What is Scholar-Citizen ("SC") designation?
SC designation of a course, course-embedded project, or a co-curricular event indicates that the course or learning activity is consonant with the SC learning outcomes and involves engaged learning strategies such as faculty-student collaborative research, community-based research, or experiential learning.
Levels of SC designation and funding:
Course-Embedded Projects
Grants are available to support Scholar-Citizen learning activities and projects embedded within courses. An SC project must meet and measure at least one of the SC Student Learning Outcomes (SCSLO).
Examples of funded course projects:
| SC Experience | Description | Amount awarded |
| Adaptive Fishing Program for Riverway Adventure Center, Bristol, VA, Dr. Jim Newman, RCPT/COEHD |
During Fall 2012, this award provided travel support for 6 students and 1 faculty to Riversway Adventure Center in Bristol, VA for the purpose of providing an adaptive fishing experience for participants with disabilities. Students had the opportunity to learn adaptive outdoor recreation techniques while serving the community. Student reflections that were incorporated as part of the course assignment were collected for assessment purposes. |
$518.98 |
| "Count Me In" Math Night, Dr. Glenna Gustafson, CEHD/STEL/ELED |
During spring 2013, this fun, shared experience will promote family involvement in math. RU student teachers from 3 Roanoke elementary schools will plan and implement a family math night to familiarize parents with the math curriculum, provide ideas and activities for supporting math skills of their students, and to build strong school-family partnerships. RU Student Teachers participating in "Count Me In" will explore and reflect on issues regarding family-school partnerships as well as develop professional skills to support their future work in developing family connections. The planning and implementation of "Count Me In Family Math Night" is designed to help prepare RU students to engage in positive and effective home/school/ community partnerships. |
$500.00 |
| Painting for Public Spaces, Dr. Halide Salam, CVPA |
During spring 2013, this studio course will guide students in the creation of paintings that will engage the public civically, socially, or otherwise- both in content and context. Students and faculty will critically examine contemporary public art practices as they develop individual and collaborative art projects for and about the specific time and place in which we live. | $500.00 |
Obtain an application form (Word) and visit the Faculty Toolkit page for materials to help with the development of your application and course or project idea.
New or Existing Courses
Any existing course may work toward an SC designation. SC courses are defined by three characteristics:
- they encourage intentional reflective practices,
- they incorporate social pedagogy, and
- they have an experiential dimension.
A stipend of $750 is available for faculty teaching an SC course for the first time with the expectation that faculty will participate in (or offer) a Scholar-Citizen professional development opportunity and in ongoing student learning and programmatic assessment.
Financial support is also available for both the development and pilot phases of an SC course. Funding maximums have not been established at this time and will be determined by the Steering Committee based upon available resources and demand.
Please check the homepage for a current listing of application deadlines for SC courses.
Examples of funded applications for development and implementation of SC courses:
| SC Course | Description | Amount awarded |
| CORE 102, "Student Action and Social Change," taught by Dr. Michele Ren and her teaching team, Mr. Tom Gaffney and Ms. Julianna Williams |
CORE 102 at RU is designed to develop students’ writing and speaking skills with emphasis on logic and information literacy (how to use emerging technologies, library databases, etc.). Students will learn to recognize arguments, to evaluate sources and to form/support claims. In these S-C sections of CORE 102, we will begin by analyzing various student organizations and/or movements that have tried to contribute positively to the world around us. We will then turn our attention towards how we might use the resources available to us at RU in order to do the same. Students will produce an analysis of a student movement or organization, and a researched argument about how skills learned in CORE 102 might help them to contribute to a particular local or global cause. Preliminary data about said cause will be presented in a poster session at the annual Undergraduate/Graduate Engagement Forum. | $750.00 |
| CORE 201, Honor's and Scholar-Citizen, "Observing Your World," taught by Dr. Melinda Wagner (SOCY) | Prepare to be a Scholar-Citizen by learning skills of observation, interviewing, and movie-making that can help communities preserve their heritage and plan for the future. This course will be extended in to Spring 2013 semester for qualified students who choose the SC section of CORE 202. There they will teach the skills they have learned in CORE 201 and mentor Floyd County High School students in a place-based education project focused on interviewing community elders and producing movies about the World War II era. | $1,500.00 |
| Honors/Scholar-Citizen CORE 202, Topics in Ethical Inquiry: Floyd County Place-Based Education Oral History Project, taught by Dr. Melinda Wagner | Prepare to be a Scholar-Citizen by practicing sociological skills of observation, interviewing, and movie-making in Spring 2013 CORE 202 where you will mentor Floyd County High School students in a place-based education project focused on interviewing community elders and producing movies about their lives. | $3209.00 |
| SOCY 486, "Engaging the Community," taught by Dr. Mary LaLone |
Learn the most effective community-based approaches, methods, and career skills for successfully partnering with community groups to carry out applied research in community development, social services, health care, education, environmental action, heritage preservation, and more topics tailored to student interests. Includes a 3-4 week experience in which you apply your skills to assist a community organization, the Wilderness Road Regional Museum, engaging in student-community collaborative brainstorming and problem-solving. Excellent career training and resume-building Scholar-Citizen class. | $4950.00 |
| WMST 101, taught by Dr. Michele Ren | Study the concept of gender and its links to women's issues both at home and abroad. In addition to the required essays on course materials, which will ask students to relate feminist texts to their own experiences and perceptions, students will be asked to apply theories about women and gender learned in the classroom to at least 3 women's history month events, an interview with/profile of an older woman, and a cultural artifact (via classroom presentation plus RU women's studies blog post). | $750.00 |
Obtain an application (Word) or visit the Faculty Toolkit page for materials to help with the development of your application and course or project idea.
Co-Curricular Programming
The Scholar-Citizen budget allocates up to $20,000 per academic year to support co-curricular programming supportive of SC courses and of the SC learning outcomes. Students, staff, and faculty may apply for co-curricular funding. Recipients agree to allow Scholar-Citizen staff to collect information about student attendance and to administer a short survey to students following the event.
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis until the funds are exhausted.
| SC Event | Description | College/Division | Amount awarded |
| 7 peer educators to the 2012 BACCHUS General Assembly Conference | This grant supported 7 students and 1 advisor to attend the 2012 BACCHUS General Assembly Conference, hosted by the BACCHUS Network, a university and community based network focusing on comprehensive health and safety initiatives. It is the mission of this non-profit organization to actively promote student and young adult based, campus and community-wide leadership on healthy and safe lifestyle decisions concerning alcohol abuse, tobacco use, illegal drug use, unhealthy sexual practices and other high risk behaviors. | Student Affairs | $4614.70 |
| Waldron College Interdisciplinary Program |
The SCI program supported a luncheon as part of a day-long interdisciplinary symposium at Waldron College. The interdisciplinary symposium moves beyond the boundaries of a regular classroom setting, allowing dialogue between students who do not interact while in school, but will be professionally interdependent after graduation. Students participating in the Interdisciplinary Symposium analyzed their own theoretical and academic underpinnings, as well as those of the interdisciplinary ‘team members’ in their group, to arrive at optimal therapeutic approaches to a 3 year old child with CP. | CHHB | $1284.45 |
| Ricky Cox and Friends: Vocal and Instrumental Traditions in Appalachian Music | This event included a performance and dialogue from Ricky Cox and a few of his friends: Josh Blankenship, sisters Shirley Howell and Lodis Sickey, and Keith Webb. As part of the presentation, several different Appalachian instruments (bluegrass banjos, old time banjos, mandolins, fiddles, guitars, auto harps and an upright bass) were used and each given a brief history. The history and evolution of Appalachia music was discussed throughout the performance. | CORE, CHBS, CEHD | $800.00 |
| Restoring Appalachia Alternative Spring Break | The three faculty members will take 12 students to mountaintop removal mining sites in eastern Kentucky and/or southwest Virginia for three days and two nights, with teaching and learning centered on planting mined sites with native tree species. This project is in support of the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative (ARRI), a project of the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, and Green Forest Works, a nonprofit organization, in cooperation with several regional universities. The project team (Burriss, Roth, and Small) have already taken two trips to the region with students, but this trip will take advantage of the timing of Spring Break to take part in the planting of trees to re-establish the eastern mixed mesophytic forest that once covered the mountains where surface mining has occurred. | ARSC, Geo-Spatial Science, CSAT | $1950.00 |
Obtain an application (Word).
Please send applications electronically to:
Scholar-Citizen Grants Subcommittee
QEPGSC@radford.edu
Hard copies may be delivered to:
Director of the Scholar-Citizen QEP
Dr. Erin Webster Garrett
PO Box 6995
ewebster2@radford.edu
