Civically Engaged Scholar
Ron Carpenter
Adjunct Faculty, English
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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."
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