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Summer Institute 2021

The Applied Learning Summer Institute is a signature program for the Office of Applied Learning. Started in 2013, the Summer Institute was originally developed to provide an opportunity for faculty interested in learning more about implementing applied learning in their classrooms. Over the years the Summer Institute has evolved to include staff, students, and community partners.

The 10th iteration of the Applied Learning Summer Institute was held on July 28 & July 29, 2021. The Applied Learning Summer Institute 2021 featured presentations from many funded projects and special initiatives in Applied Learning & Community Engagement at UNCW.

Session recordings from the 2021 Applied Learning Summer Institute are included below.

Wednesday, July 28: Day 1

Welcome & Institute Overview

James DeVita, Director of High Impact Pathways

Session #1A: Mindful UNCW & Hip Hop ILM

Mindful UNCW is a campus-wide initiative designed to increase mindfulness practice among students, faculty, and staff across curricular, co-curricular, and workplace spaces.

Presenters: Jacquelyn Lee & Beverly McGuire

Hip Hop ILM is a partnership between Dreams of Wilmington and the UNCW Department of Music, funded by the Applied Learning and Community Engagement Pedagogy Initiative Award from the Office of Community Engagement and Applied Learning. The collaboration brings hip-hop songwriting experiences to Dreams’ students and supports university music students’ development in writing original music.

Session #1B: A Deeper Dive into Applied Learning Assessment

Assessment has been a critical component of applied learning at UNCW since it was a required element of the QEP known as ETEAL (experiencing transformative education through applied learning). Since the QEP expired in 2018, the Office of Applied Learning has worked with Assessment Fellows to move towards a consulting approach to assessment of applied learning. In this session participants will learn about the evolution of applied learning assessment approaches, including an interdisciplinary large-scale qualitative assessment completed in Summer 2020 and ongoing efforts to develop scalable quantitative assessments.

Presenters: Runa Winters, Josalin Hunter & Jenn Vanderminden

Session #2A: iTall & HIPS at UNCW

iTall : Impacting Teaching & Learning Leadership in STEM Classrooms: This initiative brings together the principal-preparation and the teacher-preparation programs by providing the mechanism for MSA students to utilize observation protocols in the secondary STEM fields and provide feedback in a two-way dialogue that improves communication and collaboration between the K-12 principal preparation (MSA) program and the teacher-preparation program.

Presenters: Bill Sterrett & Ginger Rhodes
iTall article in Journal of Educational Supervision

High Impact Practices (HIPS) have been the focus of recent efforts at UNCW to connect existing curricular and co-curricular learning experiences. This presentation will share updates about work that was completed by the HIPS Council at UNCW in Spring 2021 and share initial ideas for conceptualizing HIPS at UNCW in the future.

Presenter: James DeVita

Session #2B: Interdisciplinary Minority Student Research Group (IMSRG)

This project supports the development of an Interdisciplinary Minority Student Research Group (IMSRG) with 3 goals: (1) provide an opportunity for minority students to gain research mentorship via faculty with an interest in serving these communities; (2) invite students to share their own interests and needs in the context of the university community; and (3) help students gain self-efficacy in conducting research within their own local communities.

Presenters: Josalin Hunter, Addie China & students

Session #3A: Teaching Social Justice and Diversity & International Programs During and Post-Pandemic

Teaching Social Justice and Diversity will include presentations and discussion about using applied learning approaches to teach courses focused on social justice and diversity.

Presenters: Kristin Bolton & Erica Noles

International Programs During and Post-Pandemic focuses on education abroad experiences that were sustained online during the pandemic as well as discuss opportunities for engagement as we return to campus in Fall 2021 and beyond.

Presenters: Kara Pike Inman and Jennifer Fernandez-Villa
Click Here to Access the International Programs Powerpoint

Session #3B: Arts Equity & Engagement

The Arts Equity Fellowship Program was a collaborative engagement initiative that worked with students, community-based artists, and faculty mentors in the development of an interactive arts installation with a focus on social justice topics. As a pilot program, the first semester is broken up into two cohorts, each tackling their own focus: Just Us: Because It's Time and Healing Generational Trauma. This session will also include discussion about Blackness as a Framework.

Presenters: Katie Crosby, Dare Coulter, Robin Post, Gene Felice, Janna Robertson, Schala Harper & Anka Roberto

Session #4A: Making the Link & District C

Making the Link : A Model for Embedding Community-Based Research across the Curriculum (CRAC) This initiative is designed to provide sociology and criminology students with multiple opportunities to engage in community-based research with a community partner. The CRAC model involves the strategic integration of specific components of a community-based research project into courses at the 200-, 300-, and 400-levels of the sociology and criminology curricula. The first iteration of CRAC model implementation involve s the Wilmington Police Department (WPD) as the community partner organization. This three-year scaffolded, community-based research project (titled “Social Determinants of Crime”) focuses on WPD’s District 3 jurisdiction.

Presenters: Christy Lanier, Jill Waity & Jenn Vanderminden
Access CRAC Presentation Here

District C provides a model for engaging students in solving real world problems. The District C model relies on expert coaching and diverse teams of students to solve real problems for real businesses. The District C model has 4 critical parts: flexible mindsets and tools, diverse teams & real problems, purposeful coaching, and smart implementation. Central to the model is a Coaching Institute where future adopters of the District C model engage in an applied approach to not only learn about the model but experience it as students in its implementation.

Presenters: Jill Waity & Alicia Sellon
Access District C Powerpoint Here

Session #4B: Community College Collaborative (3C) & the Community College Undergraduate Research Experience (CCURE)

The UNCW 3C Collaborative is a new university-community college partnership initiative created to develop strong future leaders for North Carolina’s community colleges. The goal of the collaborative is to establish authentic partnerships that are innovative and dynamic and can provide experiential and applied learning opportunities for the professional growth of current and aspiring community college leaders.

The Community College Undergraduate Research Experience (CCURE) is a new initiative at UNCW that is intended to open pathways to undergraduate research for community college students prior to transferring to a 4-year institution. The CCURE pilot program in Spring 2021 engaged with partners at Cape Fear CC, Craven CC, and Lenoir CC.

Presenters: Denise Henning, Kristi Wiley, Kathleen Gallman, Deborah Grimes & Jarrett Whelan
Access CCURE Presentation Here
CCURE Assessment: Executive Summary Report

Keynote Panel: Student Engagement in AL & HIPS during the Pandemic

Current students and alumni will share their experiences engaging in multiple applied learning and high impact practices (HIPS) at UNCW.

Student Panelist: Sam Shores
Alumni Panelist: Savannah Miller
- Watch Savannah's Research Story Here

Awards & Recognition

SECU Student Fellows
Applied Learning Awards

Thursday, July 29: Collaboration Sessions

Teaching Children Resilience through Art

During Spring 2021, we piloted the JUST US: Because It’s Time Curriculum in 6 middle school settings. This interdisciplinary middle school unit connects the Community Resiliency Model with a monument created by Dare Coulter that focuses on the resiliency of the Black residents in Wilmington, North Carolina. At the end of the pilot project, we showcased the students' resilience art pieces at the Cameron Art Museum along with each student’s story of what their art meant to them. In this presentation, you will hear about the project from the point of view of a teacher, parent, and student. You will also get to see examples of the final art projects and be the first to have access to the updated curriculum!

Session facilitated by Janna Robertson, Dare Coulter, Schala Harper, Kimberley Cheatham, parents & students

Global Partnership Network: Ireland

Multiple academic programs and faculty members have developed education abroad experiences that take place in Ireland. During this session you will learn about ongoing efforts to develop a collaborative network among those programs to establish a Global Partnership Network in Ireland.

Session facilitated by James DeVita, Angelena Vandenberg, Lori Dugan & Kayte O'Malley

Arts Engagement Council

This session is focused on UNCW's ongoing efforts to develop an Arts Equity Council to support interdisciplinary collaborations in arts engagement.

Session facilitated by James DeVita & Katie Crosby

For more information about the Arts Engagement Council or any Arts-Based Learning projects or initiatives at UNCW, please reach out to James DeVita devitaj@uncw.edu and/or Katie Crosby crosbyk@uncw.edu via email.