Presented by University of Arkansas at Little Rock, University of Nebraska at Omaha, DePaul University

Lightning presentations are roughly seven minutes in length and are paired with others into a single session. Timestamps are indicated in parentheses so you can forward to the presentation you want to view.

  • Project Ideas for Today’s Students (00:00)
    Presented by Becki Street and Malissa Hardeman, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Simple Gamification Steps to Help Engage Students and Honor Their Learning Styles. Presenters tweaked one of their favorite projects to insure that it meets instructional design and inclusion goals.

  • Service-Learning as Peer Mentoring (13:40)
    Presented by Mitzi Ritzman and Cathy Nelson, University of Nebraska at Omaha

Service-learning has creatively transformed during the time of COVID-19. One particular focal area for our revised, collaborative P-16 project is a using service-learning as a form of peer-mentoring. University students are serving as side-by-side peer mentors for students enrolled in an alternative high school. This collaboration within the classroom environment has a dual focus of supporting academic skills and community engagement. Targeted outcomes include greater understanding of how communication influences well-being, while also increasing confidence and competence in an academic setting. The university students and high school students have different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, which also affords the opportunity for the development of co-constructional experiences that increase empathy and tolerance while decreasing the perception of negative stereotypes. The integration of a second community partner as the recipient of the service allows both groups of students to build skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, and a greater understanding of civic responsibility.

  • Liberatory Pedagogy: The Egan Office’s Approach to students’ Professional Development (24:40)
    Presented by Monica Ramos, DePaul University

This presentation will share the Egan Office’s approach to the professional development offered to graduate and undergraduate students serving as school community organizers and pre-K to 12 tutors. Professional development provides a space for the students to understand, reframe, and connect with the students, families, and communities they serve, in addition to offering a space for community building and critical conversations.

  • Affective and Effective Take-Aways: A Vincentian Response to Community Engagement During the COVID-19 Pandemic (38:45)
    Presented by Karl Nass, Joyana Dvorack, Emily LaHood-Olsen, Georgina Leal and Katie Sullivan, DePaul University

For more than 25 years DePaul University has maintained a Vincentian tradition of service and community engagement, anchored in Chicago and grounded in human dignity and social justice. Since last spring Division of Mission and Ministry staff and student leaders have creatively “collaborated with longstanding community partners to transform year-round weekly direct service across the city, university-wide service days, alternative break immersions, and engagement with the global Vincentian family” into innovative, virtual formats. Presenters will share the surprises and successes behind our affective and effective strategies of community engagement.