College of Arts and Sciences

Bloomington - Normal Partnerships

American Heartland Section of the American Chemical Society. College faculty members engage in outreach on chemical and scientific issues affecting the public; sponsor initiatives to support and recognize the contributions of high school chemistry teachers; and provide ideas, assistance, and demonstrations for middle and elementary school groups.

The Baby Fold. The Family Service Initiative is a partnership between the School of Social Work, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and the Baby Fold that provides an innovative, comprehensive response to families identified as at high-risk for child maltreatment. Families receive expert services from College faculty and students and agency staff.

The Department of Sociology-Anthropology has also developed a service-learning partnership with The Baby Fold. Students mentor and tutor foster children and help develop a health education program for the children.

Bloomington-Normal Transit. Faculty and students in the Department of Mathematics conducted a study on the new bus routes in the community and assessed the efficiency of current bus routes as well as the overall effectiveness of the system.

BroMenn and OSF. Under the leadership of Biological Sciences alumna and local emergency room physician Dr. Kathryn Bohn, the College, in partnership with BroMenn and OSF, maintains a mentoring program for pre-medical students who are mentored by local physicians, veterinarians, optometrists, and dentists.

Central Illinois Neuroscience Foundation, Millennium Pain Center, and Central Illinois Neuro Health Sciences. College faculty members collaborate with local physicians—including Drs. Rasmin Benyamin, Keith Kattner, Ann Stroink, and Ricardo Vallejo—to advance biomedical research. One project involves research on the treatment of chronic pain and its effect on the immune system.

Challenger Learning Center. The Planetarium and the Physics Teacher Education program both have active partnerships with the Center to provide education and research services.

Children’s Discovery Museum. The Physics Department regularly presents “Fun with Physics” at the Children’s Discovery Museum.

Country Insurance Company. A faculty member in the School of Social Work works with County Companies to conduct research investigating reasons why people are either unaware of long-term care insurance or understand its purpose.

Friends of Kickapoo Creek. Faculty members in the College are active in a unique watershed protection group that works for the improvement and ecological sustainability of Kickapoo Creek.

Habitat for Humanity of McLean County. Sociology professor Dr. Thomas Gerschick serves as the faculty advisor for the Illinois State chapter of Habitat for Humanity, which in partnership with the Illinois Wesleyan University chapter is one of the most successful student chapters in the U.S.

Illinois Attorney General’s Office. Drawing on funding provided by the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, the Department of Psychology sponsors For Children’s Sake, a program that provides assessment and treatment by psychology graduate student clinicians for children exposed to domestic violence. The program also partners with the Neville House, a Bloomington shelter for victims of domestic violence.

K-12 Schools.

  • Expanding Your Horizons. Faculty in the sciences and mathematics participate in this program designed to interest middle school girls in math and science.
  • Feeding Improvement Clinic. Faculty and students in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders provide therapeutic feeding services to children with physical and cognitive impairments and training to parents of children who have feeding disorders.
  • The Peoria Initiative. This ongoing collaboration with high school English teachers in two Peoria School District high schools helps to support professional development of in-service teachers and to develop more effective approaches to supporting student teachers and their mentors.
  • Phonological Awareness and Literacy Project. Faculty and students from the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders screen students’ phonological and literacy abilities and provide workshops for kindergarten and first grade teachers, reading specialists, and principals.
  • PRISM Project. The Partnerships for Research in Science and Math Education (PRISM) Project, funded by the National Science Foundation, trains and supports Illinois State graduate and undergraduate students to go out in to middle and high schools to address issues of scientific literacy, equity, and attitudes toward science and math.
  • Project SEED. College faculty mentor local minority high school students to spur interest in careers in sciences. Students come to campus, carry out research projects, and participate in a poster session where they present their research.
  • Psychological Services Center. Students earning specialist and doctoral degrees in school psychology serve as professionals-in-training in local schools. The College’s Psychological Services Center provides services at modest fees for children with school-related problems.

 

  • Saturday Morning Workshops. The Department of Foreign Languages faculty provide workshops for in-service teachers and teacher education students to keep abreast of new developments in foreign language pedagogy. The project also provides a newsletter for teachers with teaching resources and tips.
  • The Writing Project. The Department of English offers a series of yearly programs, including a special summer workshop for K-12 teachers in the region to improve writing pedagogy in the schools.

McLean County Museum of History and David Davis Mansion. Greg Koos, Executive Director of the Museum, and Marcia Young, site manager for the Mansion, are both non-tenure track faculty members in the Department of History and collaborate with the Department to organize conferences and a variety of projects designed to involve secondary and university students in historical research.

Miller Park Zoo. Faculty and students in the Department of Psychology work with the animals at the Miller Park Zoo on behavioral enrichment and behavioral training

Neville House and Stepping Stones. The Women’s  and Gender Studies student group (FLAME) partners with Neville House and Stepping Stones to create the Clothesline Project on campus and to organize the community Take Back the Night March to educate the community on issues of violence against women and girls.

The Pantagraph. The School of Communication has developed a formal internship program that provides opportunities for students and fulfills important roles for The Pantagraph.

ParkLands Foundation. College faculty, staff, and students have provided countless hours of expert assistance in ecological restoration and conservation biology to the ParkLands Foundation, a local land trust that focuses on land acquisition and ecological restoration in the upper Mackinaw River. The natural areas owned by the Foundation are critical field sites for teaching at all levels and for faculty and graduate student research.

Sugar Grove Foundation. The Department of Biological Sciences has a longstanding partnership with the Sugar Grove Foundation, which runs the Sugar Grove Nature Center and owns various natural areas at Funks Grove. Faculty, staff, and students provide expert assistance in the ecological restoration of prairie and oak savanna, which allows the Foundation to provide ecological education to the public. The Department receives access to natural areas for teaching and research.

Town of Normal. Students in the College’s Peace Corps Fellows Program work on the Normal Downtown Redevelopment Project; assist the Economic Development Council to update the county’s demographic and economic profile used to recruit new businesses and residents; and coordinate with People First of Illinois to address lack of affordable, accessible housing for people with disabilities