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Congrats SLCC Campus Compact Winners!

Civically Engaged Scholar
Ron Carpenter
Adjunct Faculty, English
Ron is committed to service-learning and highly involved with the Thayne Center for Service & Learning at Salt Lake Community College.  He has taught service-learning courses for many years and brings much experience to the field.  Ron teaches his WTRG 0990 class with the pedagogy and has modified the course for its various permutations in order to create a blueprint for other developmental class instructors seeking to implement community engaged learning for their diverse student bodies.  Ron supported the Thayne Center’s first alternative fall break focused on food insecurity.  He is also involved our 2014 HOPI Nation alternative spring break trip, bringing critical background knowledge on the culture and reservation.  Ron expands Thayne Center capacity by volunteering his time mentoring peers via our faculty development course, Service-Learning 1000 which he co-coordinates.  Ron also promotes service-learning across multiple campuses.  He has presented at conferences such as SLCC Professional Development Day and Utah Valley Universities Writing for Social Change conference.
Ron says, "I tell my children that 'we are all Native American, we leave it better than we found it.'  My goal is to inspire writing student to be healthy and politically active as they learn from our wonderful partners."

Civically Engaged Staff Member
Darlene Head
Manager, Veterans Office
Darlene Head started working at Salt Lake Community College in 1982 as a work-study student. She later earned two degrees and found a career in Admissions. In 2005, she was tasked with certifying veteran’s benefits. Darlene recognized our veterans need a space to relax and interact with other veterans. This vision led to the creation of our award winning SLCC Veteran’s Center. It is a welcoming place that guides veterans to earn their degrees and engage with the community.  Under Darlene it has grown from 16 graduates in 2005 to 169 in 2013.
In 2009, Darlene created the non-profit “Angels in Action” to assist veterans, refugees, and the Hopi people. Her work with this non-profit informs her work as co-advisor of the Thayne Center’s 2014 Alternative Spring Break trip to the Hopi Nation. Darlene Head has come full circle sharing her passion and knowledge with SLCC students, growing the impact of her project by including others in the vision.
Darlene adocates for service and valuable connections; she describes her work, "By being outward focused and in service to others, I let them know they matter and that someone cares, that I care, and thus create a connection between us. Through our connections we create friendship and peace. That is the way we heal our planet and bring all people together."  
Civically Engaged Student
Brittany Taylor
Student of Communications
In Brittany’s first year of working with the Thayne Center, she has already made lasting impacts in our programs. Her efforts have opened doors to many new experiences commenting, “why haven’t I been doing this the whole time?” Brittany has many accomplishments including being a Civically Engaged Scholar. As a Scholar in a service-learning class she organized a project with Five Parks Community Action Center to raise money and build a playground in a low-income community. She presented on the impact of this project during our Service-Learning Showcase. Brittany received a Certificate of Completion for the 2013 Volunteer Management Training Series. She was one of five students selected to attend the Utah Campus Compact Engaged Citizenship Retreat. Brittany is coordinating a series of Community Partner Spotlight events. These events showcase different non-profit community partners each month at Salt Lake Community College. She wrote and received a grant for $1,875 to fund these spotlight events.
When asked to describe why she is engaged in her community, Brittany says, "Edmund Burke states 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good [people] do nothing.' Before my involvement with the Thayne Center for Service & Learning I was unaware of how many communities needed good people to do something. I am engaged in my community because I want to encourage a sense of common good, improve awareness of social responsibility, and test my abilities to create change."
Committed Community Partner
Maliheh Free Clinic, Tammy Garfield
Volunteer Coordinator, Maliheh Free Clinic
The Maliheh Free Clinic has the following vision and mission:
Quality health care is a vital necessity for every child and adult. The Maliheh Free Clinic seeks to improve the quality of life in the Greater Salt Lake Area by providing free medical services for uninsured individuals and low income families. Because medical insurance and medical care is very expensive, many Utahns lack insurance coverage and do not receive the medical care they need.  The Maliheh Free Clinic endeavors, within its capacity, to serve the medical care needs of low-income individuals in our community who have no other options. No charges are assessed for services provided by the Maliheh Clinic.
The Maliheh Free Clinic provides free healthcare to uninsured individuals and families that are under 150% of poverty level. As of 2013, the Clinic is providing health care for about 5,000 people in the Salt Lake area. The clinic operates almost completely on volunteer services and last year logged over 25,000 volunteer hours.
Speaking about the work she's involved with, Tammy says, “We all have this feeling that we are scratching the surface. There’s quite a long wait to get in the clinic, so I think there is still a lot of unmet need in Salt Lake City. But we feel we are doing the best we can.”
Committed Community Partner II
Nancy Christensen
Former Development Specialist, Maliheh Free Clinic
Nancy laid the foundation for the partnership between Maliheh Free Clinic and Salt Lake Community College. Her involvement in Thayne Center programming enhanced each respective organization’s understanding of one another and demonstrated Maliheh’s ability to provide quality service-learning experiences to students. Nancy helped to enhance the culture of commitment to volunteers at Maliheh Free Clinic.
Nancy tells us why she does what she does; she explains, "The partnership between higher education service learning programs and community partner organizations is a win-win opportunity. Service learning students serving in the community supplement classroom learning with hands-on, real life experiences. They are also introduced to the many issues facing underserved populations and the value of service to improve the lives of those in need."
Civically Engaged Alumni
Desa-Rae Robertson
Bachelors of Social Work
Desa-Rae Robertson is an exemplary leader at Salt Lake Community College.  She participated in our SLICE: Student Leaders in Civic Engagement program for three years and served as a SLICE mentor for two. She graduated as a Civically Engaged Scholar. Desa-Rae is an AmeriCorps alumnus who served over 1250 hours. In 2010, she was selected to serve as a New Media Leader in partnership with a prestigious grant from the American Association of Community Colleges. Under this grant, she managed social media for Wasatch Community Gardens. As an Alumni, Desa-Rae volunteered to be a 2013 Alternative Fall Break Advisor fully participating in their volunteer service with Utahs Against Hunger/Real Food Rising, Community Food Co-op of Utah, and the Utah Food Bank. She helped educate the Fall Break participants on food insecurity. In 2013, Des-Rae received her Bachelor’s degree in Social Work from the University of Utah and is currently applying to be in their Master’s program.
Desa-Rae is passionate about service, saying, “I volunteer in our community not because it looks good on an application, resume or praise, but because it is easy to forget about the people around us. Though a few hours donated may seem like a lot, but to a person or organization, our time to them is essential." 

http://www.utahcampuscompact.org/awards/ucc-awards-salt-lake-community-collegehttp://www.utahcampuscompact.org/awards/ucc-awards-salt-lake-community-college 

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