Samuel Huntington Public Service Award

  • The Samuel Huntington Public Service Award provides a $10,000 stipend for a graduating college senior to pursue one year of public service anywhere in the world. The award allows recipients to engage in a meaningful public service activity for one year before proceeding on to graduate school or a career.

    The deadline to apply for the Samuel Huntington Public Service Award is February 15, 2010.  Please click here for more information and to obtain an application.

At A Glance: Engaging Students with the Community

  • The Harward Center for Community Partnerships offers students the opportunity to engage with community partners through:

    Community-Based Learning: Academically connected community-based work that includes courses, research, thesis, and independent study;

    Fellowships/Community Work-Study: Paid employment that includes work with non-profit agencies;

    Volunteerism: Student-led community engagement activities that are not tied to a course and are unpaid. These are one-time, short-term or ongoing activities supported by the Student Volunteer Fellows.

Kudos

  • A plan by three Bates College students to offer Tanzanian street children a survival alternative to a pervasive sex-for-food trade has won a $10,000 award from the 100 Projects for Peace program.

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Faculty Profile

  • In April 2007, Lee Abrahamsen was one of three Maine college educators to receive the consortium's Donald Harward Faculty Award for Service-Learning Excellence (named for Bates President Emeritus Harward).

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National Recognition

  • The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching recently selected Bates College for its new Community Engagement Classification, created to recognize colleges and universities that have institutionalized community engagement in their endeavors.

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Volunteer Program

 

The Harward Center for Community Partnerships facilitates volunteer opportunities for Bates students. Marty Deschaines, Assistant Director for Community Volunteerism and Student Leadership Development, is available to help students identify - through use of an extensive database of agencies and contacts - volunteer opportunities that best suit their interests, values and schedules. Marty is assisted by seven Student Volunteer Fellows (SVFs) who help students find desired opportunities for volunteer work (service not formally connected to academic work) in a wide range of areas.  SVFs reach out to the campus to raise the visibility of volunteer opportunities; they coordinate site-based programs; they plan and run one-time events; and they develop opportunities for personal and professional development. 

While there are a number of volunteer programs run through this office, there is also collaboration with and support provided for other student-run programs, including the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Cats and Cubs program, Bates Buddies, and the Women’s Resource Center/Poland High School program. 

The Harward Center for Community Partnerships can document that over six hundred students participate annually in volunteer activities.  A continuum of opportunities, from one-time events to year-long weekly obligations is offered.

Examples of volunteer activity include:

  • Bates students participated in a field trip to Bates for their mentees at Longley Elementary School.  They worked on a craft project, played games, and had dinner together in the Dining Commons.
  • Bates students participated in the Montello Reading Club, reading one-on-one with 2nd graders twice a week.  At the end of each semester, the 2nd graders visit Bates.  In December, members of the Bates Storytelling Club entertained the children at this gathering.
  • Members of several athletic teams helped put together holiday baskets for families connected to the Abused Women’s Advocacy Project.
  • A cappella groups and the jazz band have played at local nursing homes and senior centers.
  • Students who returned from study-abroad experiences prepared a presentation for elderly and younger disabled people living in a local apartment complex.  They prepared food from the countries they visited and brought photos of the places they visited.
  • Bates students volunteer weekly at the Trinity After-School Program.
  • Bates volunteers participated in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day read-in at Martel School.
  • Bates students mentor children in local schools through the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program.