The Boltwood Project is a student-run civic engagement and leadership program designed to provide enrichment, recreation, and socialization for adults and children of intellectual or physical diverse ability. The project offers a 2-credit seminar for students who are part of the teams that organize weekly enrichment activities. In addition, a 4-credit leadership course is available for students who have completed exceptional service work in the seminar. Through seminar and classroom activities, and through the weekly sessions at a variety of service provider sites, students learn how to be friends and allies with people of diverse physical and intellectual abilities. The Boltwood Project participants develop strategies to oppose ableism through a deepened understanding of the challenges, opportunities, and complex lives of people with disabilities.
Boltwood has been part of UMass for over 50 years and is the largest and longest continuously running, community engagement program at UMass Amherst.
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Outcomes:
- Define service-learning and reflect on how Boltwood fits in to the continuum of civically engaged education.
- Learn about current disability rights advocacy on local, state, national, and international levels and develop an understanding of the challenges, opportunities, and complex lives of people with disabilities.
- Reflect on the engagement opportunity in ways which deepen one’s understanding of themselves, others, social identities, societal structures, and the student’s potential as an agent of social change.
“Being a part of Boltwood has been one of the most meaningful and important experiences I have had at UMass."
Who Can Apply?
Any UMass undergraduate student is eligible to apply.
For questions, please email umassboltwoodproject@gmail.com
Follow us on Instagram @theboltwoodproject
Important Application dates or deadlines:
For Spring 2025, interviews to participate in SRVCLRNG 220 will be conducted on Monday, February 3rd, 5:30 to 7:30 pm Location: Bernie Dallas Room, Goodell Hall
Please bring a laptop or phone to complete the application during interview night.
Application requirements:
Interview
For Spring 2025, interviews to participate in SRVCLRNG 220 will be conducted on:
Monday, February 3rd, 5:30 to 7:30 pm Location: Bernie Dallas Room, Goodell Hall
Orientation
Once selected, attend Orientation Night: Thursday, February 13th, 5:30 - 7:30 pm, Location: ILC, Room S331
The Boltwood Project is authorized by the UMass Student Government Association as a Registered Student Organization (RSO). All students enrolled in Boltwood are members of the Boltwood RSO. A program fee of $20.00 is required to assist in covering program-oriented costs (i.e. seminar guest speakers). The fee will be collected after you have been accepted into a service site.
Three Required Seminars
Dates: Sunday, March 2nd; Saturday, April 5th; and 3rd seminar TBD
All seminars are from 11:00 am to 2:30 pm
Seminar in March will be held in ILC, Room S331; Seminar in April will be held in Furcolo Carney Fam Auditorium
Additional details & information :
Please Note: In order to participate in The Boltwood Project seminar, you must have room in your schedule for a 2 credit course. Accepted students will be registered for the course by the Academic Director. If you are at or above the maximum number of credits allowed you cannot be registered for the course until you receive permission for a credit override from the Dean of your school or college.
Requirements to complete the program:
For Students in Boltwood Seminar (SRVCLRNG 220):
For students enrolled in the seminar course, attendance at the three scheduled Sunday seminar sessions each semester is required. Seminars run from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Students participate in Boltwood activities weekly, under the guidance of a Boltwood student supervisor.
Assignments:
Students are responsible to submit a one page weekly reflection, read/view materials in preparation for each Sunday Seminar and to submit 3 seminar reflection essays.
For Students in Leadership Course (SRVCLRNG 393L):
For students enrolled in the leadership course, attendance at weekly class meetings, completion of all coursework, and fulfilling responsibilities of site supervision is required.
The learning experiences for The Boltwood Project are organized around two courses: the 2-credit Boltwood Seminar and the 4-credit Boltwood Student Leadership course.
Boltwood Seminar - SRVCLRNG 220
Each semester, up to 100 UMass students from many different departments and majors are accepted into SRVCLRNG 220, the 2-credit Boltwood Seminar course, where they participate in weekly recreational or educational activities serving people with varying physical and intellectual abilities throughout the region.
Attendance at the three Sunday seminar sessions offered each semester is required. The site visits, assigned readings, videos, etc., three Sunday seminars, and short writing assignments provide students with the opportunity to explore a variety of topics related to the populations served by the community partners and to deepen their learning through civic engagement.
SRVCLRNG 220 is a repeatable course, that is, students may be accepted back into the course in succeeding semesters, based on excellent performance in the previous semester.
SRVCLRNG 220 is a designated UMass Civic Engagement course.Three semesters of this course also fulfills the Foundations in SL, one S-L requirement, and the Issues of Social Justice or Diverse Publics content area for the UMass interdisciplinary Certificate in Civic Engagement & Public Service (CEPS). Please contact Ellen Correa at ecorrea@umass.edu if you are interested in applying to earn the Certificate.
Boltwood Student Leadership Course -SRVCLRNG 393L
A cohort of former SRVCLRNG 220 students, who have done exceptional service work, are selected each year to act as supervisors/facilitators for the approximately 10-15 service groups. These students are enrolled in the fall-semester in a 4-credit SRVCLRNG 393L Leadership in Service Learning course in which they explore theories of service learning, community organization, leadership, and social justice. Supervisors implement these strategies and theories into their community service supervisory role. In subsequent semesters, supervisors enroll in a 3-credit practicum learning experience where they continue to put their learning into practice as Boltwood student leaders. During their final spring semester, they may choose to enroll in a 4-credit Boltwood capstone course where, in collaboration with a community partner, they design and carry out a project which promotes the aims of anti-ableism and social justice.
This course also fulfills the Foundations in SL, one S-L requirement, and the Issues of Social Justice or Diverse Publics content area for the UMass interdisciplinary Certificate in Civic Engagement & Public Service (CEPS). Please contact Ellen Correa at ecorrea@umass.edu if you are interested in applying to earn the Certificate.
Boltwood Co-Coordinators
In addition, each year, two or three outstanding supervisors are selected to lead the organization as Boltwood co-coordinators. The co-coordinators are responsible for managing the day-to-day functioning of the program, under the guidance of the Boltwood academic director. Together, the co-coordinators and supervisors plan and facilitate each of the SRVCLRNG 220 Sunday seminars and attend to the overall functioning of the Boltwood Project.
History of The Boltwood Project – Partnering with the Community Since 1965
Professor Merle Willmann, founder of The Boltwood Project
For over 50 years, UMass has been home to The Boltwood Project, a civic engagement course that partners with a variety of community programs for people with disabilities.
The project was conceived of and directed by the late Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning (LARP) professor Merle Willmann. Dr. Willmann initiated the program when he was a young professor who could often be found with students at the café on Boltwood Walk in Amherst Center. The first six participants in the program were students with whom Dr. Willmann drank coffee and talked to about world affairs, such as the Vietnam War and the student-led events surrounding it. In honor of their café association, they named their initiative The Boltwood Project and began their service at the now closed Belchertown State Hospital.
In May 2012, Professor Willmann, long since retired from LARP, retired from directorship of The Boltwood Project. UMass CESL proudly took up the mantle from Professor Willmann. Along with the student leaders of this program, we look forward to many more years of continued partnership between The Boltwood Project and the local community.