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Texas Campus Compact is looking for presenters and speakers for our Community Service Learning Professionals Conference, July 29 &30th!

Texas Camopus Compact is looking for presenters/speakers in the following areas for our summer conference at St. Mary's University, San Antonio Texas:

Texas Campus Compact is pleased, and excited to welcome Courtney Medford to our staff. Courtney currently studies communication at St. Edward's University. Classified as a Junior, she specializes in areas of public relations, and advertising, and hoping to pursue a career in one of these fields. Courtney is an active member and Secretary of the St. Edward's chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) working to recruit new members, assist in fundraising events, and contribute to the organization's Chapter and National blog.

Courtney previously worked as a summer Intern at Impinj in Seattle, Washington in 2009. Her experience as an assistant to different departments such as human resources, operations, and even engineering helped her achieve well-rounded knowledge and understanding about the different aspects of a company.

Previously, Courtney was involved with a dance company in Dallas studying ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, and hip hop earning numerous scholarships, awards, and even the chance to perform in an Off-Broadway production in New York. Her studies not only helped her gain better insight into the art, but acted as the core for developing life-long skills in work ethic such as persistence, passion, and patience.

Courtney comes to Texas Campus Compact with great enthusiasm hoping to better understand the importance of the communication in the workplace. She is ready to represent TxCC with excellence and share the importance of service-learning and community service paired with academics.

How Can Engaged Campuses Improve Student Success in College? (from National Campus Compact)

Concern about college access and success in the United States is growing, with reason. There are substantial gaps in educational opportunity and attainment by race and ethnicity, by gender, and most starkly by socioeconomic status: only 12% of students whose families fall in the bottom income quartile earn a bachelor’s degree by age 24, compared with 22% of those in the middle quartiles and 73% from the top quartile (Engle and O’Brien, 2007).

Earning a bachelor’s degree by age 24 is not the only measure of student success; almost half of all U.S. undergraduates attend two-year colleges, and a more accurate picture would require data that account for students’ varied goals and enrollment at multiple institutions. Yet disparities clearly exist in high school graduation, college enrollment, and college completion rates. These disparities have a major social and economic impact; the public and private benefits of higher education include improved earnings, health, productivity, and innovation, as well as increased involvement in civic life through voting, service, and giving (Institute for Higher Education Policy, 1998). It may be argued, therefore, that expanding college access and success is vital to the well-being of our increasingly diverse democracy.

COMPACT ANNOUNCEMENTS

CAMPUS COMPACT PARTNERING WITH NERCHE

Campus Compact will join NERCHE for the 2010 Carnegie Community Elective Classification. Campus Compact will organize training opportunities to assist campuses in the process. There are plans to feature presentations on the application process at regional conferences, a national conference, and a national webinar. Campus Compact has worked directly with the Carnegie Foundation and gained exclusive rights to posting successful 2008 applications.

To view the applications, go to http://www.compact.org/ under “What’s New”.

HOUSE AND SENATE FINISH CONSOLIDATED APPROPRIATIONS ACT OF 2010

The House and Senate have approved appropriations that exceed $1.1 billion for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), which is the largest appropriation in CNCS history.

The bill will allow CNCS to strengthen and expand existing programs and invest in new initiatives. Following Senate approval on December 13, the appropriations bill was sent to the President for his final approval and signature.

For a press release from CNCS on the Congressional approval of the agency's FY 2010 budget, see attachment to this e-mail

For more information on the FY 2010 budget from CNCS, go to www.nationalservice.gov/about/budget/index.asp

For a complete budget summary chart for the Corporation for National and Community Service, including a comparison of FY 2010 Omnibus, House, Senate, and Administration figures, see attachment to this e-mail

Patricia Spencer Potyka
Executive Director
Texas Campus Compact
Board Status Report
February 26, 2010 -NEXT BOARD MEETING: Please let me know what dates in April and May work best for you and I will coordinate with Charlie’s schedule.

(new!)TxCC to offer our first-ever Request for Proposals for Regional Conferences

Our Executive Director will be traveling around the state of Texas this Spring helping Texas Campus Compact members navigate the Carnegie Classification. Patricia's presentation: Meet the Carnegie Classification, has already received rave reviews. If your campus would like assistance in this applying for this important distinction, please email: patricia@texascampuscompact.org

This is a FREE service for members of The Compact.
Non-Members: $1,500.00

Texas Campus Compact has formed a new partnership with Office Depot which allows Texas Campus Compact members special prices and discounting on Office Depot products. Office Depot is proud to offer an incentive to the members of Texas Campus Compact. Office Depot is offering our members a variety of ways to take advantage of this discount. You may shop on-line, register your credit card to shop in one of their 1100 retail stores nation wide, or you may phone in order to customer service. Or Click this link:

If you have questions or need more assistance, please e-mail Lee Dolease at Office Depot.

Today, the House of Representatives is considering H.R. 2847, the Jobs for Main Street Act of 2010, which has two main components: creating and saving jobs and helping the unemployed while they seek work. The bill includes $200 million for the Corporation for National and Community Service, which could fund an estimated 22,000 national service positions in AmeriCorps*State and National and AmeriCorps*VISTA. Similar to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that passed in February, the measure would supplement or expand existing AmeriCorps grants.

If you would like to contact your Representative to express support for the bill:

1. If you need help determining the members of your congressional delegation, visit www.congress.org. This database will provide you with contact information for your elected officials.

2. If contacting by phone, you can call your congressperson directly or be connected through the House Operator (202-225-3121). Once connected, identify yourself as a constituent and ask to speak to the Legislative Assistant in change of national service and education issues. Use the message below for talking points.

3. If contacting by email, please feel free to cut and paste the message below into an email or online form found on your congressperson's Web site. Remember to insert the representative's name in place of the blanks.

I am writing to ask Representative __________ to support H.R. 2847, the Jobs for Main Street Act of 2010, which is on the floor of the House of Representatives today.

H.R. 2847 includes $200 million for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), which could fund an estimated 22,000 national service positions in AmeriCorps*State and National and AmeriCorps*VISTA. At a time when our communities are facing so many critical challenges because of the recession, national service is a powerful and proven resource that helps build the capacity of community agencies and nonprofits that are struggling to assist all the citizens in need. Americans are stepping forward in record numbers to serve, and this bill will help address that demand with an investment in the national service infrastructure that will leverage exponentially more local volunteers and non-federal resources.

This is an innovative way to deal with extraordinary job loss, providing participants with training that prepares them for future employment and post-service education awards that make higher education more attainable.

I hope that Representative __________ will support H.R. 2847, the Jobs for Main Street Act. Thank you.

THE NATIONAL STUDENT CONFERENCE ON SERVICE & SOCIAL ACTION (formerly known as the COOL conference)

March 19-21, 2010
The Clinton School of Public Service, Little Rock, Arkansas

Registration for the IMPACT Conference is officially open! Campus Compact schools are eligible for a significant discount if you register by January 22, 2010.
Join college students, administrators, faculty, national nonprofit organizations, socially-responsible companies and many others this spring at the Clinton School of Public Service for the convening of campus community members involved in service, activism, politics, advocacy, and other socially responsible work across philosophical and ideological lines.

Students will have an opportunity to:

    * Present a workshop at a national conference
    * Attend thought-provoking student-lead workshops and plenary sessions
    * Attend a Hunger Banquet
    * Network with representatives of non-profit agencies and companies at the Opportunities Fair
    * Listen to nationally recognized keynote speakers and more!

To learn more about the IMPACT Conference and to register, please visit www.impactconference.org.

Follow the conference on Twitter at http://twitter.com/impactconf

UNITED WE SERVE: THE PRESIDENT’S CALL TO SERVICE ON MLK DAY

The United We Serve partners ask you to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a national day of service on January 18, 2010. As part of his United We Serve initiative, President Obama is calling on Americans to make the King Holiday 'a day on, not a day off,' and to make an ongoing commitment to serve throughout the year. Join United We Serve in various service activities, including:

•    Click here for event organization resources: http://www.mlkmobilization.org/resources.html
•    You can post your MLK Day volunteer opportunities and find more information at www.serve.gov

Anchor's speech pushes service

By Alex Geiser

Daily Texan Staff

Published: Thursday, November 5, 2009

Curt Youngblood/The Daily Texan

John Quinones, author of Heroes Among Us and host of ABC’s “What Would You Do?” speaks at Book People on Wednesday afternoon. Quinones told stories from his career as a correspondent for ABC News.

John Quinones, an ABC news anchor who grew up in San Antonio, stressed the importance of people engaging their communities and lending a helping hand to others at a book signing Wednesday.

Quinones, who has worked for ABC since 1982, was invited to Austin by the Texas Campus Contact, a nonprofit organization that promotes civic service in higher education.

Quinones, who said he can relate to the struggles of underprivileged youths, told a crowd of 20 that civic engagement increases the overall chance for success.

Katie Hardgrove, the AmeriCorps Vista leader for the nonprofit, said the organization works toward getting more minorities into higher learning institutions and successfully completing their educations.

“We are closing the gaps between higher education inequity,” Hardgrove said. “Quinones is an example of somebody who knows about service learning.”

The organization will host a gala Thursday featuring a silent auction, book signing, a dinner and a keynote speech delivered by Quinones. Money raised at the event will go to the nonprofit to further fund their service-learning programs.

Quinones, a New York-based journalist, works primarily as a correspondent for “Primetime” and “20/20.” Most recently, he has worked on an undercover series called “What Would You Do?” that tests human behavior by creating scenarios and filming people’s reactions with hidden cameras.

His book, “Heroes Among Us,” details what he saw while filming the series. He wrote about the people who did not help the actors who were seemingly in need and the few who became heroes, in his opinion, by lending a hand.

He cited an instance when his team hired an actor to dress as a homeless man and pass out in a pedestrian-heavy walkway in New York. More than 80 people passed by without offering help before a woman, homeless and partially blind, stopped and waited until the police were called. At this point, Quinones and his team came out and explained the show.

“We are showing a side of humanity you couldn’t see in normal circumstances,” he said.

Shernaz Garcia, an associate professor of education focusing on multicultural special education, said service programs share the ultimate goal of getting people involved in and more connected with their communities. She said many minority students lack motivation because they cannot connect their education to their own lives.

“Service is a way to link their community to what they are learning in school and what they are learning in life,” Garcia said. “It makes it more personally meaningful.”

Quinones said the lack of immediate response by bystanders in his show reveals the need for more civic engagement and service-learning education.

“Education, in my opinion, is the only way out of poverty,” Quinones said. “If I can make it to network television, anything is possible in this country.”

Ten Minutes with John Quinones (Brilliant Magazine Article)

November 4th, 2009

By Stephanie Marichal

john-q-book-cover

After speaking with Emmy-award winning journalist and news correspondent, John Quinones, I have no doubts that he’s seen it all. His endeavors as a child in San Antonio and as a jet-setting ABC correspondent have exposed him to real-life hardships. With his recent book, Heroes Among Us, and upcoming honor at the Texas Campus Compact’s Live.Learn.Serve Dinner, Quinones hopes to pay tribute to those unspoken heroes who have affected his life and the lives of others.

Stephanie Marichal: Who or what inspired you to pursue journalism and write Heroes Among Us?
John Quinones: When I was a kid I used to watch a lot of programs on TV and I was just fascinated about the places the reporters traveled to and their adventures. These people are my inspiration: Geraldo Rivera, Peter Jennings, Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather. Geraldo Rivera, because he was the only one with a Latino last name that I could relate to. My parents inspired me to write the book. They made so much with so little and yet they inspired me, my mother particularly, to dream big. She would often say, “Juanito, it doesn’t matter what side of the tracks you were born on. What matters is your brain.” For years, people have been telling me to write some of my own story in addition to the heroes that I’ve met. I wanted to inspire others to dream as big as I did, certainly the children in inner city communities.

johnquinones

S: What is the underlying message of your book?
J: Heroic actions lie within each and every one of us. Being a hero often means listening to that voice in the back of your head that’s telling you something’s wrong with this picture, maybe I should speak up for someone being abused or discriminated against. That ability is within all of us to do the right thing and to intervene when something is not right or unjust.

S: Why did you decide to become involved in the Live.Learn.Serve Dinner?
J: Charles Cotrell, President of Saint Mary’s University where I graduated, introduced Live.Learn.Serve to me. I want to remind the world that every helping hand and gesture to help better educate our youth is invaluable. It’s the one thing that turns someone into a president, a lawyer or a correspondent on ABC. I was the beneficiary of an effort to “close the gap” of educational inequity in Texas. When I was growing up, the Johnson and Kennedy administrations decided that the only way out of poverty was through education. They selected kids from high school that showed promise but didn’t have money. We attended college preparatory classes on Saturdays during the summer for six weeks. I can relate to any effort because I was the beneficiary. Having seen what Upward Bound did for me, I think any program like that caters to educational needs of kids is beneficial.

ABC’s Quiñones to speak at event for civic engagement

By Juan Castillo | Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 03:49 PM

Having grown up in San Antonio, where he was a graduate of St. Mary’s University, ABC newsman John Quiñones says he cares about the state of education here.

“I believe Texas must take bold steps to secure a better educational future for its citizens,” says Quiñones, who will speak at a fund-raising dinner Thursday in Austin for the Texas Campus Compact, which for nine years has promoted civic involvement among college students in an effort to close educational gaps in the state.

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