Grants encourage student leadership

By Carmen Castro
Staff Reporter

This fall, three Leadership Curriculum Development grants are funding courses in the English, history and education departments, said Cyndi Walsh, director of the TCU Leadership Center.

The TCU Leadership Center and the Center for Teaching Excellence created these grants to encourage professors to develop collaborative projects in course curriculum that promote leadership, Walsh said.

English professor Billie Hara proposed a collaborative writing project among sophomore composition students and elementary students at three local elementary schools this summer. Students enrolled in nine English courses, write letters to the elementary school students and discuss social issues through visual writing, Hara said.

“There are commonalties between someone who is 20 years old, from Ohio, and an 8-year-old who is a second language learner from Mexico,” said Hara. “At first glance, students would not have thought it.”

As part of this same proposal, students in Mike Sacken’s Education 20003 course read to the elementary school students on Fridays, Hara said.

“The student is able to see that there is a place for everyone to do some sort of social action kind of work and that college is accessible,” Hara said. “A good bit of these students are second language learners, so they are able to practice their English this way, too.”

The two other faculty proposals were awarded grants this fall, including Todd Kerstetter’s Indians in the U.S. history course.

Kerstetter, an assistant professor of history, said he tried to bring a different twist to the course and decided to apply for the leadership center grant.

“I talk about leaders, we read about leaders,” Kerstetter said, “But we never really consider leadership as such.”

The grant money was used to purchase a class set of the book “The New Warriors: Native American Leaders Since 1900,” which covers Native American leaders up to the late 20th century, Kerstetter said.

At the end of the semester, after the students complete a research paper on a Native American leader, the students will donate the books to a tribal school of their choice.

A proposal submitted by Carolyn Cagle and Suzanne Lockwood, from the school of nursing, is still being processed. The proposal involves developing a study of global health care issues among a diverse community, Walsh said.

The proposals were each awarded $1,000 and the professors must carry out their project ideas within a year, Walsh said.

The TCU Leadership Center awards eight to 16 grants each year, according to the 2004 grant proposal application. Seven proposals are currently being reviewed for the spring semester. Grant recipients will be announced Dec. 1, Walsh said.

The selections committee consists of the directors of the Leadership Center and Center for Teaching Excellence, the associate vice chancellor for student affairs, as well as two to four additional faculty and staff members.