Eastern Michigan University's Ethan Lowenstein, associate professor of curriculum and instruction, is the recipient of the Michigan Campus Compact Faculty/Staff Community Service-Learning Award for 2007.
The award, in its 14th year, is the highest annual honor given by the Michigan Campus Compact to faculty and staff in the state of Michigan.
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"It is an incredible honor to receive this award from the Michigan Campus Compact," said Lowenstein who has been at EMU since 2002. "EMU makes a huge institutional effort to support academic service-learning initiatives. The project, for which I received this award, is one among many incredible teaching, learning and service partnerships that EMU has with schools, community organizations and businesses."
The project was the University Preparatory Academy (UPA)/Eastern Michigan University Partnership to Create Community and Social Change, which began four years ago.
Amanda Rosman, a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher at UPA, created the partnership to bring together pre-service teaching candidates in the EMU College of Education, fourth- and fifth-grade students and their teachers at the University Preparatory Academy in Detroit; and local performers and social justice-oriented community organizers to explore social justice issues together.
"Over the course of the program, 250 UPA students and 100 pre-service EMU students have participated in the program," Lowenstein said.
"This is a true model of academic service-learning. Unlike a community service project, there is an equal relationship between both parties and both parties meet academic learning goals through the project," Lowenstein said. "The great thing about the project is that it benefits everyone. EMU students learn how to teach and create social justice-centered curricula within a real student context. Detroit students benefit from powerful instruction focused on issues of social justice and community development. They also learn through teaching EMU students about the same issues."
Lowenstein received his doctorate master's degree, both from New York University.
The Michigan Campus Compact is an out growth of Campus Compact: the project for public and community service. This national coalition was established in 1985 by a small group of college and university presidents who were concerned over the perception of a general decline in civic responsibility. These presidents formed the compact to create public service opportunities for college students and to develop an expectation of service as an essential part of student life and the college experience.
