Schafer Innovation Awards
Lucy Schafer-Kinsman established the Eldon G. Schafer Endowment to fund the Schafer Innovation Awards to encourage creative thinking, innovative approaches and experimentation in educational programs through an annual competition. These annual awards seek to continue the heritage of innovation and superb quality of instruction and support services so important to President Emeritus, Eldon Schafer.
The following three innovative projects are being funded for 2006 from the
Eldon G. Schafer Endowment for Innovation Fund.
$2,500 INNOVATION GRANT
Cottage Grove Campus : Community Education Classes for Caregivers
Proposed by Don Strahan and Jennifer Snyder
Don and Jennifer identified the lack of adequate classes available for caregivers in Cottage Grove and the inability of many caregivers to take required courses to maintain their licenses. To address this issue, Don and Jennifer changed the caregiver class venue to provide temporary respite for clients. The college will now provide a temporary respite class through the Schafer Endowment grant. This temporary respite class will improve enrollment by providing a place for caregivers’ clients to go while caregivers attend class. The Schafer Endowment Committee was so impressed with this proposal’s capacity-building and innovative approach that it offered to fund a second term to help the Cottage Grove campus develop strategies to maintain the program beyond the 2006-07 academic year.
$2,500 INNOVATION GRANT
Cooperative Education:
RTEC Introductory Course for Teaching (High School Students)
Proposed by
Joy Ewell, Andrea Newton, and Merrill Watrous
Joy, Andrea, and Merril noted the need for teachers in the community, especially the need to increase bilingual/bicultural and male teachers. Expanding on the Regional Technical Education Consortium’s mission of offering high school students courses in career pathways, they proposed developing an introductory education course for high school students who have an interest in teaching. Students will learn the ins and outs of becoming a teacher. RTEC expects to sustain the course beyond Schafer funding through regular enrollment from K-12 institutions.
$2,500 INNOVATION GRANT
Academic Learning Skills/Tutoring Services:
Creating a "How-To" Guide for Implementing Supplemental Instruction
Proposed by
Liz Coleman and Adrienne Mews
Adrienne and Liz seek to assist departments by providing additional instructional and tutorial solutions for students who take one or more of Lane’s 60 identified “gatekeeper” courses. The Schafer Endowment grant will enable Lane’s Tutoring Services to augment its successful individual drop-in tutoring by creating regularly scheduled instructor-, peer-, or tutor-led group study sessions or discussion sections specifically linked to targeted high-risk “gatekeeper” courses. Adrienne and Liz also plan to develop a step-by-step template or flowchart to assist instructors and department chairs with undertaking their own supplemental or group instructional assistance programs to provide students with help in these difficult courses. This proposal builds capacity to assist more students with their tutoring needs and the college with its ongoing efforts to keep students on track in their course of study.
$250 PAT-ON-THE-BACK
Disability Services: Alternate Format Redesign
Cathie Reschke, Lynn Lodge, David Peaslee, Nancy Hart, Jane Love
Disability services noted the costly, time- and labor-intensive task of providing visually and hearing-impaired students with “text on tape” or text to disk. Disability services undertook, partially automated, and computerized an alternate text formatting process that mirrored services at the University of Oregon (UO), and which was much quicker than the old scan-read-edit-enlarge processes. The department toured the UO’s alternate text center, met with its staff to discuss technology and processes to accommodate students, and explored adaptive technology and processes to improve services to students. While there was an initial investment in equipment and training, the overall processes lowered per-item operational costs associated with conversion and made materials available to students faster than before automation.
$250 PAT-ON-THE-BACK
College Now:
Foreign Language Articulation with High Schools
Susan Carkin, Bojana Stefanovska, Fay D’Ambrosia
Susan, Bojana, and Fay initiated an effort to open foreign languages to College Now articulation to recognize and to provide college credit for high school instructors and students’ work in foreign language. Foreign language articulation had not been undertaken previously through Lane’s College Now Program. The articulation of foreign languages now allows students to be recognized for their learning by providing students with college credit and prevents students from having to retake language courses upon enrollment at Lane.
$250 PAT-ON-THE-BACK
Adult Basic and Secondary Education:
Integrated Basic and Computer Skills Curriculum
Alice Whitenack
Alice spearheaded an effort to revise the computer curriculum to provide other basic skills instruction in computer courses. This approach integrated high-demand skills associated with computer usage; traditional writing skills of organization, grammar, planning, and editing; use of word-processing programs; and standard business applications. The integration of basic writing skills and computer skills allowed the Skills Center to continue to serve students and facilitated the department’s need to change instruction to respond to stricter federal reporting requirements for developmental students. Students also gained greater hands-on workplace skills by engaging in this example of project-based learning.
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To apply for a grant to develop or test potentially beneficial
innovations, complete the Schafer Award Grant application form
and return it to LCC Foundation, 4000 E 30th Avenue,
Eugene, OR 97405.
The form and instructions for Schafer awards are undergoing significant revisions for the 2006-07 academic year. Application forms and instructions will be available in January 2007, with an anticipated due date in March 2007. For more information, call (541) 463-5312.
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