American Councils for International Education is pleased to announce a call for applications for a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Training Program within the 2021–2022 Central Asia University Partnerships Grants Program (UniCEN). Funded by the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent, UniCEN builds capacity for substantive international engagement between higher education institutions in the United States and Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan).

The COIL Training Program is a four-week online training program offered between January 10 and February 4, 2022, to a selected cohort of U.S. and Central Asian teaching faculty to learn how to design and implement virtual exchange courses using the COIL model. Participants will receive guidance and coaching throughout February–May 2022 to launch their COIL courses.

The training program (in English) is open to teaching faculty from U.S. and Central Asian universities interested in co-designing and implementing virtual exchanges. Faculty members are encouraged to develop multidisciplinary courses across subject areas that jointly address United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs): clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy; decent work and economic growth; responsible consumption and production; and climate action.

Andrea Thomas, a leading expert in virtual exchanges, will support course design and content development, provide ongoing faculty mentorship, and host “office hours” to ensure proper guidance and course correction to launch virtual exchanges. Dr. Thomas will guide partners through the implementation of their courses to ensure that participants are on track to developing their COIL courses February–May 2022.

COIL Training Program participants will receive a stipend of $500 (before taxes) to help launch a virtual exchange between U.S. and Central Asian teaching faculty.

To apply: UniCEN Faculty Registration
Application deadline: Wednesday, December 15

After application submission, American Councils will support matchmaking among interested faculty members. Applicants will be notified of selection results in late December, and the online training program will begin on January 10, 2022, with an orientation session the week of January 6, 2022.

Contact Information
Washington, D.C.: Ksenia Ivanenko
Almaty, Kazakhstan: Maksat Koshkarbayev
Dushanbe, Tajikistan: Jace Livingston
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan: Olesia Gardner
Tashkent, Uzbekistan: Zukhriddin Nasirov

Are you already including hands-on experiences in your classes? Have you been thinking about new ways to engage students in their course work?  Buffalo State College’s Applied Learning initiative is pleased to announce an exciting opportunity to dive deep into applied learning. This two day mini-conference workshop, to be held Wednesday and Thursday, January 12 and 13, 2022, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., will explore applied learning as high-impact practices, tenets for effective and meaningful experiences, and the various ways applied learning is happening at Buffalo State.

Applied learning refers to an educational approach whereby students learn by engaging in direct application of skills, theories, and models. Buffalo State is committed to providing a variety of applied learning opportunities for students, including internships, service learning, research, civic engagement, and international and domestic study away. 

The workshop will cover

• forms of applied learning and strategies for integration;
• connecting student learning outcomes to applied learning activities;
• orientation, preparation, and training for student participants;
• monitoring and continuous improvement;
• structured reflection; and
• assessment and evaluation.                                                                                                  

This unique and collaborative workshop will bring together valuable expertise and resources from across campus, including the Teaching and Learning Center, Civic and Community Engagement, and Global Engagement. Don’t miss out on this important faculty learning opportunity! Email Ann Emo, applied learning coordinator, with questions, and register through the Workshop Registration System.

For more information about Applied Learning, please visit the website.

Advisers, please let students know about this multidisciplinary opportunity. Students in INE 390 (CRN 3857) will meet weekly in a seminar to approach an environmental issue through the lens of their area of study. Making use of COIL, we will collaborate with students and faculty from the Universidade do Minho in Portugal, culminating in a 10-day trip (SUNY travel approval pending). Please watch this informational video or contact Joy Guarino, interim director of global engagement, or Ann Emo, applied learning coordinator, for more information.

Please join the Civic and Community Engagement Office for the webinar "Virtual Community-Engaged Learning Modules in Canvas Common," presented by Becky Gesteland, Rich Fry, and Patrick Tadlock from Weber State University, on Thursday, December 9, at 2:00 p.m. This event is presented by the CUMU Learning and Sharing Virtual Series and is free to members of the Buffalo State community.

Given the closure of campus due to COVID-19, the Center for Community Engaged Learning at Weber State University needed a plan for fulfilling the center’s mission. They developed four online “Virtual Community Engaged Learning” (VCEL) modules, which they made available to faculty in Canvas Commons. They researched available literature and thereby collected or created virtual community engagement opportunities; adapted their student leader training; developed alternative CE projects; expanded their best practices for faculty; and studied the impacts on their community partners. This project provided them with an opportunity to learn about and share ideas for continuing community engagement objectives under “lockdown” restrictions and in virtual settings. In this session, the presenters will describe the research they conducted and preview the modules they created. They hope to expand the definition of “community engaged learning” (CEL); add to the methodologies available for teaching CEL; and develop sustainable practices for students, faculty, and community partners. After sharing the research and reflecting on the results, the group will seek input from the audience on their experiences.

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Immediately following will be "Revitalizing a University Neighborhood Association: A Collaborative, Student-Engaged Initiative," presented by Jeremy Vickers and Krista Brinser from Baylor University.

Come to learn and share best practices as the presenters reignite a decades-old neighborhood association with significant student leadership, community partners, and city support. Learn how they navigated the city to determine history, context, and ownership with engaging student leaders to co-own and operate a neighborhood association.

This event is presented by the CUMU Learning and Sharing Virtual Series and is free to members of the Buffalo State community. Please register online for this webinar and any others in the series you may be interested in.

Please join the Civic and Community Engagement Office for the webinar "Building Ethical and Collaborative Relationships with Community Partners: A Focus on White Saviorism, How It Shows Up in Community Engagement, and How to Address It," featuring speakers Jessica Hodge, Theresa Ricke-Kiely, and Kelly Sardon-Garrity from the University of St. Thomas, on Thursday, December 9, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. This event is presented by Campus Compact as part of its National Webinar Series and is free to members of the Buffalo State College community.

In this webinar we will discuss best practices of community engagement for curricular and co-curricular activities. Specifically, we will review how to engage with communities in ways that are authentic and mutually beneficial, and what it means to build sustainable relationships with community partners that are truly reciprocal. We will discuss White saviorism, and how White saviorism shows up with community engagement efforts. This webinar will involve participants reflecting on their own community engagement activities and how they may have done harm (even if unintended), and will encourage participants to strategize how they can commit to actions that build ethical and collaborative partnerships with community partners. The two learning objectives for this webinar are (1) to advance anti-racist community building, and (2) to build webinar participants’ confidence in being changemakers committed to actions that promote equity building and relationship healing in our communities.

Please register online for this webinar and any others in the National Webinar Series that you would like.

Please join us for pizza and a hands-on demonstration of how to change a bike tire on Thursday, December 2, at 12:15 p.m. in Classroom Building B118. RSVP online.

Do you have an interest in bicycles (recreation, transportation, hobby, and all things "velo")? Join the new Buffalo State Bike Group to build community and promote healthier lifestyles and social justice. The group is open to everyone—students, faculty, and staff, riders and non-riders alike—and is led by Luke Krieg, professor of sociology.

Other meetings will include

• organizing rides,
• offering safety courses,
• learning how to do repairs,
• developing transportation infrastructure/apps,
• adventure cycling/bikepacking,
• showing/discussing cycling films,
• procuring bikes.

Cosponsored by the Faculty-Student Association, the Employee Assistance Program, and Professional Development.

Please contact?Paula Madrigal, assistant director of prevention and health promotions, or Luke Krieg with questions.

Follow us on social media for?additional?updates or cancellations.

Like us?on?Facebook?(Buffalo State Health Promotions)
Follow us on?Twitter?(@BSCHealthPromo)
Watch us on?YouTube??(BSCHealthPromotions)
Find us on?Instagram??(@Buffalostate_healthpromotions)?
Follow us on?Pinterest?(bschealthpromo)

Suk Oh, professor in the Health, Nutrition, and Dietetics Department, is retiring. Please join us in wishing him well on Friday, December 3, from 2:15 to 3:00 p.m. in Caudell Hall 110. RSVP to colaiztm@buffalostate.edu.

Please join the Civic and Community Engagement Office for the webinar "Student Community Engagement in a Changing World," presented by Fletcher Beaudoin and Melia Tichenor of Portland State University, on Tuesday, December 7, at 1:00 p.m. This event is presented by the CUMU Learning and Sharing Virtual Series and is free to members of the Buffalo State community.

Our urban communities are facing a cascading set of vexing challenges that compel further action from university faculty, staff, and students. Portland State University (PSU) is changing its approach to community-based learning and campus-community partnerships to match the needs of its changing region. PSU has long embraced its community-engaged mission, which runs throughout its curricular and extracurricular offerings. This deep experience provides numerous examples of the critical roles that students play in serving their urban community both through their own individual participation in community work that matters most to them and through campus-community projects and relationships. As PSU's ongoing relationships with community partners continue to develop in response to the expanding needs, so will the opportunities for student involvement in these efforts. One strategy being pursued is to spend more time learning from the experiences of students so they can identify places where the institution can enhance or draw from existing student capacities and also where there are service gaps. The core goal is to support students in growing their social agency, which are the interests, skills, and knowledge needed for advancing positive change in the world. This session will explore examples where PSU students are contributing to the health and well-being of the broader community through extracurricular experiences and the critical role of extracurricular activities in building a student’s social agency. In addition, the session will highlight new innovations in extracurricular programming that can expand students' confidence and commitment to advance change in their community.

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Immediately following will be "Best Practices for College Access Past, Present, and National Pandemic," presented by Natissia Small of University of Missouri–St Louis. 

College access providers continue to serve in a critical role for providing supports to promote high school completion and college matriculation. The award-winning UMSL Bridge Program has received state, local, and national recognition for college access supports provided to the St. Louis community. This session will provide attendees with best practices utilized to maintain effective college access supports while enhancing services to middle and high school students.

This event is presented by the CUMU Learning and Sharing Virtual Series and is free to members of the Buffalo State community. Please register online for this webinar and any others in the series you may be interested in.

Please join the Civic and Community Engagement Office for the webinar "Town/Gown Social Justice Initiatives: University of La Verne and Cultural Awareness and Inclusion," presented by Devorah Lieberman, University of La Verne, and Gil Ivey, Cultural Awareness and Inclusion (CASI), on Monday, December 6, at 2:00 p.m. This event is presented by the CUMU Learning and Sharing Virtual Series and is free to members of the Buffalo State community.

The University of La Verne is located in the city of La Verne, 35 miles east of Los Angeles. Several years ago, leaders from the city of La Verne and leaders from the University of La Verne joined together to create a partnership that focuses on how, together, to formalize an initiative to address “belongingness” and inclusion for all constituents at the university and throughout the city. The group that has been officially endorsed by the La Verne City Council is named: CASI: Cultural Awareness and Social Inclusion. The president of CASI, Gil Ivey, and the president of the University of La Verne are pleased to participate in the CUMU panel. Their presentation will focus on why the initiative was created, how the initiative was created, and the goals and results of the initiative in the community of La Verne and at the University of La Verne.

The official mission of CASI—Cultural Awareness Social Inclusion—in the City of La Verne is to educate, inform, encourage and build awareness. The focus of the committee is to provide understanding that every inhabitant is entitled to equal accommodations with the city; this includes economic, political, public services, and educational opportunities.

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Immediately following is "Mapping Ecosystems in a Virtual World," presented by Gabriel Velez, Saul Lopez, and Veronica Mancheno, Marquette University. 

Systems-level thinking holds vast potential for addressing deeply embedded inequities in urban contexts, but the material resources and time to conceptualize issues at this level are often challenging for local nonprofit organizations. Mapping communities and the partnerships that make them up is no easy feat, much less in the middle of a pandemic. Rather than use this constraint to pause its work, the Black and Latino/a Ecosystem and Transition (BLEST) Hub decided to pursue the question of community engagement from a virtual angle. Through many online conversations, data gathering, and workshopping of visualizations, the BLEST Hub created a public-facing asset map of the ecosystem of support organizations for Milwaukee-area Black and Latino/a students. To date, the visualization has been positively received by community organizations and activists, but considerable challenges remain in continuing to make it productive and fruitful for addressing inequities in these young people’s lives.

Their presentation will highlight the methodologies used to compile, evaluate, and represent data onto their  asset map, powered by KUMU. This interactive visualization charters the network of nonprofits, organizations, and institutions that serve Milwaukee students from middle school through postsecondary completion or entrance to the workforce. The BLEST Hub team will share initial takeaways, research questions, and programming efforts that have come out of this project, as well as challenges and reflections on building out these systems understanding of an urban context from their positionality at a private, predominantly, and historically White institution with a complicated history of community engagement. This presentation addresses the following questions: (1) How can the process and product of visualizing ecosystems serve urban communities and members who live within them? (2) How can this process serve to effectively engage community partners? (3) How can asset maps and visualizations support synergies across organizations, institutions, and government efforts? (4) How does the meaning of “partnership” shift when we enter a virtual/hybrid world?

The project is still in its initial stages. Currently, they are seeking to engage a broader audience in hopes of creating dialogue and sharing key takeaways when working with local nonprofit leaders in engaging the issues of serving Black and Latino/a students.

This event is presented by the CUMU Learning and Sharing Virtual Series and is free to members of the Buffalo State community. Please register online for this webinar and any others in the series you may be interested in.

The Buffalo State College community is saddened by the death of Colleen H. Frey, associate professor emerita of fashion and textile technology, who died November 20, 2021. Dr. Frey joined the college in 1980 and retired in 2004. She is survived by three children and four grandchildren. The family will receive friends at the C. Mertz and Son Funeral Home, 911 Englewood Avenue, today, November 24, from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Joseph University Church, 3269 Main Street, Buffalo, 14214, on Friday, November 26, at 9:30 a.m. More information is available online.