Volume 6 - Issue 3 - Home Page

Featured MSU Engaged Scholars

Closing the Academic Achievement Gap in East Lansing Receives Outreach Scholarship Community Partnership Award

Closing the Academic Achievement Gap in East Lansing Receives Outreach Scholarship Community Partnership Award

Dorinda Carter Andrews and East Lansing Public Schools (ELPS) have been recognized with the 2014 Outreach Scholarship Community Partnership Award. Carter Andrews and ELPS collaborated on a project aimed at identifying the factors that contribute to academic underperformance for Black students, and are working to implement sustainable interventions to help close academic achievement gaps.

David B. Chapin, former ELPS superintendent, and Clifford M. Seybert, current ELPS superintendent, were recognized along with Dr. Carter Andrews at the Michigan State University Awards Convocation on February 11, 2014.

Carter Andrews is recognized nationally for her research on race and equity in education. She has partnered with school districts across the U.S. to address the academic needs of culturally diverse students ... read more


Informing Decision Making for Better Community Behavioral Health Outcomes

Informing Decision Making for Better Community Behavioral Health Outcomes

Grappling with behavioral health problems, especially substance use and abuse, is a continual struggle for many communities across the country. A particular challenge for community leaders is that the occurrence of these issues varies tremendously from location to location. Therefore, it is important for local leaders to have access to accurate data about substance abuse in their specific geographic location, in order to be prepared and well-equipped to deal effectively with the issue.

Scott Loveridge is the director of a new national project called Community Assessment and Education to Promote Behavioral Health Planning and Education (CAPE), developed to provide resources for local decision makers to get a better understanding of the behavioral health concerns in their region.

"There are quite different ways how this plays out at the local level," said Loveridge. "So we need to do a better job helping decision makers figure out what's going on in their communities, and do some early warning." ... read more

MSU Priorities

Community and Economic Development in the 21st Century

Midland Research Institute for Value Chain Creation

Midland Research Institute for Value Chain Creation

Michigan State University is expanding a key regional collaboration with the opening of the Midland Research Institute for Value Chain Creation. The initiative aims to identify and address "grand challenge" caliber problems in value chain research. The Institute's portfolio will comprise interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary projects involving faculty, students, industry, and community partners.

David Closs, who serves as the interim executive director, is working with a technical advisory board to lay the ground work for opening and staffing the facility in Midland, Michigan, approximately 80 miles northeast of the East Lansing campus.

Midland is home to Dow, a chemical, physical, and biological sciences company with approximately 53,000 employees worldwide, and Dow Corning, a silicon-based technology company with nearly 12,000 employees worldwide. With the influence of these two major employers, the region, which includes Isabella, Midland, Saginaw, and Bay counties, is heavily invested in community well-being. In recent years, community leaders working on economic growth have expanded efforts to include Birch Run, Frankenmuth, and Chesaning, broadening the regional focus into Michigan's Great Lakes Bay Region ... read more


Looking for Community Partners

Collaboration and partnership with communities are at the core of engaged scholarship. In all of its work, University Outreach and Engagement emphasizes university-community partnerships that are collaborative, participatory, empowering, systemic, transformative, and anchored in scholarship. If you are a faculty or academic staff member wanting to establish a community partnership, University Outreach and Engagement may be able to help you. Our staff and researchers have connections across the state in areas such as education, mental health, human services, business, and government. For more information, contact Burton Bargerstock, Executive Director of the Office for Public Engagement and Scholarship, at (517) 353-8977 or bb@msu.edu.


Feedback

We would like to hear from you. Contact us with comments, suggestions, announcements, or "engaged scholar" project information for future e-newsletters. Send to: engaged.scholar@msu.edu.

Resources

MSU Graduate Certification in Community Engagement
This program prepares graduate students for careers that integrate scholarship with community engagement. It offers students a transcript notation indicating that they have completed the program.

Community Engagement Toolkits
Designed by the Center for Community Engaged Learning to guide and support MSU faculty, students, staff, and community partners.

Transformations in Higher Education: The Scholarship of Engagement Series
Available from Michigan State University Press

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