Community Engagement and Public Service Activities

This ongoing activity is a part of consortium of higher education institution and agribusinesses known as IPREFER to research and encourage the use of cover crops known as covercress/pennycress. This consortium and activity is funded in part by the NSF to provide direct education for farmers and agribusiness on the use of covercress (domesticated pennycress) to grow crop during off-seasons. This activity also involves outreach to the media to disseminate articles and videos to farmers and agribusiness as well as legislators and other researchers. The activity also includes education on agriculture and covercress for youth in central Illinois 4-H.

Teen Art Group is a year-long program at University Galleries for up to 15 students from Bloomington High School. Led by University Galleries' director and chief curator and University Galleries' curator of education, the group provides art-based professional development, including exhibition tours, meetings with artists and designers, artmaking workshops, and project development. Among other activities, the 2020-2021 cohort participated in sessions with artists, designers, composers, performers, and art historians including: Aram Han Sifuentes, Alice Hargrave, Kantara Souffrant, Roy Magnuson, Sercan Sengun, Dianna Frid, and Erin Hayden. This project was by University Galleries' grant from the Illinois Prairie Community Foundation—Mirza Arts and Culture Fund.

WCBU and WGLT Present features performing arts groups from throughout Central Illinois who are unable to perform in front of a live audience because of COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings.

Fix It Friday offers FREE basic sewing, mending and clothing repair services to our campus and community. All of our volunteers are students at Illinois State University. If it's broke FIX IT! We want to repair clothing that might otherwise end up in landfill. Our repairs decrease the amount of clothing and textile waste. Fixing your clothes also reduces the amount of clothing donated into overseas secondhand markets which are detrimental to the environment along with the textile and manufacturing industries in these countries. We enjoy spreading the message of repair and promoting all aspects of sustainability!

STEP-UP (Summer Teacher Education Partnership for Urban Preparation) is a rigorous 4-week teaching and community internship and summer residency program for pre-service teachers from Illinois State University.  

Students who are selected for STEP-UP (STEP-UP Fellows) live in Chicago in a partner neighborhood where they fully immerse themselves in the communities in which they serve. During the program, Fellows:

• assist in Chicago Public School (CPS) classrooms during summer school
• serve as an intern at a community-based organization
• engage in deep reflection about urban teaching through seminars and workshops taught by ISU faculty/staff, CPS teachers/administrators and community activists
• participate in other civically engaged activities in five culturally distinct Chicago communities. 

STEP-UP has a strong focus on the role community plays in education and the ways in which teachers are a part of the greater community effort toward improving the quality of life for all residents. 

11 Students in the health sciences department were offered the chance to be trained as contact tracers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. A partnership between Illinois State University and the McLean County Health Department (MCHD). Dr. Lanier was responsible for training, advising, and supervising the student contact tracers.

The Department of Politics & Government has incorporated an expungement clinic into the Legal Studies (LGS) program.  The clinic provides hands-on legal experience to LGS students who assist low-income individuals seeking to expunge and seal old criminal records. The clinic gives these clients access to employment, rental, and lending opportunities necessary for moving forward with their lives.  This venture is a collaborative project with the Bloomington office of Prairie State Legal Services.