EMU Today

YPSILANTI – Eastern Michigan University and members of the surrounding community honored exceptional community engagement efforts during an afternoon ceremony Friday, April 12, at the Growing Hope Marketplace (922 W. Michigan Ave) in Ypsilanti.

This annual event, which spotlights the high level of town-gown collaboration embedded in Eastern’s mission, is hosted by EMU offices and programs dedicated to community engagement. Those include:

• Engage@EMU’s Office of Academic Service-Learning
• Engage@EMU’s Institute for the Study of Children, Families, and Communities (ISCFC)
• Non-Profit Leadership Alliance
• VISION

Engage @ EMU’s Office of Academic Service-Learning congratulated the following recipients of this year’s Academic Service-Learning Dale Rice Awards:

Dale Rice Award for Academic Innovation in AS-L and Community Engagement

Awardee: Chalice Randazzo, assistant professor, English Language, and Literature at Eastern Michigan University.

Randazzo has worked with local organizations to design and develop content that is innovative and insightful and that is critical to the community. In collaboration with the EMU Family Empowerment Program at Sauk Pointe Trail, part of the Ypsilanti Housing Commission, Chalice developed a series of workshops for residents on building out their resumes or work biographies, assisting residents in finding ways to better convey their strengths and capabilities in ways that were not just supportive but transformative for many residents. Some residents who participated were fearful of the job market, and her workshops energized them and bolstered their confidence.Residents who participated were fearful of the job market and her workshops gave the agency and strength.

This past winter, Randazzo and her students in Writing 428 worked with the Ypsilanti Hope Clinic, whose mission is to partner with you to make lives better through holistic care in providing free support in medical, dental, food, care and prayer. The project included an overhaul of the clinic’s volunteer manual and training.

Dale Rice Award for Outstanding AS-L Community Partnership

Awardees: Sadaf Ali, Associate professor, electronic media, and film at EMU; and Patrick Campion, program director, WEMU.

For nearly two years, Sadaf Ali (CMTA) and Patrick Campion (WEMU) have successfully created an AS-L partnership with Ali's CTAT 334: Radio-TV News Writing class and WEMU. Students from Ali's class work with WEMU to create six- to eight-minute radio wraps that air on the NPR station. This program has allowed students to focus on their broadcast reporting skills while working in a professional environment. Students have used their work from CTAT 334 and WEMU on their resumes. Both Campion and Ali have worked diligently over the past two years to cultivate student-driven content that is engaging and relevant to the campus and surrounding community.

The Dale Rice Awards are named in honor of EMU emeritus professor Dale Rice.  As a professor of special education for over 30 years, Rice believed in the importance of community service, and engaged his students in such activities long before the concept of service-learning gained national attention. Rice established the Office of Academic Service-Learning at Eastern Michigan University in 1994. He retired from EMU in 2002 and continued to be a consultant and friend of the Office of Academic Service-Learning until his passing in 2011.

Engage@EMU Award (Community & University Collaboration Award)

Awardee: Concentrate Media’s On the Ground Ypsilanti, with journalists Sara Rigg and Patrick Dunn. The On The Ground Project has provided Ypsilanti with excellent coverage of issues, culture, people and events that otherwise would not be touched upon in today’s media environment.

The Nonprofit Leadership Alliance (NLA) Awards

• Outstanding NLA Advisory Board Member, John Fike, EMU lecturer in political science
• Outstanding NLA Campus Partner, Beth Stoner, head of Professional Programs & Training at EMU.
• Outstanding NLA Student, Alison Carpenter.

VISION’s Alternative Break Site Leader Award

Winner: Maureen Lynch, EMU undergraduate student.

Community Work Study Special Mentions

• Michigan Advocacy Program/Family Law Project.

• The Collaborative; Ypsilanti YMCA Early Childhood Development Center.

Contact  Kristen Klochko kklochko@emich.edu or us at emu_engage@emich.edu for more information

About Eastern Michigan University

Founded in 1849, Eastern is the second oldest public university in Michigan. It currently serves more than 18,000 students pursuing undergraduate, graduate, specialist, doctoral and certificate degrees in the arts, sciences and professions. In all, more than 300 majors, minors and concentrations are delivered through the University's Colleges of Arts and Sciences; Business; Education; Health and Human Services; Technology, and its graduate school. EMU is regularly recognized by national publications for its excellence, diversity, and commitment to applied education. For more information about Eastern Michigan University, visit the University's website.