The ideals of Hendrix
College’s Statement of
Purpose are fostered from the moment
students arrive on campus to the moment they graduate. With core support
from a recently established Office for Community Partnerships, Hendrix College
has a decentralized model of community engagement which allows for the organic
development and implementation of a diverse array of partnerships, curricular
and co-curricular, that serve both the public and our students. A series of
longstanding programs also foster civic engagement work during students’ time
at Hendrix and prepare them for a life of public service.
The Engaged
Citizen
Students’ opportunities for
“engagement that links the classroom with the world” for the promotion of
“diversity, inclusion, justice, and sustainable living” begin with the
College’s distinctive first semester course The Engaged Citizen. This seminar course seeks to illuminate the
multiplicity of possible interpretations of engaging as a citizen through
interdisciplinary team teaching, in which pairs of faculty from across the
institution come together to explore a sub-topic from different methodological
"ways of knowing." The course includes an engaged learning component,
involving an introductory, hands‑on activity that engages academic material in
or outside the classroom and is tied to the content of the course. The Engaged Citizen course sets the
stage for Hendrix students to pursue their own pathways for civic engagement
across their time at Hendrix.
Community Engaged Courses
Beyond
the first-year-required The Engaged Citizen courses, a number of faculty
incorporate community engaged learning opportunities into their regular
courses. For example, a computer science professor uses his upper-level Databases
and Web Systems course as a way for students to apply their knowledge and
skills to real challenges. By pairing small groups of students with local
nonprofits, the course gives students a chance to practice working as a team
and interacting with a client by preparing a technological solution to a
practical need of the organization.
Odyssey
Program
Each year, students complete
civic engagement-related projects through the Odyssey program. From internships with elected officials in
Washington or Little Rock, to the publication of undergraduate research
projects on public policies, to examination of education systems in other
nations, to periods of service with advocacy groups, Hendrix students dedicate
innumerable hours of their lives each year to civic engagement. Through this
work, our students come to better understand themselves and their communities.
Odyssey Professorships, an extension of the Hendrix Odyssey Program,
carry an endowment to support faculty projects that create new engaged learning
opportunities for students. Individual faculty members or small groups of
faculty members may apply on a competitive basis for the professorships. Many
Odyssey Professorships include a community partnership element.
Campus Kitty
Founded by
the student body president in 1949, Campus Kitty is a student-run philanthropic organization that
raises money and awareness through campus events for charitable organizations
in central Arkansas. Members of the organization gain management experience through
reviewing proposals from community organizations, making funding decisions,
communicating with nonprofit partners, promoting those partners across campus,
and organizing events. Campus Kitty has raised more than $118,000 over the past
five years for a variety of community organizations.
Volunteer Action Committee
The Volunteer Action Committee is a
student-led organization that organizes and leads volunteer and service
projects throughout central Arkansas. Projects range from weekly Service
Saturdays with various organizations to monthly dinner preparation at Bethlehem
House, a transitional housing shelter, to regular one-on-one mentoring with 4th
graders at Ida Burns Elementary School. VAC also takes the lead on special
projects as need arises such as organizing a relief effort following a tornado
that hit the nearby communities of Vilonia and Mayflower in 2014.
Service Scholars
An
extracurricular scholarship program of the Miller Center for Ethics, Vocation,
and Calling, Service Scholars are students who
have worked effectively and enthusiastically with volunteer projects during
their junior and senior years in high school, commit to volunteering regularly
while in college, and demonstrate a resolve to make leadership through service
a part of their future. Service Scholars participate in a program with two
components: community service and vocational reflection.
Other Civic
Engagement Projects
Through
the Arkansas Policy Program, an undergraduate “think tank,” students
conduct research and provide nonpartisan, original analyses of key public
policy issues in the state. For example, students have partnered with the
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, Disability Rights Arkansas, and
the Arkansas Public Policy Panel with research and reporting citizens’
perspectives on teacher recruitment and retention, reforms to the state’s
Families in Need of Services program, and protecting safe drinking water in the
state.
Talk
Business and Politics is a Little Rock-based multi-media
news outlet that covers business, politics, and culture across Arkansas. Since
2010, Talk Business and Politics founder Roby Brock and Hendrix politics
professor Jay Barth have partnered on a polling project that surveys
Arkansans’ views on candidates and issues. This partnership offers students the
chance to contribute to the design, implementation, and analysis of surveys and
offers Talk Business and Politics insightful, relevant, and expanded
content for the public.
The
Hendrix-in-Washington
program is a partnership between Hendrix and the nonprofit Washington Center
for Internships and Academic Seminars. Students in the program live and take classes
in the Washington Center’s residential and learning complex. Students earn
three academic credits for completing a 32-hour a week internship,
a three-hour a week evening course organized by the Washington Center, and
a weekly leadership seminar.
As
a Project Pericles institution, the
College’s commitment to active learning and civil dialogue is furthered through
weekly forums on controversial issues. Pericles at Hendrix also engages alumni
with current students through the Hendrix Alumni Doing Democracy project.
Hendrix
is also one of the relatively few colleges and universities nationwide to offer
the Peace Corps Prep certificate
program. The program helps undergraduate students determine whether Peace Corps
service is a suitable path for them and also prepares them for the Peace Corps
application.
For more
information on Civic Engagement at Hendrix, contact Dr. Jay Barth at barth@hendrix.edu or Sarah
Donaghy (Coordinator of Community Partnerships) at donaghy@hendrix.edu.