Press Release
CONTACT: Debra Humphreys
(202) 387-3760
E-mail: humphreys@aacu.or
Professor Fredric A. Waldstein of Wartburg College Begins Term as Faculty Fellow
Waldstein Serving with the Corporation for National and Community Service
Washington, DC—October 30, 2003—The Institute for Experiential Learning (IEL) and the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) announce that Professor Fredric A. Waldstein, Irving R. Burling chair in leadership and professor of political science at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, is serving as this fall's faculty fellow. The program is part of the Faculty Fellowship Internship Program sponsored by IEL in cooperation with AAC&U.
Professor Waldstein currently serves as the director of the Institute for Leadership Education and the Leadership Certificate Program at Wartburg College and has extensive experience in service learning, especially in the context of leadership education. Prior to coming to Wartburg College as an associate professor of political science in 1989, Professor Waldstein served as assistant professor of government at Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts, where he also served as director of the Forum on Government and the Massachusetts Economy. While at Wartburg, Professor Waldstein has also served as co-coordinator of the college's minor in Environmental Studies. In addition to his service-learning teaching experience, he has conducted extensive research on the relationship between service-learning and leadership development and the relationship between community service, service-learning, and cognitive, civic, and social development among 9th and 10th graders. His recently published articles include “An Interdisciplinary Study of Service-Learning Outcomes,” in Service-Learning Through a Multidisciplinary Lens, and “Service-Learning and Students' Personal and Civic Development” (co-authored with Todd C. Reiher) in the Journal of Experiential Education. Professor Waldstein received his B.A. from Wartburg College and his Ph.D. in political science from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
While serving as fellow at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), Waldstein is working on a research project examining how resources are integrated across programs within the CNCS and the effectiveness of various collaborations within CNCS programs, including those among specific programs, institutions of higher education, and community agencies and organizations.
“Dr. Waldstein is doing very important work,” said Mary Ryan, the executive director of IEL. “He is taking a broad view of the concept of how organizations can collaborate for the greater good of the community. His background makes him ideally suited to pursue this project through the faculty fellow program and his placement with the CNCS enables him to work on these issues both on a national and local level."
The Faculty Fellows Internship Program enables faculty to broaden their professional, disciplinary, and personal horizons, reinvigorating their own work as scholars, teachers, and educational leaders. Faculty fellows spend one full semester in the Washington, DC area immersed in a challenging professional environment, such as a government agency, nonprofit organization, national association, museum, foundation, or other site. In collaboration with local leaders, participants investigate applied areas of knowledge, develop skills, and explore the systems and policies of their host organizations or agencies. Through these professional internship experiences, faculty fellows return to campus with new insights about how the aims of liberal education can be enhanced by high quality experiential learning programs. For information about the program, see www.ielnet.org/faculty_fellows.html.
IEL is a recognized leader in the field of experiential education, creating Washington, D.C.-based learning opportunities for U.S. and international students. Its highly successful academic programs include the Embassy and Diplomatic Scholars Program, which arranges student internships in embassies and international organizations, and the Capitol Experience, which places interns at sites such as the National Institutes of Health, the Smithsonian Institution, and legislative offices on Capitol Hill. IEL is committed to individual development through excellence in experiential education.
AAC&U is the leading national association devoted to advancing and strengthening liberal learning for all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. Since its founding in 1915, AAC&U's membership has grown to more than 1000 accredited public and private colleges and universities of every type and size.
AAC&U functions as a catalyst and facilitator, forging links among presidents, administrators, and faculty members who are engaged in institutional and curricular planning. Its mission is to reinforce the collective commitment to liberal education at both the national and local levels and to help individual institutions keep the quality of student learning at the core of their work as they evolve to meet new economic and social challenges. Information about AAC&U membership, programs, and publications can be found at www.aacu.org.
