Beyond academic courses, the truly higher nature of education many Tennessee Tech faculty members and students practice was honored with the recent presentation of our first Service Learning Awards for Faculty and Students.

During this year’s Stonecipher Symposium on Technology, Communication and Culture, themed “Engaging a Culture of Service," seven faculty members and seven students representing each major academic division received awards. For faculty members, the Service Learning Awards recognized how well they incorporated community service into their curricula and classrooms. The students were chosen for their abilities and desire to use special skills fostered at TTU to serve others.

“Although the collective amount of time and effort given by these recipients is amazing, it’s the individual planning and personal attention to others that makes all these projects and people outstanding and heartwarming,” says President Bob Bell.

Faculty Service Learning Awards

* Steve Canfield, College of Engineering. Each semester, Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Steve Canfield’s machinery design class focuses on developing assistive devices for disabled children. This provides students with open-ended, real-world engineering activities while allowing them to communicate with individuals in other disciplines and to increase their knowledge of how to use their education to help others.

* Cathy Cunningham, College of Agriculture and Human Ecology. Human Ecology Professor Cathy Cunningham frequently works service learning into her nutrition courses. As one example, students participate in a rural health clinic project, which includes wellness centers, senior citizen centers, health clinics and assisted-living facilities, where they help patients treat illnesses that can be controlled or improved through nutrition.

* Jennifer Golz, College of Arts and Sciences. As the first English Department instructor to incorporate service learning into writing courses, Golz requires a minimum of 10 hours of service with elderly individuals per student each semester. Based on their experiences, students write reflective and interactive journals, conduct interviews and prepare research-based papers about the elderly.

* Ada Haynes, College of Arts and Sciences. Sociology Professor Ada Haynes offers her students a variety of service experiences through her classes. For example, students taking “Sociology of Appalachia” have organized a food salvage program, lobbied Congress for Headstart funds, held a toy drive and compiled oral histories and documentaries concerning the plight of minorities in Appalachia.

* Lisa Rand, College of Education. Rand, an adjunct instructor in Curriculum and Instruction, coordinates the America Reads tutoring program, which matches students trained as tutors to Putnam County K-12 students who are behind in reading and math. In addition, she developed a parents’ handbook focusing on techniques for helping children at home.

* Gail Stearman, School of Nursing. Through clinical experiences supervised by Nursing Associate Professor Gail Stearman, senior nursing students support family, pediatric and women’s health in the community. Through a grant-funded clinic primarily caring for Hispanics, students focus on women’s health and perinatal care of families. These students learn how to communicate effectively in Spanish and to incorporate cultural issues in health care.

* Stuart “Doc” Wells, College of Business Administration. The business community benefits from Decision Sciences and Management Professor Stuart Wells, making class assignments in our capstone management information systems course. Under Wells’ guidance, students have worked for about 400 for-profit and non-profit businesses to analyze, design and implement information systems and solve actual industry problems.

Student Service Learning Awards

* Theresa Ennis, College of Arts and Sciences. A Secondary Education major, Theresa Ennis coordinated two projects for Tennessee Tech, one involving international students and the other addressing the issues of poverty and hunger. She promoted diversity by inviting international students to interact with Boy Scout troops. She also worked on a food salvage program, coordinating a system to allow restaurants with left-over food to donate that excess to the community’s hungry citizens.

* Amy Jackson-Church, College of Agriculture and Human Ecology. Amy Jackson-Church, who majors in Child Development and Family Relations, develops programs for Cumberland County’s House of Hope, a temporary shelter that serves as a methamphetamine detoxification center for children who have been removed from their homes until foster care can be secured. In addition, she prepares educational materials, coordinates speakers and raises funds for the House of Hope.

* Dana Key, College of Education. Dana Key, a Multidisciplinary Studies junior, served as a literacy tutor in our campus America Reads program, working with a number of young people in area schools. She implemented an intervention program for each of her students and developed a system to assess each student’s strengths and weaknesses.

* David Drake, Amanda Jordan, Jillian Quillen, Gabe Rochat. This team of Mechanical Engineering seniors designed and built an adaptive playground structure. The team researched, designed, fabricated and tested the equipment that now allows access to all children.