuses committed to working over multiple years to integrate high-impact educational practices with high-impact campus-

community partnerships. This year ACE held the first High-Impact Initiative conference at Siena College and 10-person teams from 9 colleges and universities attended, including Stetson University (DeLand, Florida), Carson-Newman College (Jefferson City, Tennessee), and St. Mary College (Moraga, California). As a result of this initiative, we hope that our effort will result in higher levels of student learning, campus-wide involvement, and community impact. This, too, touches upon Siena’s strategic plan to gain national recognition for experiential learning programs that prepare students for work, service, and practical positive action.

Each year, more than 200 students from our various programs, including high school students participating in our Civic Engagement Camp, create a financial impact of close to $3 million. Because of our high-impact work, the Dake Family and Stewart Shop’s gifted ACE with $600,000 for the purpose of supporting and further developing our integrated, developmental, and capacity-building academic programs. Their generous support will make it possible for our program participants to reach further into their communities and deeper into their passion and commitment to creating a significant impact in community engagement initiatives.

Thank you to all those who are interested in and involved with ACE programs. We invite you to stay in touch with ACE happenings on our website siena.edu/ace, through our DEEP Service Magazine, or coming to a variety of our community engagement events throughout the year.

- Dr. Mathew Johnson ’93

ACE Annual Report Page 4

Reciprocal and transformative campus-community partnerships

DEEP Service PhilosophyOur DEEP Service Model is a nationally recognized approach to building sustainable campus-community partnerships. Since its inception, the DEEP Service Model has proven to be a vital infrastructure that provides academic support services for faculty, students, and community partners. 

In each partnership that we create, we make it a goal to build the capacity of our community partners, our students, and our faculty members. We take a multifaceted, developmental, integrated, and contextualized approach to building a world that is "more just, peaceable and humane."

Capacity Building

In each partnership we make, our goal is to build the capacity of the organization to meet the needs of its client; the student to successfully take leadership roles that emphasize justice and service; and the faculty to better integrate place-based and problem-based learning into their classes by aligning the needs of community partners with course learning objectives to produce learning experiences that are also of service to others.

Albany Barn, Inc.

Albany County District Attorney Office

Albany Preparatory Charter School

Boys and Girls Clubs of Albany

Brighter Choice Charter Schools

Capital District Habitat for Humanity ReStore

Capital District YMCA: Black and Latino Achievers

Capital District YMCA: Troy Family Branch

Capital Region Sponsor-A-Scholar

Compassion in Action

Fr. Peter Young Housing, Industries, and Treatment

Green Tech High Charter School

Girl Scouts of Northeastern New York

Hope 7 Community Center

Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless

Roarke Center: A Program of Catholic Charities

Siena College Bonner Service Leaders Program

Siena College Damietta Cross-Cultural Center

Siena College Office of Enrollment Management

Siena College Research Institute

Siena College Sr. Thea Bowman Center for Women

St. Peter’s Hospital

Trinity Alliance

Unity House of Troy, Inc.Bonner Summer Leadership Institute

ACE Annual Report Page 5

Boys and Girls Clubs of AlbanyThe Boys and Girls Clubs of Albany has been one of our longest running DEEP community partners. Our partnership began with one AmeriCorps VISTA Fellow in 2008 and has since grown to a multifaceted partnership with various Siena participants.

1 AmeriCorps VISTA Fellow

4 Bonner Service Leaders

1 Faculty Member

1 Academic Service Learning Course

Fr. Peter Young Housing, Industries, and TreatmentOur partnership with Fr. Peter Young Housing, Industries and Treatment began in the summer of 2010 with one VISTA Fellow and has since grown to multiple partnerships.

2 AmeriCorps VISTA Fellows

6 Bonner Service Leaders

1 Faculty Member

2 Academic Service Learning Courses

ACE Annual Report Page 6

Fighting poverty and building sustainable community solutions

AmeriCorps*VISTA FellowsAmeriCorps*VISTA is a program of AmeriCorps which focuses on fighting poverty in American communities. The Siena College AmeriCorps*VISTA Fellows Program is the only program across the United States that places VISTA members at community-based organizations with the goal to build campus-community connections. The Siena VISTA Program was established in January 2008 and has grown to 30 VISTA Fellows. Each VISTA Fellow is placed within the community at a school, non-profit, or other community organization to promote civic engagement by fostering reciprocal relationships between students, faculty, administrators and local community members.

Carolyn HolthausenTrinity Alliance

Carolyn works as as the Coordinator for Assessment and Development at Trinity Alliance. One of her biggest projects is helping to coordinate Trinity’s 100th Anniversary, for which she serves as the main contact person. Another favorite part of her position is serving as the Editor in Chief of the South End Voice, a monthly paper written for and by the residents of Albany’s South End. She publishes many works written by an adult GED writing class. The students look forward to seeing their work published.

John DeCirce ’11Hope 7 Community Center

John is currently serving as the interim manager of the Hope 7 food pantry. He has made several improvements to the pantry including providing more nutritious food options, opening the pantry on Saturdays for those who work during the week, and connecting clients with other free services in Troy such as free healthcare, legal aide, and domestic violence shelters. John has recruited several volunteers from RPI and Russell Sage to provide homework help for the kids. John has secured a donation of a variety of art supplies including sewing machines.

Natasha GrantGreen Tech High Charter School

Natasha is serving in her second year as the Career & College Resource Development Coordinator at Green Tech Charter High School for Boys. Since Green Tech is four years old, 2012 marks the first graduating class of seniors. Natasha has strived to instill a strong desire in the young men to go to college and provides them with the tools to get there. One of her biggest projects is coordinating the Historically Black Colleges & Universities Tour.

ACE Annual Report Page 7

Yalitza Negron ’08Assistant Director of Academic Community Engagement/VISTA

Service Year 2011-2012 has been truly a remarkable year! Our VISTA Fellows worked passionately day-in and day-out helping to build the capacity of their service sites to address crucial needs of our local community. These included education, youth development, community needs assessments and more! A unique feature that captures this year is the amount of partnerships and networking that our team has nurtured. These have included partnerships between the college and their sites, service site to service site, or through their service site and the local community. We are proud of the amount of connections they have been able to cultivate this year. As a result of their work, the team has been able to connect with over 200 community partners and create over 700 resources for their service sites! As we prepare for another rewarding and empowering year, we would like to express our sincere gratitude and support of all of our community partners, VISTA Fellows, and Administrative Staff for making this another successful service term. We look forward to celebrating the continued success of our VISTA Fellows as they prepare for the transition into new adventures in the next year! 

By The NumbersFrom July 2011 to March 2012

27 Siena College AmeriCorps*VISTA Fellows

4,729 Volunteers mobilized by sVISTAs

$94,725 Grant Funding Received by VISTAs

$221,438 Received in Event-Based Fundraising

223 Partnerships started by VISTAs

713 Transferrable Resources created by VISTAs

HighlightsThis is the fifth year of the AmeriCorps*VISTA Fellows Program at Siena College. The VISTA Fellows program is remarkable in its ability to connect non-profits through out the Capital Region, creating a strong network of allies in the fight against poverty. The VISTA Fellows meet once a month to discuss projects happening at their service sites and ways that their organizations might be able to assist one another.

The Siena College VISTA program is quickly establishing itself as one of the premiere non-profit professional development programs in the country. The VISTA Fellows undergo monthly professional and continued academic training. Professional training subjects range from grant writing to board mobilization, while academic training seeks to understand the causes of poverty at local, national, and international level. Those accepted into the program graduate with a new world view and a deep commitment to working with low income populations to build their capacity.

Non-profits who do have a VISTA placement are finding that Siena College is an invaluable resource. The DEEP Philosophy that guides the ACE office stands for Developing Engaging Educational Partnerships for Service. VISTA Fellows assess the needs at their non-profits and find ways that the Siena faculty and students through Academic Service Learning.

ACE Annual Report Page 8

JUSTTHEFACTS

47 BONNER SERVICE LEADERS

11 COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

20,532 HOURS OF SERVICE COMBINED

BONNER SERVICE LEADERS undergraduate direct service, 8-10 hours per week

AMERICORPS VISTA FELLOWS post-graduate, full-time indirect service

03 AMERICORPS VISTA LEADERS

27 AMERICORPS VISTA FELLOWS

223 PARTNERSHIPS STARTED

4,729 VOLUNTEERS MOBILIZED

$94,725 GRANTS AWARDED

$221,438 FUNDRAISED BY VISTA

713 RESOURCES CREATED

13 ASL COURSES TAUGHT

57 TRAINED AND SUPPORTED FACULTY

37 PROSPECTIVE FACULTY

129 STUDENTS IN ASL COURSES

ACADEMIC SERVICE LEARNING community-engaged teaching and learning

ACADEMIC AMERICORPS undergraduate internships connected to academics

60 PARTICIPANTS

56 SUCCESSFUL TERMS

18,000 SERVICE HOURS

ACE Annual Report Page 9

THE OFFICE OF ACADEMIC COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

The Office of Academic Community Engagement at Siena College is dedicated to developing long-term, developmental, sustainable, and reciprocal campus-community partnerships. We focus on connecting Siena College faculty, staff, and students with the Capital Region of New York community.

SUMMER SERVICE SCHOLARS undergraduate direct or indirect service, 10-week term

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT CAMPhigh school student academic enrichment and service, one-week summer sessions

20 CAMPERS

05 SCHOLARSHIPS

03 COMMUNITY PARTNERS

20 PARTICIPANTS

05 PARTNERS

7,000 SERVICE HOURS

ISSUE BASED COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

ACE has over 30 DEEP partnerships that focus on a diverse range of issue based areas.

03 HUNGER AND HOMELESSNESS

10 ACCESS TO EDUCATION AND YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

01 COMMUNITY ARTS AND CULTURE

06 AFFORDABLE HOUSING, TREATMENT, AND RE-ENTRY

02 HUMAN SERVICES

04 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND RESEARCH

02 RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

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GLOBAL SERVICE undergraduate engaged learning in a culture different from their own

02 COUNTRIES (BOLIVIA and INDIA) 13 PARTICIPANTS

ACE Annual Report Page 10

Bonner Service LeadersThe Siena Bonner Service Leaders Program is an Academic Community Engagement program that provides access to education through financial support to Siena students who demonstrate exceptional commitment to serving those in need. Siena Bonner Service Leaders (SBSLs) participate in professional and leadership development designed to inform and enhance their academics and community engagement. By integrating formative educational opportunities through classroom learning and hands on experience to the community, SBSLs place academics at the core of their service and in so doing examine the systemic causes of community issues. Siena Bonner Service Leaders participate in the national service movement and assist in establishing Siena College as a national model of academic engagement.

Combining academic excellence with high quality service

Gretchen MielkeAssistant Director of Academic Community Engagement/Bonner

It is hard to believe we are closing out the 2011-2012 academic year for the Siena Bonner Service Leaders Program. This year marks the completion of four years here at Siena College. To mark this major milestone, we are proud to announce we have completed 97,985 hours of service over the course of the past four years. You have joined us as experts and mentors to our students, and we celebrate this success with you.

This May, our second class of graduates will cross the stage leaving a distinctive legacy. The senior class has created their own programming, research projects, planned two national service conferences, interned abroad in India, and stood as leaders and mentors in their networks. They have accomplished the development of a student led Girl Scout Program in North Albany of more than 77 girls, a SMART Girls program with the Boys and Girls Club, Academic Service Learning Leadership, and Hearing Aids and Poverty Research. We are proud of their futures with our graduates continuing a life-long passion for service in their professional lives.

HighlightsThe 2011-2012 year was momentous in Siena Bonner history. The Siena Bonner program received a $500,000 endowment from the Bonner foundation and a $500,000 matching grant from Mr. John Dawson, Siena Class of ’68.

In June 2011, Siena hosted the Bonner Summer Leadership Institute, an annual event hosted at a different college within the Bonner network each year. Over 400 Bonner Service Leaders from all over the country attended. Summer 2011 was the Siena Bonner’s first service trip to Bangalore, India. (To learn more about their trip, turn to page 12).

Finally, 2012 marks the program’s fourth year at Siena, and its second and largest class of graduating seniors. Thanks to their experience as Bonner Service Leaders, they have several exciting opportunities available to them. Several have been accepted into graduate school programs, such as St. Rose’s Speech Pathology program and Sage College’s Forensic Mental Health program. Others have been accepted or are pursuing professional programs such as City Year and AmeriCorps.

ACE Annual Report Page 11

Lindsey Knowlden ’13Bonner Service Leader

Lindsey was first introduced to Parson’s at the Parson’s Camp to Belong. Camp to Belong is a week and half where

siblings who have been separated through foster care get to spend time having fun together. Lindsey remembers the camp as challenging, but it also inspired her to commit her service to working with the Parson’s youth. She now organizes program development and provides mentoring to teenagers 14-19 years old. Lindsey says the best thing she can do for the teenagers is to listen to them, because that’s something they might not have had before. Lindsey says, “When I came in as a freshman student I never could have dreamt of doing all that I have accomplished in the past three years. I was outspoken but didn’t know what I stood for. I was close-minded with just an average understanding of the world around me. I was unsure of what I wanted to do with my life and was clueless about how to succeed. Over the past three years in the Bonner program I have learned an uncountable amount of lessons…. I now know that I am extremely passionate about helping others and plan to spend the rest of my life doing just that.”

Claudia Congemi ’14Bonner Service Leader

Claudia Congemi leads a program at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Albany called “Torch Club”. Torch Club is designed to teach children leadership skills at an early age. The Torch Club runs a small store in the Boys and Girls Club, and the children are able to learn basic business concepts. Community service is another cornerstone of the program. Through Torch Club, the kids learn it is possible to take charge of their environment and make a difference for the better. “Believe it or not,” says Claudia, “learning from inspirational seven and eight year olds is a major part of my growth, personally and professionally...[A fourth grader named Ayanna] reminds me of how important it is to be true to yourself no matter what others may say...Ayanna does by dancing and singing around the classroom everyday. She was not always this way...She did not talk or ask for homework help, and she especially did not dance around the room. Through the amazing mentoring provided at the club, Ayanna is able to embrace her quirky personality. She overcomes bullying at school, and education is now a huge part of her life...[She is] a contributor to my personal goals.”

47 Bonners

11 Bonner Community Partners

4 Community Service Sundays

20,532 Bonner Hours Served

2 National Conferences Attended

22 Issue Focused and Professional Trainings

By The NumbersFrom July 2011 to March 2012

ACE Annual Report Page 12

Global ServiceBonner Service Leader Sophia Pierre-Charles, a senior majoring in Psychology, traveled to Bangalore, India last summer to work with the Karnataka Domestic Worker’s Movement. Local female domestic workers often suffered from sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at the hands of their employers. Sophia Pierre-Charles helped educate the women about their rights and encouraged them to join workers unions to ensure better employment conditions. Sophia had this to say about her experience:

“One of the women told me, ‘Sometimes you just have to close your eyes and take whatever it is that your employer is doing to you because you would much rather be the person who gets hurt than seeing your children hungry because you lost your job.’ ”

“Listening to the hardships that these women had to face was heartbreaking, but I think what fueled me to keep trying was their motivation to help themselves and each other. They came together as a family to help one another. I thought the language barrier was sometimes difficult, it was the non-verbal communication that still allowed me to feel like I was part of that family.”

Engaging local and abroad summer opportunities for students

IndiaThe Siena Bonner Service Leaders program has a partnership with St. Anthony’s Friary in Bangalore, India. Last summer a group of Bonners traveled there to spend five weeks serving with local non-profit organizations. The friary cares for many children with disabilities and several of the Bonners spent their time in India interacting, supervising, and playing with the children. In India children with disabilities are often treated as outcasts because of the belief that disabilities are caused by sins committed in a previous life. Other Bonners served at Emmaus Hospital, a medical center that provides free and low-cost care for those suffering from leprosy and tuberculosis. Still other Bonners helped to unionize female domestic laborers against violence and abuse from their employers.

BoliviaOne of ACE’s exciting new partnerships is with the Private University of Bolivia in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Students from both Siena and Bolivia can enroll in the course Rural Sustainability in Latin America jointly taught by Siena Professor Mathew Johnson ’93 and Bolivia Professor Augusta Abrahamse. The class meets twice a week over Skype, a live video stream software. The class is working on problems in a rural site in Bolivia called Carmen Pompa. There are three projects the students are collaborating on: The first is how to better manage waste facilities and begin a recycling process in Carmen Pompa. The second project is managing agricultural water run off, specifically how to help a local pig farm stop contaminating the drinking water. The third project is focused on developing Carmen Pompa’s ecotourism to their organic coffee farms. The majority of Siena students enrolled in the class will travel to Bolivia in Summer 2012 to finish their projects.

ACE Annual Report Page 13

Summer Service ScholarsSummer Service Associates are individuals who come from all walks of life to spend the summer at Siena College working in poor and marginalized areas of the Capital Region. For many the summer is a gateway into year-long service programs such as AmeriCorps*VISTA. The program is ten weeks long and in exchange for their efforts Summer Service Scholars receive an education award.

One Summer Service Scholar, Ashley Farrell graduated from University of Albany in 2011 with a major Sociology and a double minor in criminal justice and psychology. She joined summer AmeriCorps working as a camp counselor in the Summer Civic Engagement Camp.

One of the projects she worked on was a free lunch program in Arbor Hill. Children who qualify for free lunches regularly receive them during the school year, but sometimes the summertime can be more difficult. Ashley, along with the team of high schoolers she was leading, helped publicize the free lunch program to the kids in Arbor Hill. Ashley and her team also brought arts and crafts for the children, turning the free lunch program into a micro summer camp. In addition to interacting with the neighborhood children, Ashley also helped the high school students do research on different methods of neighborhood policing.

Civic Engagement Summer CampCivic Engagement Camp is an intensive service experience for high school students. In Summer 2012 students will have the opportunity to choose between earning volunteer hours by doing direct service in Community Immersion, or earning college credit in the Social Justice Academy by taking Hunger & Homelessness in America.

Last summer was the first year of Summer Civic Engagement Camp, and the high school students had a wonderful time learning about social justice in the morning, and going out into the community in the afternoon to do service. One group of high school students in the camp tackled the issue of neighborhood policing in Arbor Hill. Each afternoon for a week they researched different methods of neighborhood policing, and interviewed Arbor Hill residents about their relationship with the police. At the end of the week, they presented the Arbor Hill police with their findings. Some of their recommendations included carrying around cards with Spanish words and phrases to help alleviate the communication barrier, visiting schools and eating lunch with the kids so that the children could develop a good relationship with them at a young age, and approaching the adult residents in a friendlier manner when nothing was amiss. Another group of high schoolers learned the ins and outs of the Siena radio station and created a public service announcements about diabetes, kidney disease, and gun violence. A third group used their week to study “food deserts” in the Capital Region - that is, areas that lack grocery and access to healthy foods.

Service in the Capital Region

ACE Annual Report Page 14

Combining course objectives with experiential service learning

What is Academic Service Learning?Academic Service Learning (ASL) is a pedagogical approach that seeks to meet the course learning objectives in and through application of academic skills and knowledge-base of the course to a real community need. As a teaching and learning strategy, ASL integrates meaningful community service as medium of instruction to enrich the student learning experiences, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities. As a Franciscan institution of higher education Siena is called to place the process of creating and acquiring knowledge in dialogue with the suffering present in our communities. Fr. Michael Blastic O.F.M writes, “Our intellectual endeavors must be in conversation with the suffering in our local and national communities so as to provide a real experiential basis for asking and reflecting on the big questions of our day, questions that exercised the early Franciscans themselves.” ASL at Siena includes all forms of academic teaching and learning in which learning outcomes of an academic course or project are met in whole or in part through meaningful service to a community-based organization. The ASL Program assists Faculty through training, design assistance, managing community partner relations, identification of community partner needs, building ASL networks of faculty across the region, and student and community partner training and development.

First Year SeminarProfessor John Harden teaches the First Year Seminar, a year long class designed to mentor freshman on both academics and character. In addition, Dr. Harden also teaches a GED writing course to adults in the South End of Albany at St. John’s/St. Ann’s Outreach Center. He had the idea to bring the two groups together once a week for a combined writing workshop, with the belief that the two groups would have much to learn from one another. The combined workshop is called “Bridge to College” and pairs a member of the GED class with a freshman Siena student. Together they create a written piece. “We converse, we debate, we open a dialogue and it enhances my writing,” said one student. Professor Harden echoed the idea “when you write with someone you are exploring their world view and examining your own.”

Marketing and ManagementProfessor Paul Thurston teaches a Marketing & Management class. He saw the opportunity to do something amazing for the community and give his students hands-on experience in their field by having them organize a fundraiser for Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless. The fundraiser is none other than Interfaith’s Stomp Out Homelessness. Although the fundraiser previously existed, Professor Thurston’s class arranged for it to be hosted on Siena’s campus as a women’s basketball event. The class did the marketing and outreach for Stomp Out Homelessness. They also helped with raffle ticket and t-shirt sales. In its first year at Siena in 2010 the event raised more than $2,220 in t-shirt sales alone. In 2011, Professor Thurston’s class worked hard at reaching out to other schools in the area to participate and the event raised $4,365 for Interfaith.

ACE Annual Report Page 15

Dr. Ruth Scipione-KasselAssistant Director of Academic Service Learning

This has been a whirlwind of a first year for me here at ACE and I have helped to establish and build academic connections to service at many levels and age groups. This past year, ACE ran its first high school Civic Engagement Camp. This program brought high school students from varied backgrounds together to not only engage in service projects but also to examine the larger social issues that they are involved with and methods for creating sustainable community change.  For college students, the Academic AmeriCorps program --which connects students who are doing internship work with eligible community partners to an AmeriCorps educational award-- was expanded and revised to incorporate more structured reflections and professional development activities. Finally, a restructuring of faculty support for academic service learning classes has brought together an intimate group of faculty from various disciplines in longer and more reflective course design activities. Even more, as I write this, plans are already underway to bring our first group of students to Bolivia in May, we are about to grow our Summer Service Scholars internship program and to expand faculty support for academic service learning through the structured use of Undergraduate Academic Service Learning Fellows.

Participating Faculty and PartnershipsDenise Massman: Introduction to Theater Technology & Grand Street Community Arts

Paul Thurston: Organization & Management, Organizational Development & Change and Peter Young Housing Industries

John Harden: First Year Seminar and St. John’s/St. Ann’s Outreach Center

Sudarat Musikawong: Global Cities & Trinity Alliance

Jennifer Dorsey: Investigating Ten Broeck Mansion and Ten Broeck Mansion

Andrea Smith-Hunter: Marketing and Management and United Way, Trinity Alliance, Boys and Girls Clubs of Albany, YMCA: Troy Family Branch

Marcela Garcés: Advanced Spanish Conversation & Composition and New York Latino Magazine

Kate Meierdierks: GIS Mapping Class and Grand Street Community Arts, Habitat for Humanity, Empire Orienteering Club, Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy, Town of Clifton Park

Dr. Shannon O’Neil: Sociology of Sex & Gender and Women of Wisdom

Karen Boswell: Psychology Seminar and Peter Young Housing Industries

Academic AmeriCorpsIf a single student wishes to complete 300 or more hours of service for a non-profit organization as a part of an Siena credit internship, that student is eligible to engage in Academic AmeriCorps. This year The Office of Academic Community Engagement focused on currently existing internships and turned them into Academic AmeriCorps positions by adding a poverty focused component. Examples of such internships include the Siena Legal Fellows and several Education and Social Work majors working in high-risk schools as teacher assistants. Academic AmeriCorps members attend regular trainings that help connect the work they do with the larger picture of poverty in America. In compensation for their efforts students receive an education award.

ACE Annual Report Page 16

WVCR 88.3 The Saint Change MakersIn the Fall of 2010, the Office of Academic Community Engagement, under the leadership of Siena College AmeriCorps VISTA Leader Jennifer Simek and Siena student Brian Dorrian ’12, established a radio show called Change Makers on WVCR 88.3 The Saint. They invited guests from the local, national, and global level to talk about their community service and social justice initiatives. In 2011, they recruited over 50 guests including Siena College President Fr. Kevin Mullen ’75, Albany District Attorney David Soares, Bonner Foundation President Robert Hackett, and many more amazing guests who talk about their passion for service. Our 2011 Change Makers team in the studio recording each week was Assistant Director of Siena VISTA Yalitza Negron ’08, Siena student and Bonner Service Leader Millie Condon ’15, Siena student Brian Dorrian ’12, Siena student and Bonner Service Leader George Lopez ’15, Siena student and Bonner Service Leader Hannah Waldman ’15.

Change Makers airs every Saturday on WVCR 88.3 The Saint at 10:30 AM

Guest: Fr. Kevin Mullen ’75