Public Service Center announces winners of two Kaplan fellowships

Michael Lounsbury, left, assistant professor in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, was awarded a Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellow in Service-Learning Award May 7 at the Statler Hotel. Following the awards ceremony, he stands with the award's benefactor, Barbara Kaplan, center, and Leonardo Vargas-Méndez, executive director of the Cornell Public Service Center.
At right, Kenneth Reardon, associate professor of city and regional planning, looks at his Kaplan Award with Vice President Susan Murphy, during the ceremony. Charles Harrington/University Photography

By Adrial Lobelo '02

Two Cornell faculty members have been named winners of the 2002 Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellow in Service-Learning Award, recognizing their involvement with service-learning projects that actively involve Cornell students in research, teaching and outreach efforts addressing important community-identified policy issues.

The 2002 recipients of the $5,000 awards are Kenneth M. Reardon, associate professor of city and regional planning, and Michael Lounsbury, assistant professor industrial and labor relations and of sociology. They were honored at the fifth annual Faculty Fellows-in-Service Symposium on Service-Learning, sponsored by the Faculty Fellows-in-Service governance committee and the Cornell Public Service Center May 7 at the Statler Hotel on campus.

The service-learning award was established by Cornell alumna Barbara Kaplan '59, her husband, Leslie Kaplan, son Douglas Kaplan '88 and daughter Emily Kaplan '91 to enable the awardees to further develop or institutionalize an ongoing community-based learning/research initiative or to initiate a new effort involving Cornell students.

In 2001, Reardon was asked by city of Ithaca officials to work with the city's planning and development department on implementing a neighborhood-based planning program for Ithaca's Northside neighborhood. Reardon organized a Neighborhood Planning Workshop class in the Department of City and Regional Planning to involve students in the grassroots community-building effort. More than 30 students enrolled in the course, which used participatory action research methods to help neighborhood residents develop a five-year revitalization plan. Because of strong continuing interest, the course was maintained for a second semester, in which the focus has been to devise a strategy for implementing the plan. Recently, students presented a proposal for the plan's implementation to the J.P. Morgan Chase Community Development Competition in New York City and finished in third place. Reardon said he will use his Kaplan fellowship award to develop two new service-learning courses to introduce and prepare students for participatory approaches to community problem-solving, planning and design.

Lounsbury's excellence in teaching and strong connection with the local human services community, through his popular Work and Organization course, earned him the 2001 General Mills Award for Innovation in Teaching. He will use his Kaplan fellowship award to further expand the course and institutionalize it as the ILROB 322/SOC 323 Service-Learning course, cross-listed in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Department of Sociology.

Reardon and other faculty members involved with service-learning projects discussed their efforts during the May 7 Faculty Fellows-in-Service Symposium on Service-Learning.

Also speaking at the symposium were the Cornell Public Service Center's Community Partnership Program Civic Leaders Fellows.

One fellow, Gino Bush of Ithaca, has invested his time and efforts in trying to enhance the community's commitment to at-risk minority teenagers. Having received a $5,000 fellowship grant from the Public Service Center last summer, Bush has used the funds to expand programming and offer financial assistance through his organization, Circle of Recovery. A recovered addict, Bush started Circle of Recovery in 1995, realizing that there was virtually no local support network for black and Hispanic youths who were abusing drugs. He started the organization, he said, with the aim of getting youths rehabilitated, politically involved in their communities, and helping them develop career paths.

"I tell them to be a builder in your community. A builder does not tear his community up, with drugs, robbing and stealing and other criminal behavior. A builder does the best he can do, one day at a time," said Bush.