OTTERBEIN COLLEGE COMMUNITY SERVICE THRIVES IN SPRING 2008
Otterbein's Greek community collects canned food for WARM
Members of Otterbein College's eight fraternities and 10 sororities recently competed in a number of Greek Week competitions, from sports to singing. But it was the Westerville community that won when the Otterbein Greek community collected and donated 3,430 pounds of canned food to Westerville Area Resource Ministry (WARM). The food was delivered to WARM on May 17.
K-9 Unit in Iraq receives donations from Operation Otterbein
Military Working Dogs Aris and Mike inspect care packages sent to their unit in Iraq from Otterbein College.
The unit recently received the 500 pounds of supplies, and in return the Otterbein community received the gratitude of the K-9 Section of Camp Bucca.
"With the abundance of personal hygiene items, we were able to share the wealth with many other military members here as well," Sergeant Pindell wrote. "Also, we will be sending some of the dog treats to other kennels across Iraq. We are a small section here at Camp Bucca and are often times overlooked so we are honored that you would think of us."
Pindell and her Military Working Dog (MWD), Staff Sergeant Aris, are home stationed at Fort Wainwright, Alaska. Aris is an 8-year-old German Shepherd. Together, Aris and Pindell are a certified narcotic detector team as well as a certified patrol dog team.
Director of Center for Community Engagement selected to serve as national leader
Melissa Gilbert, director of the Otterbein College Center for Community Engagement and resident of Granville, Ohio, was recently selected to serve as one of ten national leaders in the Campus Compact's recently established New Leaders Organizing Team. Established to foster deeper collaborative dialogue, planning, and action on campuses committed to civic and community engagement, the team consists of 10 engaged leaders and scholars, identified through a competitive national process based on their demonstrated ability to bridge engaged scholarship and administrative leadership of campus-based civic and community engagement.
"These scholars represent a group of emerging leaders who are making an impact on higher education's ability to serve the public good," notes Campus Compact president Maureen F. Curley. "Their work will not only help lead Campus Compact's continuing efforts but also affect work on their campuses and across the country."
Members of the New Leaders Organizing Team represent a broad range of academic areas, types of higher education institutions, geographic regions, and approaches to civic and community engagement. "We chose these scholars specifically for their ability to bring diverse communities, identities, and perspectives to bear on their work, as well as for their academic and administrative leadership in supporting campus engagement."
Campus Compact is a national coalition of more than 1,100 college and university presidents-representing some 6 million students-who are committed to fulfilling the civic purposes of higher education. As the only national association dedicated solely to this mission, Campus Compact is a leader in building civic engagement into campus and academic life.
Campus Compact's membership includes public, private, two- and four-year institutions across the spectrum of higher education. These institutions put into practice the ideal of civic engagement by sharing knowledge and resources with their communities, creating local development initiatives, and supporting service and service-learning efforts in areas such as literacy, health care, hunger, homelessness, and the environment. For more information, see www.compact.org.
