Mesa Legend - ARCHIVES - Vol. 40, Issue 8


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Volume 40, Issue 8.
January 21, 2003

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MCC faculty, officials ponder lackluster student involvement
By Carly Schorman
Mesa Legend

How do you involve students in the world around them when they just do not care? Or do they?


	PHOTO BY CARLY SCHORMAN/MESA LEGEND Andrew Furco at the Civic Engagement Institute.

The Civic Engagement Institute seeks to involve students in their community and their own education thereby turning apathetic students into responsible members of society.

MCC’s Service Learning Department, hosted an event to introduce the Civic Engagement Institute on Jan. 6.

The keynote speaker of the forum was Andrew Furco, director of the Service-Learning and Development Center at the UC Berkley.

Arranged by Duane Oakes, director of Service Learning at MCC, the event featured a number of speakers including Rudy Garcia, director of the Experiential Learning Department in Albuquerque, Bev Tittle Baker, CEO of CARE Partnership, and Susan Adams, Leadership Center director at Yavapai College.

A few students who are involved in the community were also featured as speakers. MCC students Malu Alfaro and Eric Sloan spoke about their experiences in service learning.

Alfaro, educated herself before enrolling at MCC where she found success as a student. Alfaro created a GED for Spanish-speaking students because there was no preparation course offered for these students in their native language.

Alfaro’s civic activities earned her a Coca-Cola Service Scholarship and she was nominated for the Howard R. Swearer Student Humanitarian Award.
“I want to help single moms or dads in very low-income jobs, who dream of going to college, but who don’t know of the opportunities... people have a chance if they have an education,” Alfaro said.

For his community service, Sloan was able to secure an internship with Congressman Pastor.

MCC’s Center for Service-Learning and Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society will host the Community Involvement Expo featuring representatives from a number of community agencies. The event will provide students with an opportunity to learn about various service-learning sites and volunteer organizations.

The Community Involvement Expo will be held Jan. 29 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The expo will also be open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Jan. 30.

The Expo will be held in the Kirk Center. On Feb. 3 from 10 a.m. to noon, the event will also be offered in the courtyard of MCC’s Red Mountain Campus at Power and McKellips roads.