Faculty and students at the University of Colorado at Boulder may soon be granting wishes for Colorado schools and nonprofit and community organizations as part of a new program called the Wish List.
In an effort to encourage academic partnerships with Colorado communities, CU-Boulder is compiling a list of needs and requests from around the state. The Wish List will serve as a resource for faculty and academic programs that want to incorporate experiential learning opportunities into the course curriculum.
School principals, district superintendents and community organization directors are being invited to submit requests for projects they do not have the time or human resources to accomplish. The requests will be reviewed by faculty members and evaluated for their appropriateness as classroom experiences.
Professor Dennis Van Gerven, 1998 Colorado Professor of the Year and director of CU-Boulder's honors program said, "Taking knowledge from the classroom and putting it to use in a community setting is an invaluable experience for our students. Not only does it enhance what our students have been taught, but it builds civic responsibility as well as leadership skills."
Wish List items are not limited to a specific discipline or area. In fact, some already existing partnerships have resulted in the following projects:
* kinesiology students working to outline more effective learning habits for young children based on exercise and nutrition;
* business projects building needs assessments and marketing plans for nonprofits;
* engineering projects developing special aids for disabled citizens as well as addressing water quality issues for entire towns;
* English as a second language activities;
* and mentoring and tutoring.
Wish List items are subject to the academic calendar and course schedule at CU-Boulder, and not all items will be selected by faculty.Ìý
To submit items to the CU-Boulder Wish List, send an email to wishlist@colorado.edu or call Wynn Martens in the Division of Continuing Education at the University of Colorado at Boulder at (303) 735-5186. People who submit an item to the Wish List will be contacted at the beginning of each academic year to confirm continued inclusion on the list and project details.