Forty-two guests attended SF State’s Office of Community Service Learning (OCSL) 5th Annual – and final – Community Service Learning Awards ceremony.

The event was held inside the campus Vista Room on April 19, at 11 a.m.

The OCSL is part of the San Francisco Urban Institute efforts to build university and community partnerships. Its role is to coordinate and promote campus efforts to incorporate community service learning (CSL) into SF State's undergraduate education curriculum.

During the 30-minute ceremony, OCSL Director Perla Barrientos announced that the OCSL will be integrating with the Urban Institute and the Community Involvement Center (CIC) by the fall 2006 semester to form one cohesive, “Institute of Civic Engagement.”

“We have a clear concept of civic engagement and social justice,” said Barrientos. “We have over 50 programs within the campus. No other university has a program that’s even close (to ours).”

The new institute will provide faculty with the same accommodations and support; students and community partners (companies that seek volunteers) will benefit from more collective organization. For example, a comprehensive and updated database will be available on the institute’s Web site, allowing students and partners to find each other with ease.

The merge into the Institute of Civic Engagement also signified a more proactive style of community involvement.

“CSL is learning about doing work in the community," Barrientos added. "Civic engagement is making a difference in civic life and taking action when appropriate."

Four awards were handed out in this year’s ceremony: student, faculty, community partner awards, and the first ever, Lifetime Achievement Award, which was given to Steven Cochrane.

Acting Director of the Urban Institute Susan Alunan nominated Cochrane for his past 20 years of work as the Community Involvement Center (CIC) Director. During the past five years, he also worked to integrate civic engagement principles within the CIC curriculum.

“I’ve learned from students and I’m looking forward to learning and sharing more,” Cochrane said at the end of his acceptance speech. “I want to see what we can accomplish over the next 22 years.”

The Community Service Learning Student Award went to Jessica Lagedrost for her teaching work at the John McLaren Rover After-School Program. She worked with the inner city children of Visitacion Valley – most of whom cannot afford dance lessons – to produce children’s dance performances.

Lagedrost works through Dance 340 - Creative Dance for Children - one of the 174 SF State community service learning courses.

Her teacher and mentor, Albirda Rose, presented the award.

“It’s rare to find a student who you admire, learn from, watch grow to be an outstanding woman in her profession, and who you want to watch grow,” said Rose in reference to Lagedrost, before giving the award.

“There’s a lot you can learn from a classroom, but you internalize it when you go out in the community,” Lagedrost said upon accepting her award.

The Community Service Learning Student Award may only go to full-ime graduate or undergraduate students who have attended SF State the entire academic year. Only faculty members may nominate students who they feel have exceeded expectations during their community service work.

Typically, a student from each SF State college receives an award. This year, however, Rose’s nomination was the one.

Executive Director of the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform Patricia McGinnis, who was unable to attend, won the Community Partner Recognition Award. This award goes to partners who have impacted student learning in addition to increasing faculty’s awareness of course content and community needs.

McGinnis has worked with SF State’s gerontology department for 10 years. She has offered internships to students and has guest lectured for Darlene Yee-Melichar’s Gerontology 745: Long Term Care Administration course.

Faculty awards went to Betsy Blosser and Felix Kury. Blosser organized international community service learning trips for students and worked with BECA students to do public service announcements. Kury, the Director of the SF State Cuba Educational Project, coordinated and facilitated an international community service learning program in which over 300 students and faculty visited Cuba in the past 10 years.

Following the ceremony, guests, award-winners and nominators alike mingled and ate at the luncheon.

One student guest, Mario Gorozpe, 20, assisted in high school math courses through a community service learning course.

“Volunteering has made me a better person,” said Gorozpe, a marketing junior, who works alongside Cochrane at the CIC. “I’m mentally, physically, and emotionally more aware. I’ve realized what’s meaningful, and I attribute that to CIC.”

Next year, the Institute of Civic Engagement, not the OCSL, will award the community service learning honors.

For more information on the OCSL, visit http://www.sfsu.edu/~ocsl/index.html.