Presentation to Congressman Chaka Fattah's Congressional Roundtable: “Igniting Public Service and Securing College Access: the American Opportunity Tax Credit, H.R. 106.”, January 27, 2009, Rayburn House Office Building

Accompanying Keynote presentation is available here: http://www.slideshare.net/qgecko/ou-engage

I’d like to thank Congressman Fattah’s office for inviting me to be on this panel.

For the past three years, in addition to my work in community engagement, I’ve been directing a National Science Foundation Partnerships for Innovation grant at the University of Oklahoma. The focus of the grant has been to create partnerships between the research sector and public education. In my interactions with scientists and engineers, I found lacking a substantive foundation for service. There is a desire, and lots of talk, but little opportunity and action.

Our nation needs a foundation for service. Service needs to be a habit, found across all disciplines. And like all good habits, it needs to be engrained at an early age, and reinforced throughout education.

The University of Oklahoma’s work in service or community engagement begins in public schools across the state. The K20 Center, OU’s center for education and community renewal, includes community engagement as a core principal within it’s research-based framework for high-achieving schools.

In the College of Architecture, students work together with towns throughout Oklahoma to develop long-term plans for community renewal. As part of their coursework, they research community needs and develop recommendations and proposals that have far-reaching impacts on targeted communities.

The student chapter of Engineers Without Borders travels to rural communities in the US and around the world to design and build sustainable infrastructure to help growing communities. The same student organization participates locally trough elementary school visits and assisting the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity.
The K20 Scholars scholarship program provides funding for students to initiate community renewal projects in their hometowns, often in rural Oklahoma. Several of the scholars are funded by BP, and are working on sustainable energy projects in their home communities.

And as the largest student-run community service effort in the nation, The Big Event unifies the campus with the surrounding community in a showing of gratitude through service. Over 5000 students, faculty, and staff participated last year working with nearly 200 community organizations, schools, and agencies.

The university community recognized the importance of community engagement, but it had existed in isolated pockets, without any central organizational hub to monitor and evaluate activities. Realizing the need for structure and organization to effectively support these efforts, University President and former congressman David Boren created the office of the Vice Provost for School and Community Partnerships.

Under the leadership of Dr. Mary John O’Hair, a Community Engagement Committee was formed representing deans, faculty, students, and community leaders from all three University of Oklahoma campuses and their communities. A university-wide audit of engagement activities was initiated, along with the development of OU Engage, a tracking system to monitor and stimulate the community engagement activities of all students across the university, and also to create an online network through which students can learn about and create relationships with community agencies.

OU Engage is like an online dating service. On one side are the local community organizations who post project opportunities. Then, through a category matching function, those projects are matched to service learning courses at the university.  Instructors are presented with a menu of possible projects that fit their course requirements. The projects are also searchable by individual students and staff, as well as student organizations, looking for volunteer opportunities.

Not only does this give students and faculty unprecedented opportunities for community service, but the students are now provided with a record documenting service activity, regardless of their major, what courses they take, what student organizations they participate in, what scholarships they have, or even their own personal volunteer activities. And the community agencies we’ve partnered with are eager to participate.

We want to make sure the students at the University of Oklahoma have the opportunities and recognition for community engagement. But, like teaching any child a good habit, we need rewards. We need incentives. And that is what makes Congressman Fattah’s bill so important, not only for the students at the University of Oklahoma, but for students across the nation.

Quyen Arana
Associate Director, K20 Center
University of Oklahoma