This session includes multiple presentations. Timestamps are indicated in parentheses so you can forward to the presentation you want to view.

The Juvenile Re-Entry Project Adapts to COVID-19 Requirements (00:00)

Presented by University of Nebraska at Omaha

Delinquent youth often do not receive the opportunity to be mentored, especially youth who have committed serious law violations or have had multiple legal altercations. Since 2012, the Juvenile Justice Institute (JJI) at the University of Nebraska – Omaha has taught a course on mentoring delinquent youth. In the course, we match university students to youth returning to the community from a detention or rehabilitation center. Over the years, we have developed a process that is effective at mentoring youth in the deep end of the juvenile justice system. The Juvenile Reentry Mentoring Project (JRMP) is also extremely beneficial to students enrolled in the course. To date, four Universities have taught the Juvenile Reentry course, and we have matched over 200 youth returning to their community. Until spring 2020, the mentoring pairs have always met in-person because youth in detention facilities do not have access to technology, like cell phones and computers. COVID-19 affected jails and detention centers more than the public. Close quarters and underlying health issues may have contributed to the high number of COVID-19 cases within these institutions. Mentors are still unable to meet with their mentee in person as of August 2020. The challenges presented by COVID-19 have necessitated innovative thinking and problem-solving to continue to meet the needs of detained youth during the pandemic.

Teaching and Learning STEM with Urban Youth (20:45)

Presented by University of Nebraska at Omaha

Our presentation will provide participants with an in-depth description of the Eureka STEM Program. Information presented will describe how we offer a fully funded STEM camp experience to middle school girls each summer. The conversation will provide the participants with a detailed program description and current research findings showing the efficacy of university/community partnerships.

Questions addressed include:

  • How is this program funded?
  • What are the advantages for the youth participants?
  • Who are the community partners?
  • How does the university support this type of outreach program?
  • What research is available to show the benefits of such programs?
  • How does the program and the research outcomes impact best practices in teaching STEM?

Further, participants will be provided with on-line resources to assist anyone who wishes to plan a similar program or who wishes to explore more fully the research of our Eureka STEM team.

Turning Community Engaged Immersive Experiences Into Remote/Virtual Experiences (41:30)

Presented by University of Dayton

This presentation will share strategies the University of Dayton ETHOS Center used to implement a community-engaged learning immersion program and course as a remote/virtual program and course this past summer.

The ETHOS summer immersions typically immerse (on-site) engineering students full-time with community organizations in Dayton to work on community technical projects; encourage vocational discernment; and to explore issues of inequity, appropriate technology, racism, human rights, cultural humility, and human-centered design.  It may seem impossible to realize similar outcomes online, but studies have demonstrated the power or online community-engaged learning (or “e-service learning”) to engage diverse students from different geographical locations in meaningful collaborative work for the common good.  Methods used included small group weekly check-ins, social hours, sharing reflections with peers, photo-journaling, creative zoom ice breakers, weekly community partner meetings, community stakeholder interviews, course assignment show and tell, and self-directed learning about intercultural effectiveness and cultural humility.

Participants will be encouraged to ideate about and design similar approaches for online community-engaged learning by hearing about this past summer’s program successes, challenges, and lessons learned.