Welcome Back, Buckeyes!
A message from Dr. Patricia Cunningham, Director of Social Change
I was reminded this summer, when one of the elementary school kids who always helped clean up after the summer program that you are never to young to serve or to be invested. Dr. King said, "Everyone can serve." Ohio State staff, faculty, undergraduate and graduate and professional students have the opportunity to serve Central Ohio in a unique way. As one individual you give your time but your time is part of a choir all singing different harmony parts so there is a new song. A song rooted in a new movement that looks at poverty and social issues in a different way. The Department of Social Change aims to be solution oriented while being engaged in the different communities we serve. During the Civil Rights Movement, one of the popular songs of protest was "I'm Gonna Sit At the Welcome Table". More kids are living in poverty than ever before. In Ohio, 1 out of 4 children are food insecure. Now is the time to take
OFFICE OF STUDENT LIFE | SOCIAL CHANGE
Letters from the Field
Buckeye Civic Engagement Connection
September | 2015
Civic Engagement Banquet…Page 2 City Year OSU Alumni………..Page 3 Volunteer with BCEC…………Page 4 Buy 2 Campaign………Page 4 Mentor-A-Buckeye………Page 5 College Bound...………Page 6 KIPP Academy...………Page 6 Upcoming Events……..………Page 6
Civic Engagement Banquet
The Ohio State University prides itself in its students, staff, and faculty and the tradition of excellence they uphold. In our mission to provide Buckeyes with not only a diploma, but an “Education for Citizenship,” we recognize the importance of integrating our students into our community and combining academics with leadership and service.
We are excited to announce the second annual Office of Student Life “Civic Engagement Banquet” to be held on October 6, 2015, in the Performance Hall of the Ohio Union. This event will recognize the students, staff and faculty that epitomize this mission for “Education for Citizenship” and the community partners that help us to achieve these goals.
There are Buckeyes in our everyday lives who are paying it forward and dedicated to making strides in the communities around us: maybe seemingly ordinary students that sit in front of us in class or live next door. We are surrounded by servant leaders, people who take the privilege of being a Buckeye and act on their extraordinary ability and opportunity to make an impact. And we want to recognize these fellow students as we continue to promote a culture of civic engagement at Ohio State and within the greater Columbus community.
For more information about the banquet, please visit
http://socialchange.osu.edu/civic-engagement-banquet. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us with whatever questions or concerns you may have, and thank you for your support for civic engagement at The Ohio State University!
Student Organization Collaborations
Unplugging Society:
A Women of Color Think Tank was established in 2008 after an organic relationship was shaped during a Women’s Leadership course. Unplugging Society (US) has worked to maintain a focus of dialogue and social justice since the beginning and has touched thousands of students, faculty and staff at The Ohio State University; community members of Columbus and well beyond.Unplugging Society’s dialogues consider social and political movements and liberation and reframe them in personal contexts and current events, reinforcing their motto that
“What’s Personal is Political.”
US foster a safe, supportive space in which women can share their personal experiences and how social systems have affected them, reiterating that“If it happens to you, it happens to US.”
Contact: Brea Porter – [email protected] – President
unpluggingsociety.wordpress.com
Banquet
Sponsorship:
•
Half Table: $500
•
Table of 10: $1,000
•
Event Sponsorship:
$20,000
Banquet Details:
The second annual Civic Engagement Banquet will be held October 6, 2015 at The Ohio Union. The banquet will recognize outstanding Ohio State students and alumni that are dedicated to making a difference in our community.“Education
for
City Year Alumni Feature: Alfonso Gillette
Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio Major: Strategic Communication Minor: Economics
Graduation Year: Spring 2015
Where I Serve: South High School (Columbus City Schools)
What I do: In this line of work, my first priority is to be a role model to our youth. My students face so many challenges in their own lives out of their control that it is important for me to always exude a positive spirit and attitude. Students are counting on my team and me to assist in providing them with an enriching school environment. One of the simplest ways we do this is by energetically greeting students into school each morning to surround them with positive early morning vibes. Throughout the day and in the after school space I work to support a team of eleven corps members that provide teachers and students with one-on-one and whole school targeted support in math, English/language arts, behavior, and attendance. Education reform takes a village and I am doing my part every day to develop students academically and socially to get them on a path to graduate, pursue post-secondary education, and become contributing members of society.
Why I serve: I serve to continue on the legacy of my mother who was the fiercest advocate for education that I knew. She did not have the resources to send me to a high-performing school so she worked diligently to supplement my education by having me attend summer and afterschool programs that provided free services through organizations such as Upward Bound TRIO and Cincinnati Youth Collaborative, just to name a few. I am forever grateful for programs like these that provided me with not only networks to garner funding for college, but an excellent foundation to be successful despite systemic barriers that come with growing up in the inner-city. Whether those barriers were the flaws of outdated and oppressive educational policies or the influence of the prison industrial complex, programs that I mentioned who are in the same line of work as City Year provided my mother with choices that allowed her to envision me graduating from college and starting a career. Much of my joy during college came from serving students in my role as a student ambassador for the Bell National Resource Center on the African American male at OSU. Through that role I decided I would like to pursue an opportunity in education to see if that was really where my passion was before I began my post-grad career or pursued graduate school in the field. City Year is a great developmental program to better my knowledge and catapult me into an education related career while also allowing me to serve a population of youth in a community that I so strongly feel needs my presence.
City Year is an education focused, nonprofit AmeriCorps organization that unites young people of all backgrounds for a year of full-time service to keep students in school and on track to graduation. At City Year’s 26 urban locations across the United States, teams of highly-trained corps members serve full-time in schools as tutors, mentors and role models. By focusing on attendance, behavior and course performance, which identify students who are at risk of dropping out, corps members are uniquely able to help students and schools succeed. During their term of service, City Year corps members receive a living stipend, health insurance, professional development, student loan forbearance, a variety of scholarships for graduate school and more.
Volunteer with Buckeye Civic Engagement Connection
As part of the University's mission, the Department of Social Change exist to advance the well-being of the people of Ohio and the global community through the creation and dissemination of knowledge. We work to connect The Ohio State University with communities, focusing specifically on programming for individuals, families, and entire communities facing poverty and its consequences.Seeking to address the problems of persistent and concentrated urban and rural poverty, we aim to use local human capital to increase educational opportunities for vulnerable youth that include learning beyond the classroom as a pathway out of poverty. These comprehensive projects of civic engagement create opportunities for Ohio State students to develop into informed citizens while also providing valuable service opportunities.
This autumn, BCEC will run 52 sites/programs within 7 Columbus neighborhoods (with some work reaching Cleveland, Cincinnati, Southeast Ohio and East St. Louis, Illinois).
Visit socialchange.osu.edu, to view our sites/programs and volunteer!
Buy 2 Campaign
This autumn Social Change will re-launch its Buy 2 Campaign. This student-based service initiative will involve OSU students and staff donating household items to local charitable organizations, including the OSU STAR House.
This campaign charges students and staff to buy 2 household items, in order for the second item to be donated to an organization in need.
How to Get Involved
Whether you’re interested in getting your organization involved, or just want to do an individual, one-time donation, we’re here to help! We can provide donation bags, flyers, and advertisements. Contact [email protected] for more information.
Mentor-A-Buckeye
Education, Inspiration, Motivation
We are currently accepting applications to become a Community Leader mentor, via the Mentor-A-Buckeye program. We are looking for enthusiastic individuals whose compassion, integrity and diverse perspectives will bring enrichment and inspiration to the lives of high school students in the Columbus City School district and Ohio State undergraduates. Mentor-A-Buckeye is a four-year commitment.
Mentor-A-Buckeye is a program that pairs ninth graders from Columbus City Schools with a community leader and an Ohio State University undergraduate student mentor. Each mentor-protégé family will remain together throughout the protégé's high school career.
Mentors will have constant contact with their protégé throughout their high school career, and hopefully far beyond. Mentors will be there to guide their protégé through high school and help them apply for college. They will act as a driving force behind their protégé. Mentors will be asked to have a minimum of two contacts with their protégé, per month (one phone call and one direct). We ask that mentors be creative in the development of their
protégé’s background. Most, Ohio State student mentors and high school protégés will graduate at the same time. Using the multiple mentor strategy allows both, the Ohio State and high school, students to benefit from the program and gain a mentor. While the Ohio State student will serve as a mentor to the high school student, the community leader will serve as a mentor to both students.
The mission of Mentor-A-Buckeye is to motivate
urban school students to achieve their full
potential through education, inspiration,
and motivation.
Current mentors include: a member of City Council, a CFO, Clinical Social Workers, a High School Teacher and many more!
Apply online at: go.osu.edu/mentorapp
Learn more about the program at: go.osu.edu/mentor Meet current mentors and protégés at:
KIPP Academy
Brea PorterThis semester our OSU Leadership program at KIPP Columbus will aim to help middle school boys and girls develop their own leadership skills in an attempt to help them drive themselves and others away from gang and/or violent activity. More than half of the students at KIPP Columbus are transported to the new school location (2900 Inspire Drive near Port Columbus International Airport), from the Linden area. Buckeye Civic Engagement Connection has become immensely saturated into the Linden area of Columbus for many reasons. Linden is a food desert, the school feeder pattern in the area is one of the worst performing at all levels, and according to the Columbus Dispatch, Linden is one of the lowest income communities in The United States. 66.6% of the children in this neighborhood are living below the poverty line, which is a greater percentage than 97.7% of all neighborhoods in the country. 18.6% of these households are run by single mothers, which place a lot of the household responsibilities onto the older children to help raise their siblings and/or provide for the family. NeighborhoodScout.com gave linden a rating of 1 on their education scale (10 is given to the most educated communities, 5 is given to average American schools).
While following our leadership skill building curriculum, our major focus this semester will be to blend the lines between what’s learned in the classroom and what happens at home. We will be encouraging our KIPPsters to think critically and relate our articles of discussion, and tips on self-efficacy to their own lives. Our goal in helping to merge these two worlds for our students is for them to thoroughly understand the material, not just memorize facts. We also feel that having the students relate certain topics to their own reality will create a more safe and comfortable zone for them to share their thoughts and opinions during discussion.
Upcoming Events
-
socialchange.osu.edu/events.aspx
September 9 – East High School – 2:45p
September 9 – Buckeye Leaders at the Library: Livingston – 3:00p September 9 – Buckeye REACH: ORW – 3:00p
September 9 – G.E.M at Trevitt – 3:30p September 10 – Champion House – 1:00p September 10 – Principal Pride: Trevitt – 3:30p
September 10 – Buckeye Leaders at the Library: Hilltop – 4:00p September 10 – The Heritage – 6:00p
September 11 – Buckeye REACH: ORW – 12:30p
September 11 – Buckeye Leaders at the Library: Linden – 3:00p September 11 – G.E.M at Trevitt – 3:30p
September 11 – Buckeye REACH: State Training – 5:00p September 14 – TED-Ed Club at East High – 12:45p September 14 – Linden-McKinley STEM – 2:30p September 14 – East High School – 2:45p September 15 – Champion House – 1:00p
September 15 – Buckeye Leaders at the Library: Livingston – 3:30p September 15 – Buckeye Leaders at the Library: MLK – 3:30p September 15 – G.E.M at Hamilton STEM – 3:30p
College Bound:
Think Early, Think Now
College Bound: Think Early, Think Now is a program designed to educate young, African American, male students in grades 4-9 from Columbus City Schools on the multiple options and paths they can take during and after high school. In partnership with the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, we will be bringing 50 students who are also part of My Brother’s Keeper, a program President Obama has started on a national level that aims to bridge the opportunity gaps that young men of color consistently face.
On September 30, students will be on-campus to hear from Ohio State’s admissions office about what it takes to become an Ohio State Buckeye and the preparation necessary to be accepted into major four-year institutions. They will also get the opportunity to learn about alternate paths from representatives of Columbus State Community College, and get the chance to discuss with leaders from the Office of Diversity and Inclusion about culture and race in college. To end the day, high school students from the Department of Social Change’s Mentor-A-Buckeye program will sit in as a student panel to answer any questions the College Bound children may have in regards to high school and preparing for college admission.
Contact:
Commodore Williams – [email protected] DaVonti’ Haynes – [email protected]
Social Change
The mission of the Department of Social Change
is to bring together the communities of The Ohio
State University and the State of Ohio. We believe
that sustainable, community-driven, place-based,
multi-disciplinary projects can empower the local
community and improve the quality of life for
Ohioans. Working to provide a pathway out of
poverty, we use local human capital to increase
educational opportunities for vulnerable youth that
include learning beyond the classroom. To this
end, Ohio State students involved with BCEC
create
comprehensive
projects
of
civic
engagement, allowing them to become informed
citizens and gain valuable service experience.
Social Change Staff 3034 Ohio Union 1739 N. High Street Columbus, Ohio 43210 614-733-9118 [email protected] socialchange.osu.edu
