Goal 3 - Strategy 3
Integrate community engagement as a distinctive feature of ISU teaching and learning, scholarship, and service
Community School of the Arts
The Community School of the Arts (CSA) provides performing and fine arts programming for children and adults in the Wabash Valley. In addition to a robust schedule of classes and programs on campus, CSA partners with the Vigo County School Corporation and several non-profit organizations, including 14th and Chestnut Community Center, Happiness Bag, and Ryves Youth Center, to offer programming in schools and community centers. Unlike other community schools, CSA has a unique, dual-purpose mission to provide programming for the community and provide hands-on learning and service opportunities for students and faculty.
Each year, music, theater, art, and graphic design students and faculty serve as instructors for upwards of 70 programs, including private lessons, group classes and workshops, summer programs, and more.
Faculty Leaders in Service Learning
Dr. Jennifer Latimer’s Introduction to Environmental Science course covers key topics in environmental study. Laboratory activities focus on increasing scientific and environmental literacy while also linking course concepts to issues that are relevant today. For example, students complete lab work related to weather and climate, erosion, stream processes, population growth, environmental health, and water quality.
Because of the Flint Water Crisis, lead contamination of drinking water is a topic of great concern for many communities throughout the state and the country. A grant from the Indiana State University Center for Community Engagement, made it possible for Dr. Latimer to modify the existing water quality lab to include lead testing capabilities and to purchase equipment needed for lead analysis. Under her guidance, Indiana State students apply classroom and lab lessons to real-life situations. Students conduct extensive water testing in Terre Haute and, in 2017, partnered with the NAACP and the East Chicago Urban Enterprise Academy to teach middle school students about lead testing of water supplies.
Alumni Leaders in the Non-Profit Sector
Many graduates choose a career of service upon earning their Indiana State degree, certificate, or professional credential. Shane Scarlett, a member of the Scott College of Business class of 2000, did just that. As the general manager of Million Meal Movement, a non-profit organization that collects food for Indiana food pantries and organizes hands-on meal packing events, Shane Scarlett impacts the lives of thousands of hungry Hoosiers and compassionate volunteers.
In support of Million Meal Movement, to date Indiana State students have packed 75,000 meals distributed across the Wabash Valley and state of Indiana.