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For Immediate Release
Contact:
Jennifer O'Brien, Project Coordinator, Bringing Theory to Practice Project
202-387-3760, ext. 815
OBrien@aacu.org
Bringing Theory to Practice Project Awards $1 million in New Grants to Foster Students' Civic Development and Their Psychosocial Well-Being
Six Colleges and Universities Chosen to Develop Sustained Opportunities for Transformational Educational Experiences
Washington, DC—April 20, 2010—The Bringing Theory to Practice Project (BTtoP), sponsored by the Charles Engelhard Foundation and the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation, and developed in partnership with the Association of American Colleges and Universities, announced that matching grants totaling more than $1 million have been awarded to six colleges and universities for work from 2010 to 2012 to develop transformative educational experiences. Six institutions—Otterbein University, the State University of New York at Cortland, Tufts University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Georgetown University, and Wagner College—were chosen from among fifty outstanding institutional proposals.
These institutions will develop or expand initiatives that foster college students’ civic development and their psychosocial well-being. Each grant recipient will also give institutional priority to the evaluation and sustainability of initiatives that address increasing opportunities for students to have transformative educational experiences and for institutions to align priorities and practices so as to make such experiences both expected and available.
“This round of Bringing Theory to Practice grants will support the selected institutions as they make extraordinary commitments to the learning, psychosocial well-being, and civic development of their students,” said Project Director Don Harward. “We are honored to support their excellent work, as well as the work already underway on nearly 300 campuses around the nation having some connection to the BTtoP Project. It is with particular gratitude to the S. Engelhard Center, the Charles Engelhard Foundation, the Christian A, Johnson Endeavor Foundation, and the William and Mary Greve Foundation that we have the pleasure of making this public announcement.”
More than fifty outstanding institutional proposals were received in response to the Project’s RFP, each well-suited to participate as a “Demonstration Site”— the BTtoP Project’s most robust initiative of campus support and research. The six chosen campuses are: Otterbein University, the State University of New York-College at Cortland, Tufts University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Georgetown University and Wagner College. The diversity in the group of institutions involved is most dynamically reflected in the thoroughness and insights contained in each institution’s approach to its work, and to the achievement of its institutional goals, as well as the goals of the Demonstration Site program outlined in the RFP.
This newest round of grants will support institutions in developing and assessing more integrated, community-based curricula, advancing collaborative curricular and cocurricular initiatives, and new ways to generate longitudinal data on the impact of civic engagement programs on student learning and well-being.
Evaluation is instrumental to this initiative. All six participating campuses will collect data through scientific research and gather empirical evidence that will contribute to our collective knowledge base about the civic and psychosocial well-being relationship, as well as the sustainability of best practices. Evaluation will operate at the institutional and cross-site levels.
The increased demand on institutions to think critically and purposefully about the sustainability and assessment of their plans and initiatives on campus will not only improve the overall effect of these programs on the campuses themselves, but also on the higher education community at-large, confirming that amplified attention and re-evaluation of college and university priorities and processes can truly generate transformational student learning.
For additional information regarding the project and specific summaries of each institution’s proposed project activities, see www.bringingtheorytopractice.org.
About AAC&U
AAC&U is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education. Its members are committed to extending the advantages of a liberal education to all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. Founded in 1915, AAC&U now comprises 1,200 member institutions—including 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.
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