Dominican
University Wins Carter Honor RIVER
FOREST, IL, November 13, 2006--Dominican University received national
recognition and a $5,000 cash award at a gala dinner October 17th
attended by former First Lady Rosalyn Carter. The
event, co-hosted by the Illinois Campus Compact and the Carter Partnership
Award for Campus-Community Collaboration, honored Dominican and
two other universities for their work supporting outside human service
agencies. Created six years ago, the Carters' organization fosters
and acknowledges service learning and community development activities
among college students and faculty.
Dominican's program partners with the San Miguel
Charter school in the Austin neighborhood. University officials
expressed delight that the partnership with San Miguel, which was
established three years ago, was named "second finalist"
and had been recognized so quickly. By contrast, the Southern Illinois
University/Women's Center partnership, which won the Carter Award,
has been in existence since 1972. The Illinois State University/Illinois
Weslyan University/Habitat for Humanity partnership, which won "first
finalist" honors, has been around more than 10 years.
Jessica McKinnon, a spokeswoman for Dominican, noted
that the partnership with San Miguel is only one of numerous ways
that the university has committed to working with various groups
and businesses.
The partnership between Dominican University and
San Miguel Schools Chicago provides the San Miguel Schools with
volunteer support to effectively educate the nearly 200 children
enrolled at their schools, and to provide Dominican University students,
faculty and staff, with opportunities to learn about diversity and
civic responsibility. San Miguel provides Dominican’s School
of Education with an ideal site for graduate student practicum and,
in return, education faculty members provide testing and in-service
workshops in reading and special education for San Miguel teachers.
These teachers also benefit from tuition scholarships to matriculate
at Dominican University. San Miguel students widen their horizons
by taking field trips to the university, and collaborative projects
around the themes of West side neighborhood history and “Undoing
Racism” have brought the Dominican and San Miguel communities
closer together in a spirit of bridge-building that bodes well for
the future. |
Photo:
Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter (left) with MaDonna Thelen, Dominican
University’s director of service learning, and Hugh McElwain,
professor of theology.
Photo courtesy of Dominican University |