Outstanding individual and group outreach efforts recently were recognized with the 2011 Campus Awards for Excellence in Public Engagement. Recipients were honored Feb. 9 at the Beckman Institute at a reception hosted by vice president and chancellor Bob Easter and Steve Sonka, interim vice chancellor for public engagement. Those honored: Maureen Banks, the director of the Division of Safety and Compliance, Facilities and Services; Julie Hengst, a professor of speech and hearing science; Dianne Noland, a teaching associate in horticulture in the department of crop sciences; Michelle Cruz-Santiago, a graduate student in psychology; and the SOAR after-school program, which is housed in the Center for Education in Small Urban Communities in the College of Education.
The award recognizes faculty members, academic professionals and students who have consistently applied their knowledge and expertise to issues of societal importance for the public good.
Each faculty member and academic professional receives $1,500 and a permanent $1,500 salary increase. A $5,000 award also is made to the unit honored. Students receive $1,500 to be used for professional development or other educational activities.
Maureen Banks provides strategic leadership for comprehensive environmental health and occupational safety programs for the UI. She provides innovative leadership for staff members who support the health, safety and education of the university community. She has created programs, such as Boneyard Community Day and Building a Lasting University Environment, to educate faculty and staff members and students about ways they can change the community through their sustainable actions.
Banks also garnered the support of Facilities and Services leadership to establish mentoring partnerships with Booker T. Washington Elementary School in Champaign and provide mentors for the CU One-to-One Mentoring program for the Champaign and Urbana School districts. She also has been instrumental in extending the annual “Take Your Child to Work Day” program to Booker T. Washington Elementary School providing activities for students to spend the day at F&S. Her service exemplifies the university’s strategic initiative to strengthen the unit’s relationship with the community.
She also serves on the board of the Green Meadow Girl Scouts Council, Champaign-Urbana School Foundation, Don Moyer Boys & Girls Club and East Central Illinois Community Foundation. She is in her second year as the chair of the Campus Charitable Fund Drive.
Julie Hengst has been a faculty member since 2001 and has developed community-based enterprises to support individuals in chronic phases of disability - whether associated with head injury, stroke or mental health needs - with the larger goal of increasing society's comfort with the full diversity of human experience.
Her research has epitomized translation of theory to practice, engaging community partners in the process. She has collaborated with professionals at Carle Hospital on an innovative community-based intervention program for a patient afflicted with aphasia, a language disorder following stroke. These collaborations with Carle have grown and diversified, leading to joint community-based job trials and the development of a support group for individuals with aphasia.
Hengst developed a service-learning course, SHS 375 "Community Partners in Health," which is aimed at building the professional and personal objectives of Illinois students while supporting the community through focused volunteer programs. Students have provided classroom assistance, led small group activities and provided individual tutoring throughout the community. Her vision for community engagement and bridging research to practice recently culminated in the receipt of a 2009-2010 Focal Point Award from the Graduate College. This proposal aligned an interdisciplinary group of faculty members, clinical instructors and graduate students across campus departments around a set of focused projects involving clinical interventions for individuals with socio-communication disorders.
Dianne Noland is host and executive producer of the "Illinois Gardener" program on WILL-TV in addition to her teaching responsibilities at the UI. The program has consistently ranked in the top 10 of WILL national and local programming and also is broadcast on several other public television stations in Illinois. She schedules and recruits weekly panelists with expertise in all areas of horticulture, as well as entomology, plant pathology, crop sciences, natural resources and environmental sciences, and climatology.
Noland has been included in the incomplete list of "Teachers Ranked as Excellent by their Students" every semester since 1980. She teaches several classes for the department of crop sciences, including "Floral Design," "Herbaceous Plants II" and "Floral Crop Quality." In 2009 she received the Teaching Associate Teaching Award from the College of ACES. She advises more than 20 students in the horticulture curriculum. She also frequently makes presentations at conferences, schools, workshops and short courses.
Her creative public outreach activities have had a positive impact on the citizens of Illinois and the green industries of Illinois. Because of her involvement on campus and in the community, the UI has become the place to go for information about the art and science of gardening.
Michelle Cruz-Santiago received her master's of arts in clinical-community psychology in 2009 and is pursuing a Ph.D. in the same discipline. She also provides mentoring and professional development experiences for the students who enroll in her course, many of whom would themselves be classified as "at-risk."
Cruz-Santiago has been involved in the SOAR after-school program at Booker T. Washington Elementary School since the program's inception in 2006 and now serves as the program's evaluation and research coordinator. Her entrepreneurial spirit has helped the program grow, and she has helped campus and community groups see how they can gain a great deal through collective participation.
Cruz-Santiago has integrated her research, teaching and service to address core issues in public engagement at the UI and beyond. Her commitment to marginalized groups is evident in her tightly focused research agenda, in her tireless devotion to struggling Latino families locally, and in the strong leadership and sensitive mentorship she applies to UI students.
TEAM AWARD:
The SOAR (Student Opportunities for Afterschool Resources) after-school program at Booker T. Washington Elementary School received the team award for public engagement. The program combines educational and human development theories with practice. Three days each week throughout the academic year, SOAR provides free one-on-one tutoring, literacy and enrichment activities to more than 40 at-risk children at the school. Tutoring is provided by more than 100 Illinois students each semester, from departments across campus.
SOAR team members include Lila Moore, visiting program coordinator, Center for Education in Small Urban Communities; Ann Bishop, a professor of library and information science; Michelle Cruz-Santiago, a graduate student in psychology; and Asia Fuller-Hamilton, B.T. Washington Elementary School.
Each partnering organization (Champaign Unit 4 Schools, Don Moyer Boys & Girls Club, the UI departments of Spanish and psychology, and the Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences) contributes resources and in return gets a benefit that would otherwise be difficult for them to achieve. SOAR provides a living laboratory for community-based research and teaching agendas in the College of Education and across campus.