Gulf South Summit to Mark Decade of Service Learning, Civic Engagement
Thu, 03/15/2012 - 05:07pm | By: David Tisdale
A decade of transforming lives and communities for the better will be celebrated March 21-23 when The University of Southern Mississippi hosts the Gulf South Summit on Service Learning and Civic Engagement Through Higher Education at the Hattiesburg Lake Terrace Convention Center. The summit was first held at the Southern Miss Gulf Park Campus in Long Beach 10 years ago.
Incorporating the theme "Transforming Lives Through Collaboration, Community and Citizenship," the summit will include informative keynote sessions and workshops designed to help participants meet service learning goals at their respective institutions.
Dr. Richard Conville, a professor of communication studies at Southern Miss and a member of the Mississippi Commission for Volunteer Service, said approximately 400 faculty and support staff from 30-35 universities and colleges are scheduled to participate.
“This will truly be a national summit, drawing practitioners and opinion leaders in service learning from across the country,” Conville said.
Southern Miss alumna Robin Robinson, president of the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning, will give the welcoming address. Tom Schnaubelt, executive director of the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University, will also be a guest at the summit. Before joining the Haas Center, Schnaubelt established the Mississippi Center for Community and Civic Engagement at Southern Miss.
Keynote session presenters include author and journalist Krista Tippett, host of National Public Radio's “Krista Tippett on Being”; Jeffrey Howard, Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning; Trish Kalivoda, Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement and Cassie Simon, Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship; and Patti Clayton, senior scholar with the Center for Service and Learning, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis.
For more information about this event, online visit www.usm.edu/gulf-south-summit