Key Center Faculty Fellows Program 2015-2016

The Key Center for Service-Learning and Community Citizenship’s Faculty Fellows program seeks to promote a community of practice among UNC Asheville faculty dedicated to utilizing service-learning pedagogy, community-based research, and/or public scholarship to enhance student learning and develop more democratic, reciprocal campus-community partnerships. The program is designed to increase the quantity and quality of Service-Learning Designated courses, develop faculty leadership, and advance institutional change to increase the understanding of and reward for service-learning and public scholarship as meaningful professional work.For a more expansive definition of engaged scholarship visit:

Up to three Key Center Faculty Fellows will be selected to receive a $2,500 grant to support their specific projects for the 2015-2016 academic year.

Possible project ideas include the following:

  • Integration of service-learning into an existing course, where the service-learning aspect is a new component of curriculum, in order to apply for it to become a Service-Learning Designated Course
  • Innovations in an existing Service-Learning Designated Course
  • Scholarship of Teaching and Learning related to service-learning or civic learning, i.e. the creation of assessment tools or strategies for measuring the impact of service-learning on students’ ability to think critically about a civic issue
  • Undertaking a specific community-based research project that contributes to service-learning, civic engagement, and scholarship of engagement literature, or that expands understanding of service-learning within a discipline.

All projects shouldinvolve students and at least one community organization.

Each proposal should be no longer than 4 pages in length and include the following:

I) Project title page including: Your name, title and affiliation, contact information, project title and brief abstract

II) Project description and/or methodology (not to exceed 2 pages):

  • Project intent: What public need or concern does the project address? Who and how many will be participating (faculty, staff, students, and community) and what are their anticipated roles? What do you propose to do and what is the design of the service-learning project or program?
  • Course or Project Design: What is the expected educational value of participation in this service-learning project/program for the students? What specific theories and practices will they engage? Will academic credit be awarded and how much? What specific service-learning reflection and evaluation processes will be utilized?
  • Community and Project Outcomes: How are community partners actively engaged in the project and what will be provided to them through the service? How will you develop and maintain mutually beneficial campus-community partnerships? What are some of the expected project outcomes and products?

III) Project Budget (1 page or less): How will you spend the money and what is the budget? Please note in-kind and project expenses needed to complete the project. Faculty, student, and/or community partner stipends may be included as well as out-of-pocket expenses for carrying out the project including supplies and consumable materials, travel, copying, photography, etc. Academic credit for students participating in service-learning experiences is encouraged.

IV) Support materials:

  • A letter from your chair
  • If possible, a letter of support from potential partners

If selected, Faculty Fellows will be expected to:

  • Participate in monthly check-in meetings or faculty development activities, such as readings or guest speakers
  • Contribute a Faculty Fellows profile description that will be posted on the Key Center’s website
  • Assist in design and implementation of faculty service-learning workshops and brown bag discussions (one each semester)
  • Encourage faculty and student colleagues to offer and engage in service-learning courses
  • Attend the February 2016 NC Campus Compact Civic Engagement Institute held at Elon University
  • Present (or have their students present) at the Spring 2016 End-of-Semester Service-Learning Celebration
  • Submit a brief end-of-year work summary and project evaluation
  • Serve as a mentor for future Fellows

The deadline for applications is Friday, June 5th. An electronic copy should be sent as an attachment to Lise Kloeppel at .

Members of the Key Center Advisory Committee will evaluate proposals and will provide a decision on acceptance.

We anticipate repeating the program, so any proposals not accepted will receive feedback and could be resubmitted in a subsequent year.

Criteria for evaluating proposals are:

  • Clarity of the overall proposal
  • A clear plan of how the community helps select and work on the project with you and your students
  • Overall feasibility of the plan
  • Importance of the issue(s) or need(s) to be worked on to the community
  • Academic connection of the project and academic challenge for students
  • Possibility of a long-term partnership (e.g., extending past a semester)
  • If available, support from community partners
  • Clear plan of assessment

Questions about the grant may be addressed to Lise Kloeppel, Key Center Professor, at 251-6940 or .