WELCOME

Hello to all of our CSL community -

As we come to the end of another term, the CSL team wants to remind you of some important dates below. From a teaching perspective, I have discovered anew this term the importance of community engaged learning for our students and communities.  It's been a trying time for all of us, but especially students, to persist in our online teaching and learning.  Yet providing meaningful connections to community partners through this pandemic has been vital for our students, and also made our work as instructors much more meaningful than it might have otherwise been.  Thank you to all who have kept the CSL passion alive in this trying time!  In my CSL 350 Introduction to Community-Based Research course, students are doing the final touches to their research posters and blogs for EndPovertyEdmonton. They produced their data from online interviews with some of Edmonton's highest profile and important leaders across government, media, the arts, faith communities, business, and the social sector.  EndPovertyEdmonton will use these research products to better engage these communities in their work to eliminate poverty.  

This coming Spring there are more opportunities for students to take courses with CSL.  We are thrilled with the appointment of Prof. Natalia Khanenko-Friesen to the Directorship of The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Huculak Chair of Ukrainian Culture and Ethnography, and the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies.  Natalia is an expert in community engaged research and learning, and she has worked with us for a CSL project in her SLAV 399 course (Early Ukrainian Canadian Culture).  We also welcome Dr.Simone Plfleger to the CSL fold, who is teaching a Women's and Gender studies course this Spring (WGS 498; GSJ 598) called Queer Theories and Beyond: Subjectivity, Intimacy, and Affect. Dr. Pleger is no stranger to us in Arts, having previously been a researcher for the Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies. Welcome Simone! We have Dr. Tiana Rust once again offering her Psychology 329 course on Adult Development and Aging. Thanks Tiana! And finally, we are thrilled to say that Prof. Rebecca Goikert from the School of Public Health is offering once more the UEval: Evaluation in the Community Context (MACE 496/597) course for Extension.  Students learn side-by-side with community partners working on evaluation challenges.  For all the details, go to uab.ca/CSL.  I cannot begin to tell you how fortunate we are to be partnering with engaged scholars of this calibre! 

- Dr. David Peacock, CSL  Director

DATES & EVENTS

APR 6: Non-Profit Board Internship Graduation 

APR 12-16: CSLebration Online 

APR 16:  End of Winter 2021 Term

APR 16: CSL Student Intern Application

APR 19: Non-Profit Board Internship Application (Students)

APR 23: Completion Forms Due

MAY 31: Fall 2021 Intentions Due

JUNE 1: Non-Profit Board Internship Application (Organizations)

AUG 26: Fall 2021 Orientation Workshop

SEP 1: Fall 2021 Term Begins

PEOPLE   

Kristie Cheung, Winter 2021 Student Intern

As the semester and my degree come to an end, I am thankful that I had the opportunity to be the CSL Student Intern. Through this internship, I took on new encounters that I likely would not have come across otherwise. I interviewed individuals for the Faces of CSL blog, moderated my first panel, and developed my digital marketing skills along the way. Thank you to the CSL team for being so welcoming and always willing to help when in need. I believe that each U of A student should get involved with CSL to make a positive impact in their community!

Morning Star Willier, HUM 101 Student Intern

My time with CSL in the Humanities 101 program is unfortunately coming to an end. After two amazing years it’s hard to say my goodbyes, even with all the challenges that the past year came with. Starting with in-person classes, to radio shows/podcasts, ending with a U of A and UBC combined HUM 101 Zoom class means there were a lot of changes—but my admiration for the program and for Lisa Prins, my supervisor, never wavered. Having the chance to spend so much time navigating HUM with her and Kendra Cowley this past year made the experience that much more memorable. I cannot wait to hear where HUM 101 goes from here—I don’t doubt that it will only continue to grow in excellence! Upon finishing my Bachelors in Native Studies this spring, I am unsure where I will end up, but I am excited to find out.

HUMANITIES 101

This past term was another first for Humanities 101 – we teamed up with University of British Columbia’s Humanities 101 to deliver our first online course! Each week we filled pages of zoom squares. We began talking with UBC back in 2020 when campuses first shut down, and are so thankful to have had the time to develop collaborative curriculum and activities with faculty members from both universities guest facilitating classes. We were even lucky enough to have the Lakehead University Humanities 101 director lead a class – a real cross-Canada course! Besides all the incredible class-to-class learning, it was great opportunity to learn from the first Humanities 101 program in Canada. Thank you to everyone who made the online course happen.

We have also just aired a new class for our on-going radio course on “Storytelling”. We are still on the air on Fridays from 6-7pm on CJSR 88.5 FM. If you haven’t checked it out yet, there is still time to tune in on Fridays or visit our website at hum101onair.ca.

This past year has been a very steep learning curve and we are grateful to the many people who took time to help us get two incredible courses out to as many folks as possible. Thank you!

- Lisa Prins, HUM 101 Coordinator

EVALUATION NEWS

As we are approaching the end of the semester, the CSL team is getting ready for the end-of-term CSL Program evaluation. You will receive an electronic survey in early April, and it will take 10-15 minutes to complete it. Your participation in this survey is important because it contributes to our knowledge about CSL and helps us improve the program.

- Majid Nikouee, CSL Evaluation Coordinator

PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT

The Wagner Catchment Academic Learning Support Program is a group of 10 Edmonton Public Schools that collectively welcomed 53 Community Service-Learning (CSL) Education 100/300 placement students for the first time during the Winter 2021 term.

Our 20 hour placements serve to link academic coursework to community-based experiences by supporting equitable learning experiences for all our Kindergarten to Grade 12 students through either online or in-person support sessions. We began by assessing each of our schools’ needs, followed by inviting our placement students to identify their time and talents/strengths, and then engaged in a matching process to ensure the optimal success of not only our Kindergarten to Grade 12 students, but also our CSL placement students.

We were able to provide wrap-around support to our placement students given the centralized structure of our program, as it allowed us to host a large group orientation as well as a midpoint and final check in to ensure that we were meeting the teaching and learning needs of our schools and placement students. We also offered a number of optional Question Cafés that explored the practical application of pedagogical theory and teaching and learning strategies including an introduction to educational technology, teacher self-efficacy, effective questioning, and sound assessment practices.

CSL COURSES

Check out upcoming CSL courses for Spring & Summer 2021. Check back to our website later in June/July for Fall 2021 course listings.

SPRING 2021

• MACE 496/597, Evaluation in the Community Context - R. Gokiert
• PSYCO 329, Adult Development and Aging - T. Rust
• SLAV 399, Early Ukrainian Canadian Culture, N. Khanenko-Friesen 
• WGS 498/GSJ 598, Queer Theories and Beyond: Subjectivity, Intimacy, and Affect - S. Pfleger 

SUMMER 2021

• WGS 498/GSJ 598/DH 530, Special Topics: Building Intersectional Feminist Archives - D. Verhoeven