The Service-Learner
The Voice of Students, Faculty and Community
V O L U M E
Looking Back… and Forward
Academic service-learning numbers
continue to impress! In Fall 2012, 52 faculty
implemented projects with over 30
community partners. Over 500 students
participated. Of the 52 faculty, eight were
newly-recruited service-learning practitioners.
Some of the projects are showcased in this
newsletter. In addition, the newsletter
includes a new section highlighting a valued
community partner, Project PRIZE.
In other news, on December 7th, 2012,
Basic Skills adjunct faculty showcased their
use of high-impact practices, including many
service-learning projects. The overflowing
crowd included President Dr. Diane Call,
Interim Vice President Karen Steele, Associate
Service-Learning’s
on the Menu
This fall, Basic Skills professor David
Rothman led his ESL class (Intermediate
and Advanced Composition for ESL
Students, BE-207) in a service-learning
project with Project PRIZE, an organization
that works with at-risk middle and high
school students. (See page 4, Partner
Spotlight: Project PRIZE.)
This project addressed an increasinglyimportant subject for our nation today —
health and nutrition. The Basic Skills
students prepared for their work with the
Project PRIZE students by studying nutrition
in class; they used real foods as well as text
and media sources such as the
documentary, Supersize Me.
The main event of the collaboration was
a trip by QCC and Project PRIZE students to
the Whole Foods Market in Manhasset.
I I I ,
I S S U E
I
Dean Michele Cuomo, and guests from the
Association of American Colleges and
Universities, the Center for Excellence in
Teaching and Learning (CETL), and the
Office of Academic Service-Learning (OASL).
The event was a testament to the great work
and creativity of the Basic Skills adjuncts in
helping students reach their academic goals.
Professional development in Spring 2013
will include the OASL’s biannual workshop
on Reflection on Thursday, February 28,
2:00-3:30 PM in room L-313. The Office is
also planning a new workshop on research
and publishing to help faculty disseminate
their service-learning study results.
S P R I N G
2 0 1 3
sponsor an Earth Day celebration on
Wednesday, April 24, 1:00-3:00 PM in the
Student Union. This event will be open to
the QCC community and students from local
high schools. The themes will be sustainable
energy, the environment, and health.
The OASL will continue to collaborate
with QCC’s Sustainability Council through
service-learning projects that increase
awareness of environmental sustainability
issues on campus.
Finally, the OASL will be supporting the
efforts of this year’s Common Read — The
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca
Skloot.
In addition, the OASL is looking forward
to a number of exciting collaborations this
spring. Along with Student Activities and
Student Government, the Office will again
If you are interested in joining any of
these activities, please contact the OASL at
718-281- 5612 or visit us online at:
www.qcc.cuny.edu/servicelearning.
The students received a guided tour, and
the ESL students, practicing their language
and public speaking skills, discussed healthy
food choices with the Project PRIZE
students. One ESL student described the
push to speak as “scary,” but only at first.
Project PRIZE students practiced reading
and writing skills. A QCC student read
aloud an essay about food, and together
the students discussed how the writings
met common core competencies. Both
groups of students benefitted from the
analysis, and the high school students saw
what was required in college writing.
At the end of the trip, the younger
students walked away with free gift
certificates to Whole Foods and a deep
sense of satisfaction at having learned about
an important topic.
Back in the classroom, the QCC and
Professor Rothman was pleased with the
community response to the project. “We
received generous grants from both Whole
Foods and Fairway Markets,” he said.
Yicel Nota-Latif, Assistant Director of
Project PRIZE, noted, “The ESL students did
well considering they had little experience
dealing with younger students.”
Seeing the strong example set by QCC’s
ESL students inspires the high school
students to pursue the goal of higher
education. This surely helps Project PRIZE’s
goals.
A Project PRIZE student makes the
healthy choice at Whole Foods
Bon apétit!
PAGE
Engineering a Better Future
2
On November 13, students from Queens
Satellite High School for Opportunity were
immersed for a day in a service-learning
project designed to showcase career
opportunities in engineering technology at
QCC. Professor Stuart Asser, Chair of the
Department of Engineering Technology (ET),
welcomed the students and introduced them
to the college’s many accredited engineering
programs. After a round of questions,
Professor Mike Metaxas
Professor Asser led the students on a brief
instructs students on
tour of the technology building, showing
soldering techniques
lab experiments by QCC engineering
students and innovative features of the building, such as the solar
panels on the roof.
VOLUME
III,
ISSUE
I
field. She hopes to come back to QCC to teach one day.
Another student, Mazhar Pervaiz, appreciated the opportunity
to revisit past course work in helping the Satellite students solder.
He wished he had had a similar opportunity as the visiting
students. He said, “You can’t remember everything all the time, so
events like these can be really helpful in solidifying your
knowledge and putting it into practice.”
At the end of the day, the Satellite students had a strong sense
of accomplishment, and many who had never thought of
engineering as an option left QCC considering the engineering
profession. They so enjoyed the experience, that they wished
they had more time at the college. You might say the soldering
experience ‘sold’ them on engineering!
During the second part of the visit, the students participated in a
hands-on engineering task by soldering actual circuit boards. ET
Professor Mike Metaxas, along with department staff, set up the
students with soldering kits and let them practice installing basic
circuitry. QCC students from Professor Metaxas’s Electronic Project
Laboratory course (ET-410) then guided the Satellite students
through an activity by sharing their knowledge and experience.
One of the QCC students, Ann Marie Chawdhury, who is part of
the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Club (a
professional engineering association) and winner of a Granger
Corporation scholarship prize valued at nearly $3,000, said that she
was proud to help others achieve the same level of success in this
Graveyard of Learning
On a crisp fall morning in October, QCC students brought
history to life at the Lawrence Family Cemetery in Bayside, Queens.
QCC Professor Rosanne Vogel‘s Speech Communication (SP-211)
students donned period costumes and performed the roles of local
historical figures interred at the cemetery. The audience was
composed of middle school students from Sacred Heart School in
Bayside.
The QCC students performed historical skits written by Ms.
Denise Johnson, Vice President for Education at the Bayside
Historical Society (BHS). Professor Vogel and Ms. Johnson have
guided students in these living history skits four times over the past
two years, as a
way to meet the
Historical Society’s
mission to
disseminate
information
concerning the
history of Bayside.
The entire cast poses for a group photo
The QCC
students
QCC engineering student Ann Marie Chawdhury
helps a student with soldering
enlightened and entertained the 7th graders, sharing with them
secrets of the Lawrence family and historical facts about Bayside.
In 1645, the Lawrence family, which boasts a New York governor
and a U.S. congressman among its members, received one of the
first land patents in the area. As a finale, the middle school
students were given a tour of the site in order to further their
investigation into local history.
The audience was impressed by the presenters’ enthusiasm,
preparedness, and knowledge. Many of the QCC students
appreciated the challenge of performing publicly; one student
admitted to having never performed in front of an audience
before, but was very glad of the opportunity.
Overall, the
QCC students
took their roles
seriously and
gained invaluable
experience, as
students and as
citizens, all while
educating a
younger
generation.
QCC ‘s Gessica Mahotiere gets into character
VOLUME
III,
ISSUE
PAGE
I
QCC Nursing Students Help Blow Sandy
Away in Staten Island
Early on a Tuesday morning this past November, QCC’s
nursing students, nursing Professor Mary Ann Rosa and adjunct
nursing instructor Julia Jones Anderson took the long trip to
Fox Beach in Staten Island to participate in an academic servicelearning project with the Visiting Nurse Service of New York
(VNSNY). They were tasked with helping those affected by
Hurricane Sandy while applying the lessons of their nursing
classes.
The nursing students were first separated into teams at a
makeshift command center established at the local VFW hall.
They then went house to house, finding out where help was
needed and tending to those in need.
Professor Rosa (center) and QCC nursing students
But they weren’t alone in their journey; each team was
accompanied by a Visiting Nurse Service professional, a Red
Cross member, and a home health aide. Working as part of a
large team was invaluable to their training as nurses and a
testament to the power of service-learning as an educational
tool. “We learned a lot from them,” Bekim Hajrizi, one of the
nursing students, reflected.
The nursing students helped victims of flooding, as well as
those without electricity and other problems brought on or
worsened by Hurricane Sandy. These nursing students were,
surprisingly, part of the first coordinated effort in this area.
Those they helped were thankful, but also asked, “Where was
help a week ago?”
Nursing student Grace Lee recalled going to one house
where residents initially declined help. The accompanying
professional nurse, because of her experience, sensed their help
was needed and so persisted. Upon checking one of the
residents, they discovered some potential health concerns.
Witnessing this, the nursing student was amazed. She
described it as “opening a door,” for her. “It’s the kind of nurse I
aspire to be,” she added.
The nursing students were very happy and proud of the
work they had done. They knew the attention and care they
had given reflected back on them not only as students, but as
human beings united in helping others face the effects of a
disaster. “It felt good to help,” said Vanessa Joseph, one proud
nursing student.
Service-Learning:
Collaboration across CUNY
This semester, faculty from four CUNY community colleges,
including QCC, are collaborating to advance service-learning
within the City University system. The co-principal investigators
of this CUNY Community College Collaborative Incentive
Research Grant (C3IRG) are researching best practices for
service-learning at community colleges and developing
common methodologies for all four campuses. In the process,
this collaborative is packaging the methodology to develop a
high quality service-learning program at any community
college.
One highlight of this collaboration is that a cross-campus,
interdisciplinary research protocol has been developed to
measure student gains resulting from the service-learning
experience. Using a common research tool will allow
accumulation of large amounts of data that will contribute to
the understanding of how service-learning impacts community
college students. The ultimate goal of this project is to offer the
completed package to other CUNY community colleges as a
tool to develop and research service-learning at their campuses.
By Dr. Sharon Ellerton
3
Profs. Kemmerer and Vogel’s learning community
presents on healthy living at P.S. 46
Prof. Most’s Language Immersion
Program students talk to an exBroadway star at the Kupferberg
Holocaust Resource Center
Fall 2012:
A Picture is
Worth a Lot
of Learning!
Prof. Lizzul’s Massage Practicum
students practice their skills at the
Bayside Senior Center
PAGE
4
VOLUME
All’s Fair with
Service-Learning
Academic service-learning was an
integral part of the QCC Office of Health
Services’ bi-annual Health Fair, held on
December 5. The well-attended event took
place in the Student Union and featured
five service-learning classes.
The projects included presentations by
QCC students’ anti-trafficking project
students in Professor Lana Zinger’s Health
class. The students, Damian Johnson and
Delisa John, exhibited information that
emphasized the importance of eating
healthy to avoid heart disease and
diabetes. Both students reflected on their
III,
ISSUE
I
work and could see the impact it
had on their personal choices: “I
try to eat healthy, unprocessed
foods now,” Delisa said, “which I
never did before.”
Another project took on the
modern day humanitarian crisis
of human trafficking. Professors
Pat Devaney, Constance Rehor,
and Peg McConnell’s Basic Skills
students along with Leyla
Marinelli, service-learning
Health students Delisa John and Damian Johnson
project coordinator, collected
Accounting 101 course presented vital
signatures in order to petition local
information about financial literacy, such as
newspapers to remove ads that involve
opening a bank account, establishing credit,
human trafficking. Their work was
and maintaining a budget. Improving
based on Nicholas Kristoff’s awardfinancial health is an interesting, if not
winning exposé on the topic, a piece
obvious component of maintaining one’s
the students read in their courses.
overall health.
Professor Sue Garcia’s Yoga class
The health fair is a wonderful venue for
worked hands (and feet!)-on with
QCC’s service-learning students, offering
Hillcrest High School students,
opportunities to educate the QCC
introducing them to different exercises and
community on a broad array of issues. The
poses. The QCC students reinforced their
next health fair is scheduled for Wednesday,
own skills while teaching the high school
April 3, 2013, 10 AM-3PM in the Student
students a method for muscle
Union.
strengthening and stress relief.
A student in Professor Ben Murolo’s
Partner Spotlight: Project PRIZE
For the past two years, Project PRIZE has been a
valued partner of service-learning at Queensborough
Community College. However, their work has been
going on a lot longer than that.
Project PRIZE was established in 1988, a Liberty
Partnerships Program funded by the New York State
Education Department. Their mission is to help
students in grades 6 through 12 complete their
secondary education by making their middle and high
school years as productive as possible and easing their
transition into college.
Project PRIZE students receive additional guidance
and instruction on a weekly basis, including tutoring,
academic advisement, counseling and college
preparation. They also become involved in
recreational, sport, and charitable activities, such as
donating to the Catholic Center, the Child Care Center,
and most recently, the QCC Sandy Relief Effort.
Several professors at QCC have enjoyed successful
service-learning collaborations with Project
PRIZE. Students of Basic Skills professor David
Rothman came to QCC on a Saturday to engage
the Project PRIZE students in activities centered on
nutrition. (Read about their most recent project
on page 1.) QCC math professor Dr. Mercedes
Franco has involved her pre-calculus students in
an effort to make math concrete for Project PRIZE
students. Her students designed math workshops
in which Project PRIZE students tackled “real
world” scenarios with mathematical solutions. The
Office of Academic Service-Learning looks forward
to many more successful collaborations with
Project PRIZE.
Project PRIZE students
QCC Office of
Academic Service-Learning
222-05 56th Avenue
Humanities Building, Room 246
Bayside, NY 11364
718.281.5612
servicelearning@qcc.cuny.edu
www.qcc.cuny.edu/servicelearning
Academic Program Director
Josephine Pantaleo
Faculty Director
Sharon Ellerton
Center for Excellence in
Teaching & Learning (CETL)
Associate Director
Meg Tarafdar
Perkins Project Coordinators
Arlene Kemmerer
Mary Bandziukas
Cristina DiMeo
Adjunct Multimedia
Specialists
Albert Cardinale
Joseph Sedita
Support for the development/
production of this material was
provided by a grant under the
Carl D. Perkins Career and
Technical Education Act of 2006
administered by the New York
State Education Department.