Kellogg Mini-Grant Awardees 2001-2003

Kellogg LINC Mini-Grant Awardees total twenty-nine.

Kellogg LINC Mini-Grants Awarded for Campus and Community Initiatives

Nine diverse teams of campus and community members have been recognized for their work on projects that address campus and community concerns.

Kellogg LINC (Leadership for Institutional Change Initiative) Mini-Grants awarded ranged from $2,200 to $5,560 and the total amount awarded for this round was $34,702. This is the second year that the Kellogg LINC mini-grants have been awarded to campus and community groups who provide a driving force for leadership and change. Information on the 2000-2001 campus/community collaborations can be found on this website.

The following is a list of the teams that have been awarded funding for the period of November 30, 2001 through June 30, 2003:

Penn State York Early Awareness
Penn State York
Contact: Dr. Cora Dzubak, Learning Center Director

Goals: To increase the retention rate of high school students from the School District of the City of York by their participation in a week-long summer program. The three program strands that support this goal include Leadership, Career Awareness and Corporate Mentoring.

Community Leadership Development Program Gettysburg-Adams County
Adams County Cooperative Extension, College of Agricultural Sciences
Contact: Tim Collins, Extension Agent and Project Leader

Goals: Initial efforts will focus on working with municipalities in the county to develop a cadre of citizen volunteers who will foster intergovernmental cooperation. The long-run goal is to grow the program into a permanent community endeavor that will develop a continuing stream of young leaders who will provide insightful, purposeful guidance to the governmental, non-profit and educational boards that decide and influence the future of the community.

Leveraging Faculty for Leadership Development
Schreyer Honors College, Penn State University
Contact: Cheryl Achterberg, Dean

Goals: The goal of this project is to engage more Penn State faculty in teaching courses devoted to leadership development and/or incorporate more leadership content material into pre-existing undergraduate courses. Faculty from all areas will be invited to participate, however, faculty in the College of Liberal Arts, School of Information Science and Technology, International Business, Engineering and Agriculture will be especially targeted given the subject matter of the seminars below. The major strategy used in this project will be to pay faculty expenses to attend short, intensive seminars on the subject matter at major think tanks in Washington, D.C. where they can observe state-of-the-art pedagogical techniques, learn more of the content themselves, and watch undergraduates' eagerness to learn this material. Course models and templates for assignments and readings will be shared as well. The specific expectations for this project are to provide travel grants to 4-5 Penn State faculty to (1) attend the Center for Strategic and International Studies seminar on Global Trends and World Issues (with IST/SOC 497H) and (2) attend the Leadership Forum seminar hosted by the Henry J. Stimson Center, both in Washington, D.C.

Community Built Sustainable Housing: An Interdisciplinary Service Learning Course
Schreyer Honors College, Penn State University
Contact: Josephine Carubia, Coordinator of Student Programs & Service Learning

Goals: This course will examine alternative building methods with an focus on load-bearing strawbale technology. Students enrolling for AE497H will design and lead the construction of a community-built structure with these methods. Other goals of this course are to focus on
research into the physical and cultural environment in which the design-build strawbale project will be completed. Students from various disciplines will provide the site research needed to pursue culturally and regionally sensitive design and construction practices. This will
allow honors students to work side by side with Architectural Engineering, Architecture, and Landscape Architecture students in a collaborative environment. The building project proposed for this course will be a Strawbale Design and Learning Center on the Northern Cheyenne Indian reservation, Montana. The project will include one or more buildings that will serve as the focal point for education and research on community-built housing for the Northern Cheyenne tribe. Core faculty will oversee technical content on design and building processes. Faculty from multiple disciplines and guest lectures will be used to introduce additional subject matter relevant to this diverse experience. For example, Professor Sergio Palleroni, a world renowned leader in design-build education at the University of Washington, will contribute a lecture on developing social capital through community-built housing. In addition, the newly established Rock Ethics Center in the PSU Dept. of Philosophy will contribute learning modules on American Indian culture and cross-cultural intervention. Students will gain hands-on experience in interdisciplinary problem solving and the application of traditional design concepts to an unfamiliar building material. Students will explore the history of providing shelter and the present living conditions prevalent on American Indian reservations with a focus on the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. Students will gain experience in research methods, team problem
solving, and cross-cultural intervention. The integration of academic learning and community engagement in this course is also expected to include outcomes of increased awareness of civic values, appreciation for diversity, self-efficacy, and leadership.

Penn State Rural NursingConnection: Early Childhood & Family Assessment and Health Promotion Initiative
Penn State School of Nursing
Contact: Carol Smith, Professor-in-Charge of Outreach and Project Leader

Goals: The Penn State Rural Nursing Connection (PSRNC) multi-site nursing center network, Dr. Carol A. Smith, Project Director and Dr. Mona Counts, Co-PD, is designed to further develop outreach and service-learning initiatives in the ten medically-underserved areas where College of Health and Human Development, School of Nursing, programs are taught. School of Nursing PSRNC outreach initiatives include students from nursing and other health-related disciplines.

LINC funds will help meet the following objectives in the PSRNC project:

(1) Expand collaborate linkages with Cooperative Extension and Outreach, Program for Children, Youth and Families, to plan early childhood and family assessment and health education programs.
(2) Design, with assistance of consultants, a data management process for PSRNC initiatives, to facilitate analysis of measurable health indicators.
(3) Submit application for the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) Basic Nurse Education and Practice, Division of Nursing, Nursing Center grant. Initiation of at least one new education program, involving 20 to 30 students, and analysis of data on existing programs is an expected outcome of the LINC portion of the project. The program developed will be replicated in other campus locations.

Intergenerational Program
Department of Agricultural & Extension Education
Contact: Matt Kaplan, Associate Professor

Goals: To incorporate an intergenerational component into the two early-childhood education programs operated by the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at The Pennsylvania State University -- Bennett Family Center and the Child Development Laboratory. This initiative will be conducted as a partnership between the early childhood programs, Penn State Cooperative Extension, the Gerontology Center, and the Community Academy for Lifelong Learning (CALL). This model program will serve to: stimulate mutually beneficial interactions between the children participating in the University's early childhood education programs and senior adults in Centre County; provide training opportunities for students, faculty, and early childhood development professionals interested in learning how to design and implement intergenerational programs involving young children and older adult volunteers.

New Kensington Youth Leadership Program
Penn State New Kensington
Contact: Dr. Carol Rush, CEO

Goals: To increase the participants' knowledge and skills related to leadership; To increase awareness of their own leadership style; To increase knowledge of negotiation and conflict resolution; To increase ability to work within a team by providing an understanding of team dynamics and the role of an individual within a team; To increase contemporary leadership skills related to: goal setting, critical thinking, decision making, strategic planning, and innovation; To design a team project to address a community issue, incorporating skills learned in the program. Our outcomes are targeted to address leadership development of selected youth from our service area. Participants will identify their management and leadership style recognizing both their strengths and their weaknesses. They will utilize a framework for decision-making that includes legal, ethical and moral elements. Students will learn how to interact socially,evaluate critically, think creatively and systematically, and will practice empowering others through participative decision making and goal setting.

Global Understanding
Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program
Contact: Syedur Rahman, Research Associate

Goals: The purpose of the project, " Introducing an Old Community in a New Setting: Global Understanding" is to bring together a group of 15 high school students and immerse them in issues and agenda that are of a global nature. These issues are likely to impact both their personal and professional lives. Awareness of these issues at a young age, and preparing how to deal with them should make them well-versed citizens and permit them to shoulder broader leadership responsibilities in the future. Listening to speakers, discussing issues facilitated by community and university experts should provide an overall rich learning experience.

Outcomes: 1) providing a learning enrichment program to high school students (juniors and seniors); 2) introducing participants to looking at broader issues that impact the United States; 3) have participants look beyond the United States and prepare to go abroad; 4) seek community support to continue the program each summer.

Penn State Lehigh Valley Institute for Emerging Leaders
Penn State University, Berks-Lehigh Valley College
Contact: Corry Lamack, Program Administrator

Goals: The Institute for Emerging Leaders of the Lehigh Valley is a program for high school juniors with a primary goal of providing leadership education and training to a group of students who might not otherwise have the opportunity. The Institute targets students with leadership potential. They do not have to have already proven themselves to be nominated. It is anticipated that students will increase knowledge of social issues, their awareness of ethical issues, and their effectiveness as a leader. It is also anticipated that students will develop links to the community and Penn State University and have an impact on the community through a service project. Kouzes and Posner's Leadership Practices Inventory will be used as a pre and post test measurement. Additionally, evaluations will be completed by the students at each session for feedback about relevance of speakers and programs for achievement of goals.

2001 Kellogg Awardees