Eckstein, Neiman, Sunstein awarded Community Impact Grants from UI Office of Outreach & Engagement

Summer 2017 grant application window begins December 1
Tuesday, November 15, 2016

The Provost’s Office of Outreach & Engagement awarded three Community Impact Grants (CIG) to CLAS faculty during its Spring 2017 Cycle application window. The funded CLAS projects include:

  • A General Education Literature and Iowa City Community School District Partnership Pilot, led by Barbara Eckstein
  • The Science Booster Club Project, led by Maurine Neiman
  • The Lloyd-Jones Residency for Versatile Writing: Master Classes for Iowa’s Young Writers, led by Bonnie Sunstein

In addition, Tara McKee of the College of Public Health was awarded a CIG for the Business Leadership Network Community Grants Project.

Barbara Eckstein
Barbara Eckstein

Eckstein’s CIG-funded project, A General Education Literature and Iowa City Community School District Partnership Pilot, is a service-learning opportunity for UI students, working with 3rd-5th graders at Iowa City’s Grant Wood Elementary School. UI students in two sections of the core course in the General Education Literature program, Interpretation of Literature, will read with the elementary students over a period of 12 weeks. Students from College of Education Associate Professor Carolyn Colvin’s Secondary Methods course will act as peer mentors, observers, and guides to reflection for the UI students. Eckstein is Professor of English and Director of the General Education Literature program.

Maurine NEIMAN
Maurine Neiman

Neiman’s CIG will fund the continuation and expansion of The Science Booster Club Project, an already successful partnership between the UI and the National Center for Science Education (NCSE). Science Booster Clubs support local science education by providing a platform for fun, community-based science events. These events serve as fundraisers, with money going to local science teachers. The events reach a broad segment of the local population, educating people about current science issues and increasing their community engagement, with the goal of developing a nationally applicable model to create community-based support for science education. Neiman, Associate Professor of Biology, and several of her graduate students have teamed up with Dr. Emily Schoerning, NCSE Director of Research and Assistant Research Scientist in the Department of Biology, to develop and expand this project, which has served more than 50,000 children and adults in eastern and central Iowa.

Bonnie Sunstein
Bonnie Sunstein

Sunstein’s CIG-funded project, The Lloyd-Jones Residency for Versatile Writing, will link underserved high school students in urban and rural Iowa communities, as well as their English teachers, with the resources of the UI’s Nonfiction Writing Program, which has regularly been ranked #1 in the nation by Poets & Writers magazine. The project will combine intensive writing instruction and an immersive experience in higher education. Teachers will participate with their students as they engage in the art and craft of nonfiction writing, practice the workshop method, and experience various responses to writing. The program is designed to be a short but deep introduction to the creative nonfiction genre, in which participants will draw from Iowa City’s cultural resources and from the college experience itself. The project is named for nationally influential nonfiction writer and educator, UI Professor of English Richard “Jix” Lloyd-Jones, who died in 2014. Sunstein is Professor of English and Interim Director of the Nonfiction Writing Program, with a joint appointment in the College of Education.

The Provost’s Office of Outreach & Engagement provides Community Impact Grants to support projects and initiatives across campus that make a significant impact within communities in Iowa and support the engagement goals of the Better Futures for Iowans pillar of the University of Iowa’s Strategic Plan Renewing the Iowa Promise: Great Opportunities – Bold Expectations, 2010 – 2016. In addition, the office distributes Micro Grants to support outreach and engagement travel, events, and conference attendance that enhance the university’s community engagement and Theme Semester Supplemental Grants to support community engagement, events, activities, research, or educational opportunities connected to the Theme Semester.

The application window for the 2017 Summer Cycle of the Community Impact Grants opens on December 1, 2016, with applications due on February 1, 2017. The Spring Cycle application window of the Micro Grant and Theme Semester Supplemental Grant is open and applications are due on December 1. 

The Office of Outreach & Engagement seeks to foster connections between faculty, staff, students, and communities. In addition to its six featured programs, the office facilitates collaboration among the multitude of outreach and engagement efforts on campus and connect programs with the state of Iowa. For more information visit http://outreach.uiowa.edu or call 319-335-0684.

The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers about 70 majors across the humanities; fine, performing and literary arts; natural and mathematical sciences; social and behavioral sciences; and communication disciplines. About 15,000 undergraduate and nearly 2,000 graduate students study each year in the college’s 37 departments, led by faculty at the forefront of teaching and research in their disciplines. The college teaches all Iowa undergraduates through the college's general education program, CLAS CORE. About 80 percent of all Iowa undergraduates begin their academic journey in CLAS. The college confers about 60 percent of the university's bachelor's degrees each academic year.