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faculty scholarship.

UNO faculty members are active in research related to civic participation. Here are some examples of their output.

2007 Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL)

Lyn Holley, Kathe Oleson, Josie Metal-Corbin, Jeanette Harder, Michaella Loewens, and Connie Jones were one of only 28 groups to present at the June 2007 Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Chicago, Illinois. Their study examined the civic participation outcomes of five service-learning projects:

• Dance: A multidisciplinary team of teacher candidates and faculty members used interdisciplinary pedagogy to create awareness among fifth-grade elementary students about environmental issues surrounding the water cycle.
• Gerontology: Courses on working with the minority elderly, programs and services for the elderly, and introdution to gerontology include fieldwork interviews, focus groups, and case statements for grant proposals.
• Information Technology: Female UNO IT students conduct workshops for female elementary students in hopes of empowering them to enter a high-status occupation with a predominantly masculine image.
• Public Administration: Students in the Nonprofit Management and Organization course lead the annual National and Global Youth Service Day project for Omaha, leading 500 youth in park cleanup. These students assist students in grades 4-6 in developing stronger leadership skills, which are then applied toward the recruitment of further volunteers.
• Social Work: Graduate students in the foundational research course are engaged in the content of the course through service-learning; real agencies and clients benefit from their research efforts. Through minigrants, students who excel in the course may further their civic engagement by providing follow-up services to the agency they served.

The group will also be presenting on the UNO campus Friday, November 9, from 2:00-3:30.

2007 American Democracy Project National Conference

Dr. Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, Associate Professor of Political Science and Assistant Director for Research and Outreach of the Office of Latino and Latin American Studies, presented on the project "Promoting Student Civic Participation through Latino Voter Mobilization" at the June 2007 American Democracy Project National Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This Civic Participation Project activity will feature Latino-targeted voter turnout canvassing in the two weeks leading to the 2008 general election. Student canvassers will be recruited from the Pi Gamma Mu social science honor society , College Democrats and Republicans, the Association of Latino American Students, the Black Student Association, the Lambda Theta Nu sorority, and the Sigma Lambda Beta fraternity. These students will become civically engaged by canvassing door-to-door in City Council Wards 2 and 4, ideally in multipartisan pairs and including at least one fluent speaker of the Spanish language, and develop a practical appreciation for the functioning of democratic participatory processes as they pertain to campaigns and elections.