The purpose of this site is to discuss the
About American Studies 057 Service Learning Projects
YES I CAN
AMST 057 students working with the YES I CAN program completed a 3-phase service-learning project this semester. First, the group traveled to the program's home site, Children's Chapel United Church of Christ in Graham, NC, where they ran a day-long workshop for YES I CAN students, focusing on various aspects of the college application process--scholarships, financial aid, essay writing, presentation skills, etc. Second, the AMST 057 students hosted YES I CAN students on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus in late March. The day's events included icebreakers, panels on student life, a cross-campus scavenger hunt, and entertainment provided by the UNC Black Student Movement's Gospel Choir and the UNC Walk-Ons. Finally, in mid-April AMST 057 students prepared and presented recommendations to the YES I CAN Advisory Board on ways to strengthen the program in three areas: fundraising, programming, and organization structure. This final presentation represented the synthesis of AMST 057 students' experience with the YES I CAN students and staff and their own research on the key qualities of successful non-profits.
ACCESS Website Creators
The ACCESS Website Creators built this website using information gathered and created by other AMST 057students during their projects with YES I CAN, Hoop Dreams, NC College Access Conference, and NC Society of Hispanic Professionals. Dianna Houenou, Patrick Jadali, David Lao, and Caroline Kuttner (pictured left) learned how to use Dreamweaver to create webpages and format information with accessible design. The students used much creativity and collaboration in organizing and constructing the site.
Hoop Dreams
Shivani Patel, EricaYoung, Catinca Bucsan, and Stephanie Meiners have researched the Disability Services programs for various public and private colleges and universities throughout North Carolina and its surrounding states to further develop Hoop Dreams' College Planning Guide for the parents and older kids in the program. They are going to put this information together for Hoop Dreams’ updated website which should be up by the end of this year. They also volunteered at the Basketball Marathon on March 29th. This is Hoop Dreams’ biggest fund raiser, and this year through sponsors and individual donations, they raised over $40,000 for the program.
NC College Access Conference
As interns for the NCCA conference, Amanda Younger and Stephanie Leigh had first hand experience seeing educators from both colleges and high schools come together to help ensure college access for prospective students. The annual North Carolina College Access Conference was held in Greensboro, NC this year, and was an opportunity for educators from both sides of the college admissions process to come together to share information and resources to help students get to college. Stephanie and Amanda prepared for session changes, helped with the prize drawing, greeted participants, fielded questions, and were friendly faces. They also attended various sessions and learned more about the efforts and resources that are being assembled to aid future college applicants. The respected authors, college faculty, staff, students, and organization leaders all shared the same purpose: to increase the opportunity for high school students to gain college access.
NC Society of Hispanic Professionals
Gabriel Retana explored options for a college planning guide for Latino high school students. This guide will include preparation ideas for each of the four years of high school, suggestions for seeking financial aid, and tips about standardized testing. Gabriel compiled tips from a variety of sources for parents to help their children get into and pay for college.
This page written by American Studies 057 Participants