Community-Engagement at George Mason University

Faculty Associate for Community Engaged Teaching & Learning Support, Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning and Office of Community Engagement and Civic Learning, 2022

The CETL Faculty Associate works closely with the Stearns Center Directors and team members, as well as other faculty and staff engaged in work around equitable and inclusive pedagogy and provides support for faculty through development of online resources and creation of interactive programming to build Mason faculty members’ capacity for creating equitable, community-engaged classrooms.

HNRS 261: Bridging the Digital Divide

This Honors College course examines the issue of the digital divide through critical readings and discussions. Students participate in the Digital Inclusion Week campaign and consult with for-profit stakeholders (Google, Microsoft, Compass Datacenters) and non-profit stakeholders (NDIA and Computer Core) who are invested in the topic of the digital divide. Using a Design Thinking model, students prepare prototypes and pitches to deliver to our community partners for their feedback.

See news coverage of my Fall 2021 students’ advocacy work here.

ENG 101 CE: Digital Literacies and the Digital Divide

These classes explore how we might apply the principles of writing to community needs. Specifically, students committed to a certain number of volunteer hours with community organizations, participated in an awareness campaign, and conducted academic research relevant to their chosen community partner which they presented as a poster at the GMU OSCAR Celebration of Student Scholarship. Leaders from our community partners came to meet students in class to describe their organizations and they were invited to review the students’ research posters at the OSCAR celebration.

Volunteering

Instructor – Computer Core

Computer Core is a nonprofit organization that delivers digital literacy courses to underserved adults. They are also one of my community partners for the courses below.

Food Pantry Volunteer – Community of Faith, Herndon VA

Other Community Work

Consultant on the Digital Divide – Infrastructure Masons

IMasons has recently embarked on an initiative to tackle the digital divide by raising awareness with its corporate members and offering scholarship/grant funding to students and researchers working on the digital divide. I consult with them about the latest research and the many facets of the digital divide.