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The Civic Participation Project at UNO, a member of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities' American Democracy Project (ADP), seeks to engage our university community - students, faculty, staff, and administrators - to understand and participate in activities designed to increase their civic engagement. The goal of the project is to promote the development of an informed and contributing citizenry for the United States in the 21st century. The University of Nebraska at Omaha is a metropolitan university with a mission to disseminate knowledge through teaching and research, and by offering public service to the citizens of the state, particularly the residents of the Omaha metropolitan area. The American Democracy Project's goals match those of our institution well. Metropolitan universities like ours bear particular responsibility to be not only in the community, but of the community.

Civic Participation Project Grantees: 2008-2009

Shereen Bingham: School of Communication: Concord Center Community Outreach Project
Students enrolled in a Conflict Mediation course (Speech 4800-8806) will engage in extensive training in mediation practice and participate in a community outreach initiative to inform young adults about conflict mediation, share the resources offered by the Concord Center and provide feedback about how the Center could most effectively reach this population.

Lourdes Gouveia: Office of Latino and Latin American Studies: Sustaining a Service-Learning Course in Lima, Peru
This project sustains a service-learning proejct begun last summer in Lima, Peru. Students will be returning in the summer of 2009 to continue work on a day care center built last year and continue work with community leaders involved in the project.

Lyn Holley: Department of Gerontology: Civic Engagement of Minority Elders through International Transfer of Culture
This project engages students in helping community partner organizations manage and evaluate activities that build or strengthen relationships of minority elders with youth in their communities.

Lynette Leonard: The School of Communication: NOMA Vote 2008
In this historic election year, the North Omaha Alliance (NOMA) will facilitate coverage on the Omaha news Website by involving high school students as reporters in order to give voice to a population whose views are rarely amplified by mainstream media.

Kathe Oleson: American Humanics Program: UNO and Social Settlement: Sharing 100 Years of Community Outreach
UNO students enrolled in Public Adminstration 4500, Nonprofit Fund-raising, will be planning and implementing a fundraising strategy to assist Social Settlement in raising funds to assist children in disadvantaged circumstances to attend day care programs offered by the agency.

Maria Arbelaez: Department of History: Living on One Planet: Positive Perspectives on Immigration
This project will involve UNO faculty and students with 5th and 6th grade students from OPS and Millard Public Schools in curriculum based discussions on the positive benefits immigrants bring to our community.

David Carter: Department of Counseling Education: Dealing with Loss: A Camp Experience for Pre-Teens
Graduate students in the counselor education department will help 15 pre-adolescents navigate the grief experience in a camp environment to assist them in working through difficult emotions and finding peers who share the same experiences.

Randy Adkins: Department of Political Science: The White House Decision Center
This project will take 60 UNO students to the Truman Museum and Library in Independence, Missouri. While there, students will take part in the "Spy's Dilemma" decision making exercise playing the part of presidential advisors in a real episode from Truman's adminstration.

Barbara Hewins-Maroney: The Goodrich Program: Goodrich and ILUNO Learning From Each Other
In this project Goodrich students and ILUNO students work together to share cultural perspectives, discussions of current social issues and meet with community leaders who provide an understanding of the larger social policy issues.

Blaine Burnham and Connie Jones: The Nebraska University Center for Information Assurance: A Nice Technology Workshop
Staff and students affiliated with the NUICA program will work with staff and students from the Native Indian Centered Education (NICE) program to introduce the students to the fields of Information Technology and the university experience to encourage students to pursue higher education programs in the field.

Peter Szto: The School of Social Work: Legislative Day 2009
Over 50 students from the School of Social Work will travel to the Nebraska Unicameral on April 2, 2009 to observe the legislative process in action, visit with state senators about key legislation and network with other social work students from across the state.

Sarah Edwards: Department of Teacher Education: Connecting Urban Teachers to Rural Teens Through Young Adult Literature
Graduate students in Teacher education will be researching the best in young adult literature to raise interest in reading among high school students at rural Iowa schools. Following the research, component books will be purchased for donation to a new reading room developed at the school.