Outreach efforts recognized

Outstanding scholarship that has a direct impact on the external community was recognized April 16 as Vice Provost for University Outreach Sharon Fross presented this year’s Distinguished Academic Outreach Awards at ceremonies in the Campus Center.

The research award went to Jean Anliker, director of the UMass Extension Nutrition Education Program, while Jerri Willett, professor in the School of Education, was recognized for teaching. Jane Feroli of Brockton received the Community Partner award.

Interim Chancellor Thomas Cole and Provost Charlena Seymour were on hand to thank the award recipients. Commonwealth College dean Priscilla Clarkson presented awards to nine Community Service Learning Faculty Fellows.

The Distinguished Academic Outreach Awards were established in 1997. This year’s awards reflect the growing depth and importance of Outreach Scholarship on campus, according to Fross.

Fross noted that the award recipients, selected by the Outreach Academic Outreach Award Review Committee, were chosen from an unusually diverse and accomplished list of nominees.

“Each honoree has charted new territory in outreach, exploring new ways to link UMass Amherst and communities,” said Fross. “Each has made longstanding professional and personal commitments to the social, economic, cultural and environmental betterment of the communities they serve.”

“This reflects your commitment – the commitment we have made together – to the outreach mission of the University,” Fross told the recipients. It reminds us that our commitment to engagement is nothing less than what the public, business and industry, our partners and our legislature expect of us. It is what we expect of ourselves.”

Anliker directs the UMass Extension Nutrition Education Program, which brings health literacy to the neediest citizens of Massachusetts. Her formative research and innovative curriculum empower youth to make wise choices about money, food and health. As co-principal investigator of the $800,000 U.S. Department of Agriculutre-funded Tween Power program, she helped initiate Strength and Power in Nutrition (or SPIN), an eight-week after-school program that uses marketing concepts to teach young teenagers to recognize the power that health brings to their lives. The SPIN curriculum uses the culture and language of youth to create compelling lessons that resonate with teens struggling with issues of identity, peer pressure and independence.

Jerri Willett has provided critical assistance and training for teachers and administrators attempting to find their footing as state and federal education reforms have shifted the ground under public schools that serve bilingual and English-learning children. She has been instrumental in creating the Access to Critical Content and English Language Acquisition (ACCELA) Alliance , a $2.5 million program funded by state and federal grants. The program, which she co-directs with associate professor Meg Gebhard, partners the School of Education with Springfield, Holyoke and Amherst schools and brings degree programs and language, communication and cultural training skills to teachers in those communities. Nearly 100 in-service teachers and bilingual paraprofessionals have entered master’s or undergraduate degree programs and 18 doctoral candidates, who study student learning in the classrooms as research assistants, have been funded through ACCELA.

Working with Brockton public schools and UMass Extension’s Nutrition Education Program, Jane Feroli has helped make healthful eating a family affair. With a network of 22 parent liaisons, she has brought families together for events that encourage a healthy diet and lifestyle through games, skits, and demonstrations organized around a topical theme. These events have attracted over 10,000 parents and students in the past 11 years, and more than 75 percent of the participating parents say they will increase their intake of fruits, vegetables and fiber as a result.

Last year, Feroli started Parent’s Academy, a 19-workshop program that brings in experts from community organizations and businesses to discuss topics of parental interest such as school curriculum, health, community issues, grief counseling and internet safety. To break down cultural barriers and make the workshops more inclusive, she utilized translators to help parents in the linguistic minority.

Community Service Learning, a core value of Commonwealth College, is about making connections between effecting change, meeting public needs, creating opportunities. Each year, the University honors a group of outstanding faculty members who have been instrumental in making those connections in ways that truly to change both the recipient and the provider of the service. This year’s Community Service Learning Fellows are:

Kathleen A. Brown-Perez, Commonwealth College, individual teaching award

David Buchanan, Community Health Studies, unit implementation grant

Glenn Caffery, Resource Economics, course assistant award

John Gerber, Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences, course assistant award

Shirley Mietlicki, Community Health Studies, unit implementation grant

Demetria Shabazz, Communication, individual teaching award

Carol Soules, Commonwealth College, individual teaching award

Lisa M. Wexler, Community Health Studies, individual teaching award and unit implementation grant

Larry Zacharias and Kimberly Sherman, Isenberg School of Management, individual
teaching award

April 22, 2008.