Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship

Hannah Brenkert-Smith Part of Team Receiving the 2024 Governor’s Pathfinding Partnerships Award

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 21:06:25 +0000

Hannah Brenkert-Smith Part of Team Receiving the 2024 Governor’s Pathfinding Partnerships Award Arielle Wiedenbeck Fri, 10/18/2024 - 15:06

Gretchen Minekime

Associate Research Professor Hannah Brenkert-Smith, Institute of Behavioral Science, is a member of the Wildfire Research (WiRē) Team that will receive the Pathfinding Partnerships Award through the 2024 Governor’s Awards for High Impact Research on Nov. 20.

The award honors research that engages four or more distinct research entities in Colorado whose results leverage the resources and strengths among partnering organizations—and demonstrate the power of collaboration. Brenkert-Smith received a Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship Grant to support WiRē’s work in Chaffee and Lake Counties.

WiRē collaborates with local wildfire education practitioners to develop evidence-based community wildfire education programs at the invitation of local communities. Social science and community-engagement practices make it possible to tailor information for communities.

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Jota Samper Receives Award for Excellence in Engaged Scholarship

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 21:01:06 +0000

Jota Samper Receives Award for Excellence in Engaged Scholarship Arielle Wiedenbeck Fri, 10/18/2024 - 15:01

Gretchen Minekime

Associate Professor Jota Samper, Program in Environmental Design, is the 2024 recipient of the Excellence in Faculty Community Engagement Award from the Engagement Scholarship Consortium (ESC). This national award is one of the most prestigious of its kind.

Samper’s research concentrates on sustainable urban growth, focusing on the intersection between urban informality and violent conflict. ��’s Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship nominated Samper for 15 years of connecting his scholarship and study abroad programs (at ��, Duke University, Emerson College and MIT) with multiple unplanned settlements near Medellin, Colombia. Violence prompted Medellin residents to flee and set up informal dwellings outside the city limits.

Settlements in the region face issues such as landslides and access to potable water, healthcare, public spaces and education. Samper’s Colombian Displaced Communities: Planning and Urban Design Seminar students collaborate with residents to create community development plans and infrastructure designs and help build physical interventions. Communities decide which ideas make it to the building phase. Examples include a rain collection system, paving roads, reconditioning a community kitchen that serves more than 200 youth, and building sewers and potable water lines.

The seventh to win the faculty award nationally and the first from ��, Samper joined other Awards for Excellence in Engaged Scholarship recipients in Portland, Oregon, on Oct. 10 at the annual ESC conference.

The grant selection committee for public and community-engaged scholarship has funded Samper’s work eight times since 2018.

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Jota Samper receives his award

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Group to study antiracist outreach practices

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 17:00:00 +0000

Group to study antiracist outreach practices Arielle Wiedenbeck Thu, 07/30/2020 - 11:00

Sue Postema Scheeres

Campus outreach and engagement staff and faculty members are invited to join a virtual study group this fall to examine racial justice and antiracism and incorporate what we learn into community-engaged practices.

Offered by the �� Outreach and Engagement Professionals Network (OEPN), the study group will meet from Sept. 22 to Oct. 27 on Tuesdays between noon and 1 p.m. to discuss Ibram X. Kendi’s book “How to Be An Antiracist.”

“Our goal is to generate concrete action items with fellow outreach and engagement professionals so we can build more inclusive, diverse and equitable programming,” said Jeanne McDonald, associate director of the Office for Outreach and Engagement and OEPN steering committee co-chair. “We hope outreach professionals from across campus will join so that we can all learn and grow together through this study group.”

Facilitated discussions each week via Zoom will focus on assigned readings and questions for small group breakout sessions.

The Sept. 29 session will feature social justice consultant Parker McMullen Bushman discussing, “It’s Not Enough to Be a Nice Person: Understanding the Meaning of Antiracism.” She will highlight the importance of learning about race and racism in the United States and talk about how we need to move past being nice people who think racism is wrong, to an understanding of what racism is, how it functions, why it persists and how it can be undone.

The OEPN provides training, shares best practices and offers professional development opportunities for �� staff or faculty who manage outreach programs and community partnerships.

About Parker McMullen Bushman

Parker McMullen Bushman is a dynamic speaker who engages audiences in new thinking around what it means to be a diversity change-agent. Her background in the conservation, environmental education and outdoor recreation fields spans more than 23 years. Her interest in justice, accessibility and equity issues developed from her personal experiences working in nonprofits and environmental organizations that are predominantly white. She is the creator of an online resource called Ecoinclusive and co-founder of Inclusive Journeys.

About Ibram X. Kendi

Ibram X. Kendi is the director and founder of the Center for Antiracism Research at Boston University, where he is a history professor. He is also a #1 “New York Times” best-selling author, and the youngest-ever winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction. Kendi is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a correspondent at CBS News. ”How to Be an Antiracist” was hailed by the Times as “the most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind.” It has been named in several lists of best books of 2019, including the “Washington Post,” “New York Times,” “Time” and “NPR.”

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Charla Agnoletti honored for outreach work

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 17:00:00 +0000

Charla Agnoletti honored for outreach work Arielle Wiedenbeck Tue, 04/07/2020 - 11:00

Sue Postema Scheeres

For Charla Agnoletti, a lifelong commitment to educational equity and social justice began growing up in Denver.

As a student, she saw directly how race, language, class, gender, location or immigration status impacts access to quality education.

“Part of my passion for issues of equity and justice stems from anger at the low value our society puts on education, youth, schools and educators,” Agnoletti said. “Still, I have radical faith in education as a key tool to build fairness and justice in our communities.”

Today, Agnoletti channels that passion into her role as the program director for ��’s Public Achievement, a youth-led civic engagement program that promotes student voice and transformative change for individuals and communities.

In recognition of her work, Agnoletti recently received the 2020 Anne K. Heinz Staff Award for Excellence in Outreach and Engagement, which honors staff members who have demonstrated outstanding professional commitments to and success with community outreach and engagement initiatives. Agnoletti also will receive $5,000 to support Public Achievement’s outreach activities.

Agnoletti will be honored publicly at an outreach award event in fall 2020.

“I am excited to announce that Charla has been selected for this award,” said Sara Thompson, dean of continuing education and vice provost for outreach and engagement, whose division funds the award. “As a strong supporter of social justice and equity, her leadership has helped middle and high school students discover their own voice as they become advocates for positive social change in their community.”

Charla Agnoletti, 2020 Recipient of the 2020 Anne K. Heinz Staff Award for Excellence in Outreach and Engagement

Growing a program

�� launched Public Achievement with the Boulder Valley School District at Centaurus High School in 2008, and currently partners with three schools within the district. It is an international program that operates in five states and 19 countries.

Through the program, about 100 �� undergraduates coach 250 students in grades 7-12 in Boulder and Lafayette each year as they participate in academic programs, discuss racism, immigration, climate change and other issues, and design and implement social justice projects with community partners.

Agnoletti said receiving the staff award is a collective honor that affirms the work of the program’s students, staff and community partners, who together help young people to develop a commitment to equity and justice.

“Being a voice for equity and justice requires public courage and the willingness to be unpopular for speaking and taking action on what you believe is right,” she said. “Cultivating this fierce voice means listening to those most impacted by inequities, actively seeking information to sharpen your lens on equity issues, and, most importantly, engaging in the vulnerable act of sharing your own stories of witnessing and experiencing injustice.”

The program is housed within the School of Education’s CU Engage. According to Roudy Hildreth, CU Engage’s executive director, the program has grown significantly since Agnoletti was hired in 2015. Under her leadership, the curriculum was made more culturally responsive, more undergraduate students of color were recruited to the program, and more pathways for high school students to attend �� were created.

“Charla shows deep respect for everyone she works with, develops relationships with humility, and exemplifies the ideals of reciprocity and mutual benefit,” Hildreth wrote in his nominating letter.

Liz Barcheck, Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) coordinator at Angevine Middle School in Lafayette, wrote in her nominating letter that Agnoletti has collaborated closely with school leadership and teachers to help students learn how to discuss complex social justice topics.

“She listens to feedback and has been a true partner to me in designing the best possible outcomes for our student groups,” Barcheck wrote.

The staff award is part of the Outreach and Engagement Professionals Network (OEPN) initiative sponsored by the Office for Outreach and Engagement. The OEPN is a campus community of practice that seeks to increase collaboration, professional development opportunities and recognition of campus outreach and engagement work.

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Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship

Hannah Brenkert-Smith Part of Team Receiving the 2024 Governor’s Pathfinding Partnerships Award

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Growing a program

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