McCormick Presidential Fellows 05-06 Quotes
The opportunity to gather community and educational leaders to discuss the educational, health care, and spiritual needs of marginalized women gives new energy to our efforts and helps us envision how our campus might enhance our response to the needs of others.
Judith A. Dwyer, Ph.D., President of St. Xavier University

Thanks to the Campus Compact's McCormick Presidential Civic Leader Fellow Grant, DePaul University has supported the Faith and Civic Engagement (FACE) project. This project assesses, strengthens and helps shape how our students connect their diverse faith commitments and inner convictions to the idea and practice of civic engagement as a lifelong commitment.

Our namesake, St. Vincent de Paul, was focused on improving the lives of France's marginalized people. Four hundred years later, DePaul continues that commitment and sustains a diversity of curricular and co-curricular commitments to civic engagement. We're honored to pilot a program that attempts to help students to connect their service experiences to their inner convictions, and hopefully support a commitment to civic engagement that will be life-long.

Father Dennis Holtschneider, President of DePaul University

“This project will have a ripple effect in the community and enhance the lives of all parties to the partnership. Most importantly, this type of education will transform students in ways that would not have happened had they not engaged in service-learning."

Chuck Middleton, PHD, President of Roosevelt

McCormick Presidential Fellows 2005-2006

Fr. Dennis Holtschneider, CM, DePaul University
The McCormick Presidential Civic Leader Fellow Grant at DePaul University will fund a series of dialogues focused on the interwoven themes of “Faith, Service, and Civic Engagement.” This grant will be used to try two strategies toward the support and formation for life-long service, learning, and civic engagement: (1) it brings our students together with community partners who have made this a life-long activity through either their career choices or commitment to civic engagement, and (2) it attempts to connect students’ diverse religious commitments and other inner convictions to the idea of civic engagement, so that one reinforces the other.

Dr. Richard F. Wilson, Illinois Wesleyan University
The new president of Illinois Wesleyan University will use this project to become part of a community action effort involving students, faculty members, and community leaders in supporting the work of Bloomington’s Heartland Head Start program. Two projects will be undertaken: (1) organize and assess Heartland’s early learning program and (2) develop Heartland’s Hispanic resource directory, thereby enhancing presidential insights and demonstrating the president’s commitment to civic engagement and leadership. This will further two objectives: embed service-learning and civic engagement as part of Illinois Wesleyan’s curriculum and presidential-university partnership within the community.

Dr. Paul C. Pribbenow, Rockford College
My proposal will focus on my work as part of the Higher Education Alliance of the Rock River Region (HEARR), a consortium of the chief executives of the four resident higher education institutions in the Rockford area – Northern Illinois University, Rock Valley College, the University of Illinois College of Medicine, and Rockford College – working on a variety of projects that bring our diverse programs and resources to bear on the educational needs of our region.

Specifically, I intend to work with my colleagues to organize at least three public events during the 2005-06 academic year, in which our institutions will offer leadership to an effort to engage our community in conversations about pressing local and regional issues, including public education, economic development, the role of the arts, and so forth. My hope is that these public events (and related activities on our campuses) will illustrate how various methods of encouraging discourse can be used to engage the public in what I call “extraordinary conversations” – conversations that are civil and constructive, and that lead to action.

Dr. Judith Dwyer, Saint Xavier University
This proposal seeks funding for a service learning project administered by the Saint Xavier University Women and Gender Studies Program to address the educational, health care, and spiritual needs of marginalized women in the local community.
The project will engage in community outreach and examine issues held in common among women. By sponsoring and hosting activities at Saint Xavier University, the campus will be the home for ongoing discussions of women’s experiences in an environment where women will fee nurtured, informed, and empowered.

Dr. Charles R. Middleton, Roosevelt University
Students in the course City and Citizen Empowerment will work with residents and staff of the Chicago Christian Industrial League (CCIL) during spring semesters 2005 and 2006 to identify needs and help implement two transitions: a changed mandate from HUD and a new facility at a new location. This work will be done in accordance with service-learning pedagogy under the direction of Associate Professor Pamela Robert. President Middleton and Patrick Green will also play an active role in coordinating the project, meeting with students and the CCIL representatives, reviewing the work, and reporting on outcomes to the University community and Illinois Campus Compact.

2007 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll Honor Roll with Distinction Members DePaul University Honor Roll Members Aurora University Benedictine University College of DuPage Columbia College Chicago Concordia University Dominican Univesity Illinois College Illinois Wesleyan University John A. Logan College McKendree College Roosevelt University St. Xavier University Southern Illinois University Carbondale Trinity Christian College All the honor roll members listed above are Illinois Campus Compact members.

This is a select group of universities who are chosen from an application process that describes in detail the university’s commitment to service.