Vermont Campus Compact

VCC Awards : 2004 Winners

Vermont Campus Compact 2004 Award Winners

Student Awards

Commitment to Service | Community Impact Award | Madeleine M. Kunin Award

Faculty/Staff Awards

Engaged Staff | Excellence in Teaching | Excellence in Linking Academics and Community
Engaged Department | Engaged Scholar

Student Awards

Commitment to Service Award Winners:
This award is given to one student per VCC member campus for both the breadth and depth of her/his community involvement. For example, recipients may have devoted multiple years to one program or demonstrated their engagement by committing their leadership both to their institution and to community organizations.

Ashley Adair, Norwich University
Ashley Adair has served more than 300 hours in one semester. In addition to volunteering with the Alternative Spring Break trip in Bridgeport, CT, a monthly Food Bank Sort-A-Thons, the Hunger Banquet, benefits for the youth mentoring program and March of Dimes along with many other activities, Ashley is often busy preparing for events, advertising or recruiting students for volunteer events. She was recently honored as the Student Volunteer of the Year at the annual Norwich University Volunteer Recognition Ceremony.

Rob Demaine, Champlain College
Rob Demaine has raised the bar for civic engagement on campus. In the last two years, he co-hosted a dozen deliberative dialogues on topics such as racism and gender equality. This year, he started a new group, Students for an Active Democracy. The group brought Mayor Peter Clavelle to campus to talk about politics, organized "Around the Campus in Nine Days," a voter registration project and implemented a film and discussion series. Next year, the group hopes to continue the film and discussion series and have a day for democracy in September.

Galen Dickstein, Johnson State College
Galen Dickstein, an AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Conservation Corps) alum, has been extremely active in the breakaway service trips and service-learning office at Johnson State College. As a breakaway coordinator, she selected participants for 5 different trips and led a trip to West Virginia. As the president of the Serve program, she planned programs, recruited volunteers and student leaders, and helped student leaders to develop service programs for the Johnson community. She has also worked toward creating a greater awareness of social issues through these programs.

Matt Hajdun, Saint Michael's College
Matt Hajdun first got involved in service through a pre-orientation service trip and has been engaged as a leader ever since. He has been the co-coordinator of special events and programs, such as blood drives, serve-a-thons, walk-a-thons, and other fundraisers. He has been a leader for St. Michael's Pre-Orientation service trip and extended service trips to Kentucky and Texas. In addition, he will help lead a service trip to Haiti. He is also a regular volunteer at Saint John's Hall for homeless residents.

Mediha Jusufagic
See Madeleine M. Kunin Award section for more information about Mediha.

Terry Kneeland, Woodbury College
After working 19 years at a for-profit business, Terry Kneeland enrolled at Woodbury College to learn how to do meaningful work that benefits the community . She immediately began to make an impact through service-learning projects and internships. Terry was involved in several service-learning projects, including collecting "youth voices" to document young people's feelings about the services they were receiving from the State of Vermont and working with the her hometown of Enfield, NH to bring a welcome and visitor center to town. Through her internship, she has reestablished the Community Partnership of Orange Windsor (CPOW) youth council, helped coordinate the CPOW youth summit and is now working with CPOW to help start a youth-run café. (See page 7 of the Vermont Voices from the Field for additional information on Terry.)

Laura Megivern, University of Vermont
Laura Megivern has played a major leadership role at the University of Vermont. Through her work with the HIV/AIDS talks force, she expanded the number of volunteers and worked with numerous schools and organizations in Chittenden County. She serves as the Director of the Council for Volunteers in Action where she handles all administrative aspects and finds way to incorporate reflection and learning into the different VIA programs. She also serves as the student coordinator for the Community Scholars program, interned as a health care advocate for VPRIG and hopes to work with a psychology professor this summer on researching the development of community leadership.

Khanti Munro, Green Mountain College
Khanti Munro of Green Mountain College has worked to help Green Mountain College fulfill its environmental mission. He initiated "Current Change" as a first year student, a project that raised thousands of dollars to install a wind turbine on campus and help build a passive solar greenhouse. He worked to increase the environmental focus of the Green Mountain Adventure Program by adding the language "What good is minimizing the impact within the forest when we are buying products and acting in a way that destroys it?'" to its mission and encouraging the program to act in ways that reflect this mission. This has all been integral to his academic study and helped him to self-design his own major, "Renewable Energy Applications: A Broad Exploration of Infinite Energies in a Changing and Sustainable World."

Bianca Rotmil, Castleton State College
Bianca Rotmil from Castleton State College incorporates service into many aspects of her college education. On campus, she has participated in discussions about the American Democracy Project and involved the National Theater Honors Society and first year students in service projects. She also has served as a Special Olympics soccer coach for over two years and been actively involved in theater education. She has done all of this while working part-time to support her college education. President David Wolk, who has been both her college president and high school superintendent, describes Bianca as "a model of achievement, community service, campus involvement theatrical accomplishment, and personal perseverance".

Darshan Shrestha, Middlebury College
Darshan Shrestha of Middlebury College has worked to build strong bridges between the college and the local communities through his dedication to the Middlebury Volunteer Ambulance Association. He has served as an attendant, driver, and crew chief with the community volunteer rescue squad. In addition to this work, he has developed the capacity of the ambulance service by maintaining all the computers at the ambulance quarters and developing a website that informs community members of services, honors its volunteers, and promotes membership. He is also the liaison between MVAA and Middlebury College. You can see his work at http://www.middleburyambulance.org.

Shira Sternberng- Bennington College
See community impact award finalist section

Community Impact Award
This award honors students in Vermont who have made service an integral part of their college experience through their significant contribution to the community. Recipients demonstrate both a breadth and depth of commitment to a community organization or social issue. Through their leadership, the recipient demonstrates a linkage of their service to a larger social context and commitment to creating impact in the community.

Award Winners

Hoyt Bingham, Woodbury College

Hoyt Bingham has made a significant impact on her hometown community through asset development. Working with the Royalton Assets Committee, she surveyed 5th through 12th grade students to determine which activities appealed to them and then identified three projects to work on. In addition, she has worked with the Committee to create an assets newsletter and has made presentations to schools and communities to inform the community of this work. Based on her work, the South Royalton school system was able to apply for a grant for year-round after school activities.

Hoyt has also been busy as a facilitator for the Vermont Community Leadership Training, a 20 week program in which participants learn leadership skills and develop a project that will make a difference in the community. Her role has ranged from preparing for classes to serving as support, resource, and mentor to help students implement projects in their community. This significant commitment helps people develop confidence and wisdom to become leaders in their own communities.

"One of Hoyt's great gifts is her ability to see and honor the strengths in all people. I have seen her blossom into an engaged member of the community. She has been centrally involved in focusing community attention on recognizing and celebrating the assets of children, youth, and families."
Christie Binzen, Director of the Prevention and Community Development Program, Woodbury College

Michael McCarthy, St. Michael's College

Mike has dedicated much of his college career to AIDS advocacy both globally and locally. He has spoken to audiences from college classrooms to second graders and addressed national conferences. He co-founded the Student Global AIDS chapter at St. Michael's College, which has designed campaigns to advocate for better HIV/AIDS programs locally and globally. He has advocated for national policy by co-coordinating the New England Arm of a national campaign to target presidential candidates' stances on HIV/AIDs issues.

Mike has also been active with international service-learning. While on a service-learning trip in Tanzania, he met with HIV/AIDS advocates and people living with AIDS and served as the student facilitator of a workshop that was attended by Tanzanian activists from 12 different organizations. At the same time, he has also been working to ensure funding and support so that international service-learning is available to everyone at St. Michael's College.

"In all of his work, Mike has distinguished himself with his level of commitment, impressive leadership skills and vision. He is an outstanding example of how a single student can make a difference on an issue that he cares about."
Patricia Siplon, Associate Professor of Political Science, St. Michael's College

Laura Sforza, University of Vermont

Laura Sforza has been an active volunteer since participating in a community service TREK program for incoming first students. For the past three years, she has been the coordinator for the Food salvage program that provides the only free hot meal in Chittenden County on Sunday nights . This work includes recruiting and coordinating volunteers, soliciting donations and fundraising, and raising awareness on community issues. As a result, UVM has been able to serve 70-100 people each Sunday.

Laura has also been a consistent volunteer with Vermont CARES, a local HIV/AIDs support agency. She started a nutrition class to help people cook healthy meals that won't interact with anti-retroviral drug treatments, conducted peer outreach services, and has begum peer outreach education. She also consistently volunteers in other ways. She participated in an alternative break in New York City, working at Ground Zero to cook breakfast for firemen. She has volunteered at a residential program for young adults with developmental disabilities, she has worked with people in the local correctional facility, and she has also made an impact through international service. As a social work major, she hopes to continue her service after she graduates from The University of Vermont.

"She is a young women committed to social justice and human rights, who has brought those convictions to her work here in the UVM and Burlington communities, as well as, through various developing countries in the world."
Julie Richards, Professor, Social Work, University of Vermont

Award Finalists:

Alyssa Jumars, Middlebury College
Alyssa Jumars has launched two campaigns this year on the Middlebury campus. She has worked to bring fair trade coffee to Middlebury College by organizing a variety of educational events and working with the administration while connecting this issue to livable wages, civil rights, debt relief, sustainable agriculture and a myriad of other issues. At the same time, she has launched an effort to reduce food waste in the Middlebury Dining Halls that would both save money needed to purchase fair trade coffee and reduce Middlebury's environmental impact.

Elizabeth Lyon, Middlebury College
After spending a summer working in a jail in San Francisco, Elizabeth Lyon retuned to Middlebury to get involved with prisoner issues both through politics and service. She has started Middlebury's first club dedicated to prisoners' rights, Incarceration in Question and is planning a Middlebury Prisoners Rights Awareness Week. She also started a Middlebury volunteer program at a local jail. In addition to her passion and commitment, she brings a heightened awareness of privilege and a perspective that questions the band-aid approach to volunteerism. She acknowledges, "Short-term solutions require eternal volunteerism, whereas long-term solutions can eventually fix the problem. Volunteer work should create volunteers who will, ultimately, work for societal change."

Shira Sternberg, Bennington College
Shira Sternberg has been involved with innovative ways to get Bennington community members involved in democracy. She went door-to door to register low-income voters, registered voters on the three different campuses in the town of Bennington, and interviewed construction workers about their political views and thoughts on voting. She also organized a " Dance for Democracy" for high school and college students which included food, voter registration, a mock vote, and candidates speaking to young people. She also serves as co-chair of the social action network that coordinates service projects for Bennington students and organizes students for political protest. A native of Bennington, she also serves as a mentor to girls in her former middle school.

This award recognizes one VCC member student for their outstanding public service. The award recognizes a spectrum of efforts, from individual commitment and service in the community to the ability to create a viable organization and involve others. Recipients of this award demonstrate leadership through the creation of innovative approaches to social, educational, environmental, health, economic or legal issues within a community.

Award Winner: Mediha Jusufagic, Community College of Vermont

Since arriving in this country from Bosnia with her family in 2000, Mediha has made an incredible impact on CCV and the Burlington area. She formed the Bosnian Lilies, a children's dance group designed to expose young children to their native language through dance, song, and theater. Through this organization, she has taught dance, singing, and acting, organized logistics for the group, and coordinated the traditional New Year's Party for Bosnian children. Her children's folk group has performed at the University of Vermont, Sheraton Hotel, Memorial Auditorium, and New York City. She became coordinator for the Bosnian Women's Group, a group that supports and empowers female refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina adapting to life and transitions in a new country while facilitating the continuation of Bosnian tradition. Activities included coordinating garden plots, participating in the Burlington Farmer's market, coordinating a party for International Women's Day, and providing opportunities for Bosnian women of all ages to come together. She has also volunteered for the Head Start program, political campaigns, Chittenden County Food Shelf, and served as an ESL tutor for JJ Flynn Elementary School.

In her addition to the long list of volunteer opportunities, Mediha has been an active ambassador of Bosnian culture and a resource for other Bosnian refugees in the community. She spoke at the University of Vermont, Hunt Middle School and the Northern New England Conference on Refugee Health on her experiences and has shared her perspective with her classes at CCV. She also served as a tutor for CCV students and has served as the unofficial first step and mentor for Bosnian students wishing to attend CCV by helping them choose classes or majors and finding books, tutoring etc.

Mediha has been an active community builder. She helped the Bosnian refugee community promote and maintain cultures and traditions. She has helped educate CCV and the larger Burlington community about these experiences through speeches and community events. At the same time, she participates in the community through volunteer work and political campaigns .

"Mediha acknowledges the importance of community building for the Chittenden County refugee population. …Through her service, she makes diversity accessible for families, women, children, educators, and students. She encourages her neighbors, classmates, instructors, and advisors to participate in the events to celebrate cultural diversity. "
President Timothy Donovan, Community College of Vermont

Award Finalsts

Sonia Markh, Green Mountain College

When the College/ Community Partnership Committee in Poultney set a goal for a new mentoring program, Sonia Markh played a critical role in making this new program successful. She was one of the student founders of the mentoring club on campus that involves Green Mountain College students mentoring youth at Poultney Elementary and Junior High School. In one semester, she was able to help recruit 40 student mentors to make this one of the largest clubs on campus. She has also recruited leadership so that this program will continue after she graduates.

Sara Smith, Middlebury College

Sara Smith has connected service to her academic experience at Middlebury College. She worked with Clarendon FIRST, a group of concerned families to research the unusual incidence of childhood cancer in their community. She is currently creating a community resource map of Addison County and determining the best way this could be distributed to the public as part of an independent study. She has also been a consistent volunteer throughout her college years as tutor and mentor for a resident with cerebral palsy, helping him obtain a GED and raise funds for a wheelchair while recruiting and coordinating other volunteers. She created a student organization, "Butch's Team" to create sustainable support for these efforts for after she graduates. Her work with Clarendon FIRST influenced her plans for after graduation, as she plans to pursue a master's degree in Public Health.

Faculty/ Staff Awards

Engaged Staff

Winner: Tiffany Sargent, Director of the Alliance for Civic Engagement, Middlebury College

Tiffany has been the director of volunteer services at Middlebury College for 19 years. In the past 5 years, her role has expanded as the importance of service-learning has increased on campus. The concept of service-learning has grown from random acts of volunteerism and community service, to be embraced as one of the institutional goals of the College. The growth of service-learning can be directly attributed to the work of Tiffany Sargent and her office.

Tiffany has lobbied the administration hard to ensure that they understand what the pedagogy of service-learning is, and the importance of service-learning to Middlebury College's mission….In addition, Tiffany has gone to bat for faculty involved in service-learning time and time again to explain the value of their work to the college and beyond.

"Her energy at times seems boundless, her enthusiastic spirit is infectious, and her kindness is simply amazing."
David Parfitt, Assistant Professor of Biology

"Tiffany Sargent is one of those exceptional people who conveys her passion for service to others and life-long learning in everything she does. She works endlessly for Middlebury College, entirely convinced that today's and tomorrow's leaders can be found in Proctor Dining Hall or Starr Library."
Heather Cronk, Vermont Campus CompactAmeriCorps*VISTA at Middlebury College

Finalist: Courtney Lamontagne, Associate Director of the UVM Office of Community -University Partnerships and Service-Learning

"Courtney has sculpted her entire career around community engagement both in principle and in action…A variety of factors feed into Courtney's exceptional effectiveness in stimulating students, faculty, staff and community members and organizations to work so well with one another. One factor is her deep genuine excitement about and commitment to service-learning and campus-community engagement that is literally contagious. She believes so deeply in this mode of collaboration, learning and service, and is so enthusiastic about both its potential and others' accomplishments. It becomes nearly impossible to refrain from getting seduced into the flow of her work."
Lynne Bond, Director of the UVM Office of Community-University Partnerships and Service-Learning

Winner: Paul Derby, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Castleton State College.

Paul teaches courses in cultural anthropology, sociology and community studies. His area specialities include community building and organizing, cross-cultural studies, South Asian studies, anthropology of religion and cultural ecology. From Paul Derby: "…Reflect[ing] on the things that students have done in just a few years has made me realize how fantastic and how truly competent they are. Too often we don't recognize what our students, if allowed to, can accomplish, or worse yet, we don't allow them opportunities.

"Professor Derby has taught me that there is always room for student voice and if there isn't than there should be. He has taught me that (as Ghandi said), "you must be the change that you wish to see in the world." He has encouraged students to become involved in any way possible and jumps right in with them."

"…he is the only professor that I have ever seen have such an impact on this students and his community. He has initiated so much positive change on campus and has inspired his students to take sociology to another level, outside the classroom."
Shannon Lowcock, Castleton State College senior

Finalist: Harold "Champ" Soncrant, Professor of Accounting, Champlain College

For 12 years, students in Professor Soncrant's Federal Tax courses have deepened their understanding of classroom tax study and served the community by offering tax preparation assistance to low-income and elderly citizens through the VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) program coordinated by Harold Soncrant.

"The VITA program represents the best cooperation between town and gown, academia and government, and students and the economically disadvantaged….The exceptional dedication of Professor Champ Soncrant has enabled this long established program to succeed wonderfully in our community."
Edith Templin,, Associate Professor of Accounting

Back to top

Excellence in Linking Community and Academics

Winners:

Kelly Young, Associate Director and Core Faculty, Prevention and Community Development Program, Woodbury College

" Kelly is an extraordinary person who believes to her core in using her skills and knowledge to improve the community in which she lives and works. I describe her as a serial collaborator. She is always looking for ways to engage her students in community-based activities, and she models this engagement by being actively involved with the College community, with her students, and with the community in which she is a member.

Woodbury College is no ivory tower, and Kelly is part of the reason why. Her skills and knowledge are known throughout the Central Vermont community. She models for students, faculty and staff alike, what it means to be an involved citizen."
Larry Mandell, Woodbury College President,

Richard Schramm, Adjunct Professor, Community Development and Applied Economics, University of Vermont

This excellent scholar and teacher operates his classes in a way that as Nora Locken, undergraduate student at UVM, notes, "Public service and community involvement took precedence in his course objectives. There was a constant emphasis on uniting the university and the community in a mutually beneficial relationship….There is no doubt that thanks to Richard's progressive teaching methods, students feel a greater connection with local institutions and community members have an expanded understanding of community issues. By promoting student voice, Richard has empowered students to seek out better solutions to community challenge and then work collectively to improve the local situation."

Department of Nursing, Castleton State College

The 2nd Year Nursing Team who have developed and teach the service-learning component of the nursing curriculum at Castleton State College:
Maryann McDonough
Mary Catherine Rawls
Jean Britt

The philosophy of this team of dedicated nursing faculty is "The bedside has left the building." These faculty members firmly believe that health care can be and should be found outside the walls of the hospital and can be administered to a larger community.

Together, the team has developed clinical objectives and contracted with clinical sites as settings for service-learning. The sites include an outpatient clinic for those without medical insurance, a visiting nurse and hospice agency, two residential homes for elders, area schools and a doctor's office, as well as several distance education sites in Lyndon, VT.

Susan Farrell, Chair of the Nursing Dept. at Castleton, states that integration of service-learning into the nursing curriculum by this team, "…has been a win-win situation for the students and the vulnerable populations they serve."

Engaged Scholar

Award Winner: Lynne Bond, Professor of Psychology, University of Vermont, and Director UVM Office of Community-University Partnership and Service-Learning

Professor Bond has a long and distinguished history as a scholar, teacher and community leader. Throughout her academic career, Lynne's research and writing have focused upon improving the lives of communities and their residents by promoting people's abilities to support their own and others' development and sense of voice through a variety of community contexts such as neighborhoods, families, schools and peer networks.

An outstanding teacher, Lynne structures courses in a manner that leads her students to experience learning, service and scholarship in true partnership with our community. Her students, themselves, have become deeply immersed in engaged scholarship that has led to changes in local and national community policy and other significant forms of impact.

She is a leader in the local community, at the national level, and at her home institution, UVM. She has won numerous awards locally and nationally, including being named Finalist last year for National Campus Compact's Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service-Learning.

"Lynne Bond has indeed set the pace for engaged scholarship at The University of Vermont, drawing students, community members, and scholars into the collaborative world of community-university engagement and service-learning. Although Lynne would be the first to say there were many people who contributed to our recent advancements, there is no faculty member at our university who is more instrumental in developing and practicing the unique blend of engaged teaching, scholarship, and service both in and outside the classroom, and in encouraging others to participate in the same. Without Lynne's sponsorship and advocacy, engaged scholarship at The University of Vermont would not be as successful as it is today. "
Daniel Mark Fogel, President of University of Vermont

Finalists:

David Parfitt. Assistant Professor of Biology, Middlebury College

This neuroscientist feels that service-learning has energized his classroom and this scholarship, and has led his students to a much broader and deeper understanding of their subject. Whether working with local residents afflicted with Multiple Sclerosis while studying neurological disorders or taking care of orphans in Romania while studying the impact of early experience on brain development, his students now demand a higher level of teaching from him, because they want to understand the people with whom they are working.

"While we have many great faculty and several talented and dedicated faculty involved in service-learning, I can think of no one else who has had such a tremendous impact on so many levels. I am thrilled to nominate David; he is a terrific teacher and friend"
Tiffany Sargent, Director of the Alliance for Civic Engagement at Middlebury College

Lillian Jackson: Associate Professor, Social Work Program in the Dept. of Sociology, Social Work and Criminal Justice, Castleton State College

Professor Jackson worked in human service organizations for 30 years before coming to Castleton State College in 1998. Recognizing the critical importance of community involvement and agency collaboration in striving toward community health, she has been instrumental in developing multiple and on-going campus-community partnerships while at Castleton. She, in fact, pioneered service-learning at Castleton, and continues to engage her students in the community while bringing mutual benefit to both.

Professor Jackson notes, "Most of what I do in my academic, professional and community work is interconnected; it is who I am."