Recipients of the 2007 Outreach Scholarship/W. K. Kellogg Foundation Engagement Award
and
Finalists for the 2007 C. Peter Magrath University/Community Engagement Award

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Institute for Advanced Learning and Research

* Winner of the 2007 C. Peter Magrath University/Community Engagement Award

Increased global competition brought significant changes in the Virginia economy, especially in the tobacco and textile industries of the state's Southside region. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) embraced a broad-scale engagement partnership with the region to help this economically distressed area reinvent itself.

The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR), located in Danville, some 120 miles from the Virginia Tech campus, serves as a catalyst for economic and community transformation. The mission is accomplished through strategic research, advanced learning programs, advanced networking and technology, commercial opportunity development, and community outreach. The centerpiece of this mission is research and education, focused around four strategic research centers ranging from motorsports engineering to unmanned systems and robotics. From these centers will grow academic programs in both the undergraduate and graduate arenas through the IALR's academic partners Averett University and Danville Community College.

University of Connecticut

Connecticut Center for Eliminating Health Disparities among Latinos (CEHDL)

CEHDL's mission is to contribute to the elimination of health disparities among Latino(a)s through the formation of human resources, community-based research, and culturally appropriate outreach/extension. CEHDL is structured as a consortium led by the University of Connecticut in close partnership with the Hispanic Health Council, a community health agency located in inner-city Hartford, and Hartford Hospital. Demonstrating best practice and culturally skilled, evidence-based outreach, and bringing the best of academic, community, and health institutions to socioeconomically disadvantaged communities, CEHDL fosters scientific-community interactions and supports training of undergraduate, graduate, and medical students. Building capacity in other agencies is one method through which CEHDL seeks to accomplish its goals. Thus far, CEHDL has made substantial progress in demonstrating that interdisciplinary community-academic-hospital partnerships are essential for addressing health inequities in our country.

University of Maryland – Eastern Shore

Farmer Access to Regional Markets (FARMS)

Farmer Access to Regional Markets (FARMS) is an agricultural supply chain model developed by the Rural Development Center (RDC) at University of Maryland – Eastern Shore. It is based on appropriate greenhouse technology, market demand, and agribusiness with expertise in growing and a strong market. The agribusiness then promotes development in agriculture by providing fixed contracts and technical/logistical support to growers who normally wouldn't utilize the technology.

So far the FARMS project has resulted in the creation of the Greenhouse Growers Network, a network of flower growers for Bell Nursery of Burtonsville, MD. As the partnership matures between UMES and US Orchid Laboratory and Nursery, Inc., additional growers will be needed for that company, too. The potential exists for adoption of the model by other agribusiness enterprises, other commodities, and other locales.

The RDC has been supporting the adoption of “hoop house” technology, which is less expensive than building a greenhouse and shows promise of enabling lower income clientele to become vegetable growers.

Ohio State University

Engaged Partners: Improving the Lives of Children and Youth

Ohio State University (OSU) is forging meaningful and creative collaborations to prepare young people for success. These partnerships will make Ohio State the first university in the nation to establish a public/private partnership model supporting lab schools covering infancy through grade 12.

• OSU collaborated in the development of the new Metro School with Battelle Institute and the Franklin County Educational Council, which includes Columbus Public Schools and 15 suburban school districts. Metro School is a small high school designed as an incubator for advancing math, science and technology education. An initial $200,000 planning grant funded by the Gates Foundation facilitated the development of the concept.
• Less than a year after the opening of Metro High School, Battelle announced a $4 million dollar gift establishing the Battelle Center for Mathematics and Science Education Policy housed at Ohio State's John Glenn School of Public Affairs. The Center brings higher education together with leaders in K-12 education, business, technology and government to develop policies and practices increasing the number of students prepared to become leaders in STEM fields.
• OSU built a $10 million child development lab school and Columbus Public Schools built a new elementary school at Weinland Park, an economically challenged area east of campus. Lab school teachers and Columbus Public teachers jointly plan curricula. The City of Columbus helped assemble the land and is reconfiguring a park to provide green space and recreation areas.

Portland State University

Expanding the Circle: Engaging Communities, Educating Citizens, and Ensuring Watershed Health

For the past 12 years, Portland State University has been engaged in a transformation of its general education program and a renewal of its urban mission. A major thrust of this reform has focused on broadening the involvement of students and faculty in community-based learning and scholarship. Curricular and administrative changes have significantly raised the presence of the university in the community and resulted in numerous academic units actively engaging in community collaboration. The collaboration has proven to be an important platform by which the university has expanded its boundaries into the community through actions involving many challenges to the university and community collaborators.