What does Engagement Look Like?


Engaged Service is service to the community outside the university; it may benefit Northern Kentucky, the broader region, parts or all of the Commonwealth, the nation or parts of the world. To be considered "engaged service," it must relate to the faculty member's discipline or role at the university, and must serve a group other than the faculty member's own disciplinary/professional associations. [Note: Service to a professional or disciplinary association is considered service to the profession.] Examples include workshops, camps, programs, events etc. designed for P-12 students; instructional activities for P-12 teachers including in-service program, professional activities/initiatives, and summer enrichment opportunities; facilitating organizational development in the community, improving existing practices or programs in the community; providing services to support or enhance economic development in the region; providing clinical services including those relating to physical health, mental health, and wellness; providing consulting help, technical assistance, demonstration projects, impact assessment, or poly analysis. If the service results in a peer-reviewed product, then it might also be considered "engaged scholarship." Engaged service also includes planning and/or implementing public events, such as teaching non-credit classes or workshops; providing public lectures, arts, performances, and art displays; participating on panels or symposia for public presentations, serving on boards, committees, commissions because of one's disciplinary expertise; writing grant proposals and grant awards for a group outside NKU or for a partnership with a group outside NKU.

From the NKU Glossary of Outreach and Engagement. Published in Aligning for Public Engagement, Laying the Foundation.


Examples from NKU Faculty

Dr. William Attenweiler (Psychology)

Dr. William Attenweiler (Psychology) is the faculty advisor for the River Cities Industrial and Organizational Psychology Conference (http://msio.nku.edu/conference/). This is a student coordinated conference that brings several regional universities (with graduate programs in I-O) and local Human Resource practitioners together in order to promote the study and practice of I-O Psychology. The RCIO conference series is designed to integrate the practical human resource concerns of tri-state businesses with local, regional, and national sources of expertise. The conference warmly invites attendants from business, academe, and consulting groups, where everyone is welcome to share their perspectives, listen to others' input, and openly discuss today's "hot topics."

Dr. Mark Bardgett (Psychology)

Dr. Mark Badgett (Psychology) works with grade school students to help them learn about the brain and behavior in an interactive manner. He has entitled this informal presentation "Hands-On-Psychology" or HOP. Since arriving at NKU, he has provided these demonstrations to three different grade schools - the most consistent recipient of this program has been Johnson Elementary School in the Fort Thomas Independent School District where he has provided demonstrations each year over the past three years.

The demonstrations typically last for 30 - 40 minutes. He usually begins by providing a brief overview of how brains are responsible for how we think and behave, how brains are made up of cells, and how different animals have different sized brains. Then, the students are allowed to hold and compare brains from mice, rats, and sheep, view different regions of a sheep brain and learn about how these different regions control different behaviors, and look at neurons and other brain cells under a microscope. At the end of the demonstration, students play a group game that gives them a sense of how nerves work in their own bodies.

He has received some wonderful feedback from the students (artfully decorated letters of appreciation that provide "unique" and priceless insights into the brain) and the teachers who have participated in the "HOP" program.

Dr. Jennifer Pealer (Criminal Justice)

Dr. Jennifer Pealer (Criminal Justice) is involved in training juvenile justice workers on how to conduct a risk assessment tool. Throughout the past year, she has trained over 250 juvenile justice workers on how to assess a juvenile's risk of recidivism the Youthful Level of Service/Case Management Inventory. This tool is a standardized instrument for juvenile offenders to determine their risk and need levels. The training consists of an overview of the principles of effective classification (risk, need, and responsivity), the history of classification, major risk, need, and responsivity factors, and how to interview juveniles and correctly assess their risk levels using the YLS/CMI. The training is an intensive two-day training lasting 16 hours. Last summer, she and a colleague from Eastern Kentucky University conducted three separate trainings for juvenile probation officers from the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice. In addition, she has conducted trainings in Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, and West Virginia.

Dr. Miriam Steinitz-Kannan (Biological Sciences, Regents Professor)

Dr. Miriam Steinitz-Kannan (Biological Sciences, Regents Professor) organizes a 'Fun With Science' camp at Northern Kentucky University that is dedicated to the exposure and education of young minds to the Natural Sciences. Coordinated with Mr. Leo Calderon (Latino Student Affairs), the camp is a comprehensive week long event whose goal is to expose underrepresented minorities, in particular Hispanics, to all fields of Science and at the same time demonstrate how much fun science can be. The camp involves such activities as students isolating their own DNA from cheek cells and making DNA necklaces, studying the awesome forces of nature such as magnetism and electricity, and even collecting fish and other wildlife by "electrofishing" at a nearby stream. Nine faculty members, as well as several NKU students and others from the surrounding community helped put the camp together this year. The goal was not only for all of the students to have a greater appreciation for science but also realize that science can indeed be exciting and fun! The project was supported by CINSAM and is describe in their 2004-5 annual report.

 

Dr. Maggie Whitson (Biological Sciences)

Dr. Maggie Whitson (Biological Sciences) is a member of the Campbell County Cooperative Extension Council, which is the official interface between the Campbell County Agricultural Extension Service and the community that it serves. As a botanist, Dr. Whitson is particularly interested in the Campbell County Environmental Education Center. In July, she helps its naturalist, D.J. Scully, run a class on identification of local trees. They generally have about 15 people attend the class. They bring a variety of leafy twigs to practice on, everyone gets a copy of the key, and then they spend the morning learning basic plant terminology and how to use taxonomic keys. Once everyone has gotten the vocabulary down and has some practice using the key, they go outside and spend an hour or so walking the trails. They practice identifying trees in the field, and the instructors point out interesting natural history tidbits and particularly unique features of the different species.

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In addition to helping with the tree walk, Dr. Whitson is also helping the Environmental Education Center improve its web pages. She has been taking digital photos of wildflowers and other interesting organisms at the Education Center. The photos will make the web pages more visually engaging, and emphasize the diversity of organisms to be seen out at the Nature Center. They have the added benefit of being useful visual aids for several of her biology classes.

Ms. Mary Carmen Cupito (Communication)

Ms. Mary Carmen Cupito (Communication) participated in the NKU Sports Plus Summer Camp, by CINSAM for at-risk elementary and middle school students. In previous years, the camp offered them sports-plus math and science games and activities.

In the summer of 2005, Ms. Cupito created a writing component for this camp. This was a challenge, because of the wide variety of abilities of the students and their largely indifferent attitude toward writing. As an incentive, she created a Web site and published their work there (www.nku.edu/~cupito).

The class read and talked about journalistic writing, and then the kids tried writing themselves. Ms. Cupito was especially delighted by the students' leads, modeled after an example by Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly, who wrote a marvelous story about students who had a tradition of picking up a disabled man named Butch from his home and taking him to every basketball and football game on campus.

She then asked the class to write a lead about something they knew how to do well, but to do as Rick Reilly had done and first tell readers what it was NOT. Then the youngsters wrote their own leads. Many are included on Ms. Cupito's Web site, but here are a couple of the best:
Getting girls is not about 7 digits. It's not about the late night calls. It's not about the corny lines. It's about care, love, and respect for one another. It's about honesty, and showing you can trust that person. - by Hitch
Rap music is not about being a bad boy. Rap isn't about being strong. Rap isn't about being in gangs or having gold teeth. Rap is about rappers telling what their life was like. - by Michael

Dr. Kristi Martines (Biological Sciences)

Dr. Kristi Martines (Biological Sciences) participates in ThinkFirst, an award-winning National Injury Prevention Program providing brain and spinal cord injury prevention education to high-risk age groups (K-12 students). These upbeat prevention programs educate young people about personal vulnerability and risk taking. The message is that you can have a fun-filled, exciting life, without hurting yourself if you "ThinkFirst" and use your mind to protect your body. The presentations include Dr. Martines (the anatomy/physiology/medicine of the brain and spinal cord) and a "voice of injury prevention" speaker (usually a person with a brain or spinal cord injury). This last academic year, she presented to students in grades 1-12.
TOTAL 2005-2006 academic year students : 1657 students.

ThinkFirst Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Prevention Presenter
  • Latonia Elementary School (75 - 5th grade students) 10/10/05
  • St. Therese School (45 - 7th grade students) 11/21/05
  • St. Joseph School (128 - 7th and 8th grade students) 1/12/06
  • St. Joseph School (215 - 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students) 1/12/06
  • St. Joseph School (203 - 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade students) 1/12/06
  • St. Ursula High School (45 - 9th grade students) 2/27/06
  • Blessed Sacrament Elem. (75 - 1st grade students) 4/4/06
    Handed out 75 bicycle helmets!
  • Ryle High School (400 - 16 year old students) 4/28/06
  • Colerain High School (216 - 10th grade students) 5/11/06
  • Ludlow Elementary School (75 - 5th grade students) 5/22/06
    Handed out 60 bicycle helmets!
  • McAuley High School (180 - 9th grade students) 5/25/06