September 26, 2014
St. Olaf students in a public art class added a splash of color to the drab warming house at Way Park this fall. Art professor Michon Weeks created the assignment as a way for her students to enrich the life of the community while learning about designing and implementing a public art installation. Students’ designs were judged by a jury made up of Friends of Way Park, the Park and Recreation Advisory Board, Arts and Culture Commission, and the City of Northfield. Art student Daniel Bynum came up with the winning design, which was inspired by New York subway art.

May 9, 2013
This photo by St. Olaf student Marit Aseng ’14, which shows a Laura Baker client on a late-spring walk, is part of a photography exhibit highlighted in the Star Tribune. “A photography exhibit opening May 9 in Northfield offers us a window into the lives of community members rarely seen with such intimacy. But the eyes opened widest were likely those of the young photographers themselves,” Star Tribune columnist Gail Rosenblum writes about 12 St. Olaf College art students who developed the exhibit as part of a class.

March 7, 2013
The Corporation for National and Community Service has honored St. Olaf College with a place on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts. This is the college’s fifth year on the list, and is a testament to the 59,000 hours of service that St. Olaf students have contributed to community development in the past year.

May 24, 2012
Students in Eric Fure-Slocum’s American Conversations course spent the year learning about engaged citizenship by interviewing community leaders — and then they teamed up with Meg Ojala’s photography class to create multimedia essays inspired by a New York Times project. The local League of Women Voters will use the finished products to promote voting and civic engagement.

March 15, 2012
With 67,900 community service hours contributed by St. Olaf students in the 2010–11 academic year, the Corporation for National and Community Service has once again honored the college with a place on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.
August, 2011
Laura Romeyn ’12 & Ben Golden ’12 spent the summer working with Professor Eric Fure-Slocum tacking the question: How can academic civic engagement contribute to students’ introduction to a liberal arts college?

June 9, 2011
St. Olaf students logged 61,479 hours of community service this year, earning the college a place on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.

June 2, 2011
Like many students across campus, members of Kathy Tegtmeyer Pak’s Immigration and Citizenship class presented the findings of their research at the end of the semester. But their audience wasn’t other students and faculty members — it was residents of Faribault, Minnesota, a town 20 miles south of St. Olaf College that was at the heart of their research.
May 17, 2011
Students from St. Olaf College presented their findings on immigration and diversity to members of the Faribault community. The presentations ranged from services and economic concerns to networking, communication and education, and were based off interviews with community members. Every journey starts with one step, every foundation is built upon the first brick and every story needs those first few words.

May 31, 2011
If there exists a book that every student in a college environmental studies course reads, it would likely be The Omnivore’s Dilemma. But how many students who have read Michael Pollan’s bestseller have visited one of the food producers he describes?

May 11, 2011
Lashbrook Park has benefited from community support since its 1991 establishment, funded by a grant from the MN Department of Trade and Economic Development with additional funds from the city and donations from St. Olaf and Northfield residents. Its establishment arose from efforts by nearby residents to keep an apartment complex off the land. Residents have since protected the park from hosting a baseball field, tennis courts and an archery range.

February 21, 2011
Psychology Dana Gross created a new course she calls Community Applications of Psychology. It was made possible with the help of the Bringing Theory to Practice grant project created by Nate Jacobi, associate director of civic engagement.

February 8, 2011
There’s something to be said for joining forces to create a more healthy and educated community, and that’s just what students at St. Olaf and Carleton colleges are in the process of setting into motion. “The project is designed to leverage the energy and skills of college students involved with service learning courses at St. Olaf and Carleton to increase awareness of healthy eating among K-12 students and other community members,” including those most at risk for obesity-related illnesses, said Nate Jacobi, associate director of civic engagement.

January 3, 2011
St. Olaf, Carleton and three community partners received a $25,000 grant to involve over 120 students from St. Olaf and Carleton in service-learning activities that will increase healthy eating among K-12 students and other community members during 2011.

September 3, 2010
Photo essay about the academic civic engagement component of the four-course American Conversations sequence that was taught by Eric Fure-Slocum and co-taught by Colin Wells, Matt Rohn, Judy Kutulas and Megan Feeney. It was put together by Julia Quanrun, an AmeriCorps member who worked with MN Campus Compact last spring.

June 18, 2010
A faculty member who routinely integrates civic engagement projects into his courses. A student who has worked tirelessly to bring education and opportunity to a remote village in Nepal. A local nonprofit organization that enables students to serve low-income residents.

February 5, 2010
Studying for tests and writing papers are no longer the only ways for some St. Olaf students to earn their grades. They’re also visiting residents at the Northfield Retirement Center, teaching local elementary school students how to reduce their waste, and serving meals at the Community Action Center.

December 21, 2009
After spending a semester studying the consequences of consumption — including participating in a weeklong project that challenged them to live a “zero-waste” lifestyle — students in one St. Olaf class took the lessons they learned into the community.

October 18, 2009
Meeting regularly with residents of the Northfield Retirement Center this fall provided one group of St. Olaf students studying the “how-to” of social work with a valuable hands-on learning experience. The interaction gave students the chance to experience an environment very different from the St. Olaf campus, says instructor Naurine Lennox ’64.
September 25, 2009
Many St. Olaf students love the various possibilities the community of Northfield offers. Last Thursday, students gathered in Viking Theater to hear about numerous opportunities to become active in the Northfield area.

March 20, 2009
Beginning in September, students taking classes in a variety of departments faced a revamped curriculum, opening the doors to civic engagement and a newfound appreciation for Northfield.

November 3, 2008
As the 2008 campaign season winds down, two St. Olaf College classes have teamed up to create a place for community members to come together and digest the results and meaning of this year’s election. The panel discussion will focus on the increased role of young people in this year’s elections. Hofrenning says younger people are embracing electoral politics this year in a way they haven’t in the past..

June 19, 2008
As a group of St. Olaf College faculty members offered a helping hand recently at two nonprofit organizations in Minneapolis, they were asked to put themselves in the shoes of their students. What type of support and guidance would St. Olaf students need if they were volunteering for these organizations as part of a civic engagement project required for one of their classes?

April 24, 2008
Thirty minutes, a classroom of eager kindergarten students and the task of teaching classical and operant conditioning: This was the assignment laid out before St. Olaf College psychology students Joseph Budish ’10, Adam Burman ’08 and Jacob Nelson ’10. The three introduced themselves and the project to the class, explaining that “training our pets at home is a form of conditioning,” Budish says.
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