PACE, Office of Diversity and Inclusion Launch New Civic Reflection Fellows Program

SALISBURY, MD---How do conversations impact student learning or dispositions?

This is the question explored through the Civic Reflection Fellows, a new Salisbury University program offered in a partnership between the Institute for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

Two faculty, Dr. Jennifer Cox (Communication) and Dr. Stacia Kock (Bellavance Honors Program), and 15 students are in the inaugural cohort. They will help facilitate and assess the impacts of civic reflection conversations in a variety of classroom and extracurricular spaces.

Civic reflection uses short sources from the humanities to help groups of people explore important or potentially challenging topics.

Cox will explore the potential value of civic reflection to help students in public affairs reporting better understand their audiences and the value of their work to the broader community.

“It’s another way that we can try to approach investigative research into race issues on campus and in the community,” she said.

Kock is working to embed civic reflection into her Honors 112 course, Defiant Women: Politics and Policy, as well as into the sophomore Learning Living Community in SU’s Glenda Chatham and Robert G. Clarke Honors College. Kock hopes that “civic reflection might offer a way to enhance high-impact practices, something that our honors faculty and students are interested in.”

Their work will build on a large-scale question bank developed through one of SU’s Faculty Learning Communities.

“That survey has more than 100 items related to several of the new student learning outcomes,” said Dr. Alexander Pope, PACE director. “We are excited to test whether brief interventions like civic reflection result in measurable changes in those outcomes.”

Questions relate to intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, oral communication, inclusion and diversity, and civic and community engagement.

The Student Fellows will help facilitate reflections in those courses, as well as other spaces around campus. Through the partnership with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, students will have the chance to lead reflections that focus specifically on issues such as identity, intersectionality, race, marginalization and acceptance.

“This program will build on the groundwork established through previous initiatives, such as the President’s 21-Day Anti-Racism Challenge and SU’s inaugural Anti-Racism Summit,” said Dr. Karen Olmstead, SU provost and senior vice president of academic affairs. “These are the types of conversations we encourage campuswide.”

The program is funded in part through SU’s Fulton Public Humanities Grant.

Faculty Fellows receive training, research support and a $1,000 stipend on completion of their work. Student Fellows receive training, facilitation support and up to $1,000 for their participation.

Student Fellows in the inaugural cohort include Brenny Benitez of Hyattsville, MD; Cassandra Duncan of West Friendship, MD; Jelani Gayle and Amanda Thompson of Waldorf, MD; Mackenzie Nickle of Columbia, MD; Ryan Njoroge of Owings Mills, MD; Wayne Outlaw of Cambridge, MD; Margaret Porath and Yasmina Saba of Annapolis; Noelle Rash of Delmar, DE; Jirah Ross of Mardela Springs, MD; Morgan Rush of Conowingo, MD; Janat Shahbaz of Salisbury; and Katelin Stella-Breeding of Federalsburg, MD.

For more information call 410-543-6030 or visit the SU website.