UC s Brightest New Students Take Up Hammers And Nails To Connect To Community

A group of UC’s academically talented freshmen will get to work on their studies two weeks before UC’s fall quarter gets underway on Sept. 22. Their classroom will be a construction site at 128 Winkler St. in Mt. Auburn. They’ll be guided by upperclassmen in the construction management/architectural engineering technology (CM/AET) programs from the UC College of Applied Science as they get tips on how to frame a home and learn about teamwork and leadership, adds Construction Science Professor George Suckarieh.

The 20 first-year Honors Scholars students will be the first UC group to work on the university’s latest partnership with Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity as they connect to the community through a special section of Honors English 101. This course is designed around UC’s commitment to join Habitat for Humanity in building homes in neighborhoods close to campus. A group of 10 Honors English 101 students will work at the site from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. Sept. 7-11. A separate group of 10 Honors English 101 students will work the same hours Sept. 14-18. Each group will be supervised and coordinated by at least two CM/AET students.

National research suggests building these connections outside the classroom is key for student success, especially for first-year students. Debbie Brawn, academic director for the UC Honors Scholars program, says this class will help the freshmen form friendships before school even begins. Plus, she says the construction aspect of the English course will bond students with their professor in a way that they have never experienced in a classroom. “For first-year students, it can be a little intimidating for them to approach their professor. We think this will help break down some of those apprehensions.”

Honors English 101 instructor Beverly Brannan says the students will be writing about this experience around three key themes:

• A reflection of how the experience has affected them personally
• A paper that focuses on working in partnership with the community
• A paper about sharing experiences with others in their community

“I’m going to be working at the site with the students one day a week, so the idea of taking an English class out of the classroom is going to be interesting,” Brannan says.

Jonathan Alexander, director of English composition for the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, says that “this kind of experiential learning opportunity allows students to make powerful connections between skills developed in the classroom and their ‘real-world’ application. Students can see their learning in action.”

The Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity partnership is one example of how UC is pursuing and establishing relationships and partnerships with local and global communities – an objective outlined in the UC|21 strategic plan to define the new urban university. The university-wide partnership was first launched last year, when more than 180 UC volunteers dedicated over 2,380 hours to build a new home with Sylvia Smith and her two children. The new construction project this fall will allow Sylvia to become neighbors with her sister, as UC volunteers get to work on building a home with Janie Cunningham and her family.

UC’s Honors Scholars program has a total of 529 incoming freshmen and numbers approximately 2,000 overall. Philip Way, director of the Honors Scholars program, says this year’s freshman Honors Scholars class averaged close to a 29 on the ACT and a 1320 on the SAT. During their high school careers, Way says students in this year’s freshman Honors Scholars class dedicated more than 200 hours to community service on average.

The formal university-wide kickoff for the UC/Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity project will take place at noon Saturday, Sept. 18, at the site at 128 Winkler St.