By Dave Lucas
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-920512.mp3
Albany, NY – Four Capital Region Institutions of higher learning have banded together to transform the way colleges and universities prepare future teachers. Capital district Bureau Chief Dave Lucas reports.
Working as a consortium under a new grant from the Federal Corporation for National and Community Service, The College of St. Rose, The Sage Colleges, Schenectady County Community College, and Union Graduate College along with the Greater Capital Region Teacher Center are rolling out "Project SLATE" which stands for "Service Learning and Teacher Education," an initiative to teach future teachers how to use community service as a teaching and learning vehicle.
Organized service learning at the colleges will be expanded by integrating community service into undergraduate and graduate curricula. Saint Rose will serve as Project SLATE's grant manager. Greater Capital Region Teacher Center director Ellen Sullivan affirms that service learning is really "applied knowledge."
A new "Institute for Service Learning" stationed at St. Rose, will provide the foundation and support for the three-year project. Union Graduate College President Dr. Laura Schweitzer hails Project SLATE ss "an absolutely exciting way to start a new school year." Project SLATE partners estimate that more than 3-thousand students enrolled in the four colleges will be directly engaged in service learning within coursework and field experiences by the end of the three year project.