Recipients of the 2009 Outreach Scholarship/W. K. Kellogg Foundation Engagement Award
and
Finalists for the 2009 C. Peter Magrath University/Community Engagement Award

Arizona State University

Building Bridges to the American Dream: American Dream Academy

* Winner of the 2009 C. Peter Magrath University/Community Engagement Award

Arizona State University's award winning American Dream Academy program is exceptional for its impact on the Greater Phoenix's K-12 schools. This program, initiated by the ASU Center for Community Development and Civil Rights, and in partnership with the Helios Education Foundation and others, creates a community where parents and teachers collaborate to transform each child's educational environment both at home and at school.

Parents of at-risk K-12 students enter the nine-week program to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to improve the educational development of their children, including methods to improve parent/child relationships, reduce dropout rates, and ensure high school graduation. The program has been very promising, with nearly 7,000 parents of students who have graduated and an indirect impact on more than 24,000 low-income, minority youth throughout the greater Phoenix region. ASU's investment is creating opportunities for children to achieve the education they deserve and is a mutually beneficial partnership that aids in the transformation of the community and changes the way people think about the university.

Michigan State University

Adolescent Diversion Project (ADP)

The Michigan State University (MSU) Adolescent Diversion Project (ADP) was founded in 1976 through a collaborative agreement between the NIMH's Center for Studies of Crime and Delinquency, the MSU Department of Psychology, and the Ingham County Juvenile Court. The ADP created an alternative to court processing for young offenders in Ingham County by offering innovative educational experiences, employing best practice interventions, and using sound scientific methodology to address the pressing social issue of juvenile delinquency. The ADP sought to use trained and supervised mentors (MSU students) and to scientifically examine the relative effects of various intervention models and their impact on University undergraduates and on the community.

Since 1976, 4,125 youth have been diverted from the local juvenile court. Similarly, 4,125 undergraduates have participated in a two-semester course where they received training in diversion work and carried out eight hours per week of structured mentoring. Through a series of longitudinal field experiments, the ADP has demonstrated that participating youth engaged in repeat offenses at half the rate of those randomly assigned to a control group, and attended school at significantly higher rates. The experience also significantly affected the MSU students' educational experience, attitudes, and future graduate school and career paths. The program had significant effects on juvenile court decision making as well. Over the past two decades, both MSU and the local community have committed ongoing resources to sustain the ADP.

Pennsylvania State University

Changing Cancer Research, Changing People's Lives

The Northern Appalachia Cancer Network (NACN) began in 1992 in rural Pennsylvania and New York as a network of community coalitions and rural hospitals that would implement locally based strategies for cancer prevention. Located in an area characterized by persistent poverty and cancer health disparities, the NACN has effectively empowered 12 communities to change the lives of individual residents by preventing the devastating occurrence of cancer. Notwithstanding multiple funding cycles and leadership changes, the NACN is one of the longest running and most successful networks of community cancer coalitions in the United States.

While having achieved success as an outreach organization, the NACN has more recently changed the approach to cancer research and training at Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). No longer confined to the inflexible laboratory bench or the sterile hospital clinic, Penn State investigators test strategies to bring cancer prevention to people where they live and work. Together, faculty and residents articulate research questions that have scientific importance and community relevance. Not limited to structured classes, medical, undergraduate and graduate students at Penn State hone their newfound skills and apply their knowledge in rural hospitals, clinics and communities.

The NACN spans 17 counties with a resident population of 1.0 million people, four Penn State academic colleges, and an academic health center. Having positively affected lives in rural, underserved communities and brought a paradigm-shifting approach to cancer research and training, the NACN is a seminal example of engaged scholarship at Penn State.

University of Georgia

The Archway Partnership

In 2005, the University of Georgia (UGA) embarked on an innovative venture. The Archway Partnership, internally funded by Cooperative Extension and the Office of the Vice-President for Public Service and Outreach, was designed to strengthen the institution's ability to fulfill the land-grant mission by partnering directly with communities in a grassroots approach to meet locally identified community and economic development needs. By creating "portal" communities through which teaching, research, and service missions can more effectively address community driven issues, Archway engages the full resources of faculty and students from almost all of the 17 colleges and schools and approximately 12 institutes and outreach units of the University of Georgia, providing substantive technical assistance, research, and student service-learning projects.

The first Archway portal was established in Moultrie/Colquitt County in 2005, in response to unprecedented growth resulting from a 1,400-job economic development project, expansion of existing industries, and an influx of retirees. The success of Archway in Moultrie/Colquitt County led to expansion of the partnership into five other portal communities. Initially a UGA outreach effort, the Archway Partnership has evolved to be a platform for the University System of Georgia (35 institutions), facilitated by UGA. Archway's impact has been documented as increased student and faculty involvement, cost savings to the local partners, increased permanent funding to UGA, and additional funding and services secured by the local partners.