The Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at the City College of New York (CCNY) is a nonpartisan educational, training, and research center named for its founder, Colin Powell, a graduate of CCNY. The school is located at 160 Convent Avenue, in NAC building 6/141 on the CCNY campus, in West Harlem. The current dean is Andrew Rich.
Colin Powell, who graduated from the City College of New York in 1958, established the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies in 1997. Its original mission was to provide a base for the study of social and economic forces and conditions that impact New York City, by encouraging students and faculty to engage and partner with community organizations. [1]
The name was changed to the Colin L. Powell Center for Leadership and Service in 2011. [2] In 2013, it merged with the Division of Social Sciences to form the Colin L. Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. [3] In 2016 the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership celebrated 40 years since the founding of the Division of Social Sciences at the City College of New York.
The Powell School serves as the CCNY hub for service-learning, a course-based, credit-bearing educational approach that links academic theory to concrete action. The pedagogy connects students, faculty and community partners through sustained relationships that build the capacity of those organizations, and gives students a practical perspective on classroom lessons as well as the opportunity to perform valuable service that addresses real needs. [4]
The Powell School works with the College to embed these concepts as an essential part of curricula. Since the inception of the service-learning program in 2005, more than 1,000 CCNY students have enrolled in these courses, providing over 25,000 hours of service to more than 50 nonprofit community organizations. Their work includes providing tutoring to East Harlem students, creating a media campaign for the New York Organ Donor Network, and working with the International Rescue Committee. Learning from the leaders and members of the organizations with which they work adds an indispensable perspective to the students' educations.
The Center leads the New York Metro Area Partnership for Service-Learning (NYMAPS), a coalition of more than 18 universities, colleges and community-based organizations that promotes experiential learning, active citizenship, and social responsibility among college students and faculty. Established in 2006, NYMAPS hosts an annual symposium, organized by the Center, that brings members together to report on their activities and results. [5]
NYMAPS member organizations include Columbia University, Fordham University, New York University, the International YMCA and University Settlement.
The Powell School works to encourage community-based participatory research, a collaborative approach through which academics work closely with members of community-based organizations on research to solve a pressing community problem or to address policy change. CCNY faculty are eligible for the Powell School's Community-Based Participatory Research Grant Program.
Additionally, faculty are eligible for the Powell School's Public Scholarship Program, designed to enable faculty to apply their expertise and research to advocate for public policy change or to shape the public debate in their field.
CCNY Professor Jean Krasno, the Center's initiative director for multilateral diplomacy and international organizations, recently led an effort to publish the collected papers of former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. The six-year joint CCNY-Yale University project produced a five-volume set that contributes an organized historical record of Annan's selected public and declassified papers, and makes the breadth and depth of his work accessible to scholars, students, and policymakers. [6]
The Center's advisory council, chaired by Colin Powell, is a noteworthy group of public figures, former government officials, business leaders, writers, and journalists, including:
Macalester College is a private liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1874, Macalester is exclusively an undergraduate four-year institution with an enrollment of 2,142 students in the fall of 2023. The college has Scottish roots and emphasizes internationalism and multiculturalism.
America's Promise Alliance is the nation's largest cross-sector alliance of nonprofit, community organizations, businesses, and government organizations dedicated to improving the lives of young people.
Baruch College is a public college in New York City. It is a constituent college of the City University of New York system. Named for financier and statesman Bernard M. Baruch, the college operates undergraduate and postgraduate programs through the Zicklin School of Business, the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, and the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs.
Service-learning is an educational approach that combines learning objectives with community service in order to provide a pragmatic, progressive learning experience while meeting societal needs.
The School of Diplomacy and International Relations (SODIR), is a post-secondary, degree-granting institution concentrating on international affairs within Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in collaboration with the United Nations Association of the United States of America, it was the first school of international relations to be founded after the Cold War. The school offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. The School of Diplomacy and International Relations is an affiliate member of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs.
Participatory action research (PAR) is an approach to action research emphasizing participation and action by members of communities affected by that research. It seeks to understand the world by trying to change it, collaboratively and following reflection. PAR emphasizes collective inquiry and experimentation grounded in experience and social history. Within a PAR process, "communities of inquiry and action evolve and address questions and issues that are significant for those who participate as co-researchers". PAR contrasts with mainstream research methods, which emphasize controlled experimentation, statistical analysis, and reproducibility of findings.
Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to protect public values or make a change in a community. The goal of civic engagement is to address public concerns and promote the quality of the community.
Student voice is the individual and collective perspective and actions of students within the context of learning and education. It is identified in schools as both a metaphorical practice and as a pragmatic concern. Tech educator Dennis Harper noted that student voice gives students "the ability to influence learning to include policies, programs, contexts and principles."
The National Hispanic Institute (NHI) is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the future leadership needs of the global Hispanic community. Founded in 1979 in the State of Texas with the mission of serving the future leadership needs of the United States via the Hispanic/Latino community, NHI became the largest Latino youth organization in the United States. NHI is now an international organization with over 85,000 alumni worldwide and a well-known consortium of notable colleges and universities.
The Max M. Fisher College of Business is the business college of The Ohio State University, a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. Fisher's campus is located on the northern part of the university within a partially enclosed business campus adjacent to St. John Arena. At the time of its construction, the six-building, 370,000 square-foot complex was the largest multi-building construction project ever undertaken by the university and it remains one of the few fully integrated management education campuses in the nation.
Nazareth University is a private university in Pittsford, New York. It offers over 60 undergraduate majors and more than two dozen graduate programs. The college was previously Nazareth College of Rochester, or Nazareth College.
The Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy of Rutgers University serves as a center for the theory and practice of urban planning, public policy and public health/health administration scholarship. The school is located in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and was named in honor of the former Rutgers University president, Edward J. Bloustein. Through its academic programs and research centers, the Bloustein School engages in instruction and research, combined learning and application. The school's strengths and the specializations of its faculty are vast and many of its faculty members are the founders of theories or practices that are now commonplace in urban planning and policy. Areas of expertise for Bloustein faculty members include transportation planning and the environment, urban and community health, workforce development, and social justice.
The City College of the City University of New York is a public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, City College was the first free public institution of higher education in the United States. It is the oldest of CUNY's 25 institutions of higher learning and is considered its flagship college.
A Doctor of Public Health is a doctoral degree awarded in the field of Public Health. DrPH is an advanced and terminal degree that prepares its recipients for a career in advancing public health practice, leadership, research, teaching, or administration. The first DrPH degree was awarded by Harvard Medical School in 1911.
The School of Communication and Information (SC&I) is a professional school within the New Brunswick Campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. The school was created in 1982 as a result of a merger between the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, the School of Communication Studies, and the Livingston Department of Urban Journalism. The school has about 2,500 students at the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral levels, and about 60 full-time faculty.
Andrew Furco is an American scholar, researcher, and educator in the field of experiential education, whose work has focused primarily on advancing research in service learning. Service learning is an instructional approach whereby students participate in community service that is linked to their academic learning. Service learning has been adopted in K–12 schools, colleges, and universities in the United States, Canada and in countries throughout South America, Australia, Africa, Asia and Europe.
The Center for International Education (CIE) is a program within the Department of Education Policy, Research and Administration (EPRA) in the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. CIE is closely integrated with the academic program in International education offered by EPRA. Center members consist of faculty, staff, current students, and graduates.
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There are many similar yet different definitions of service-learning. Weigert states that in service-learning "three of the elements focus more on the community side of the equation; the other three focus more on the campus side. On the community side: the student provides some meaningful service, that meets a need or goal, that is defined by a community. On the campus side: the service provided by the student flows from and into course objectives, is integrated into the course by means of assignments that require some form of reflection on the service in light of course objectives, and the assignment is assessed and evaluated accordingly."
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