The Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement invites proposals from Colby faculty for the Center’s Departmental Mini Grants program. The program aims to provide support for departments or interdisciplinary programs seeking to examine the role of civic engagement in the curriculum. The goal of the Goldfarb Center in offering these funds is to increase the number of departments/programs at Colby offering civic engagement courses.
Funding: Grants may be for up to $2000. The program intentionally provides maximum flexibility; the only requirement is that the funds must be used to explore integrating civic engagement courses into the departmental curriculum. Civic engagement course guidelines are included below for reference.
Funds may be used for stipend(s) for department members, speakers or consultants, support for departmental retreats or planning sessions, expenses for materials, or costs of activities designed to support the goal of embedding civic engagement into the curriculum.
Proposals: Applicants should submit a proposal that clearly lays out the following information:
● departmental goals and objectives
● a proposed budget with itemization of projected expenses and rationale
Civic Engagement Course Guidelines:
Civic Engagement courses include a service component in which students engage the community in a valuable, significant, and necessary activity that has real consequences for the communities involved. Civic engagement courses are not developed in a vacuum but are shaped to respond to the self-identified needs of such communities. The needs of the community dictate the type of civic engagement in which the students are involved.
1. Clear and well thought-out goals for students and community.
2. Academic rigor
3. An in-class experience—readings, discussions and presentations-- that will enable students to better understand the community component of their experience and connect it to course content.
4. A structured process of reflection and analysis on the community experience built into the course and linking the experience to course goals.
5. Presentation of the results to the community partner/public.
6. A plan for offering the course at least twice -- the strongest proposals will be for courses likely to become a regular part of the curriculum beyond the initial offerings.
Deadline: Proposals for this round of funding are due by April 5, 2013. Please submit all materials electronically to Associate Director, John Turner, jpturner@colby.edu. Proposals will be evaluated by the Center’s Faculty Steering Committee, which will make a recommendation to the Goldfarb Center Director. Note: We expect that any civic engagement courses resulting from this departmental work will be identified as such in the course catalogue. Recipients are required to submit to Goldfarb Center Associate Director Alice Elliott a brief report following completion of the project, including a detailed report of all expenses paid for by the grant (including copies of receipts organized by date) within two weeks after the end of the funded semester. Failure to do so will preclude future grants.
Further Information: contact Alice Elliott, Goldfarb Center Associate Director of Community Outreach and Programming. Resources available include: individual coaching, research on courses at like institutions, sample syllabi, readings and more. You can reach Alice at x5313 or via email at aelliott@colby.edu.
