Leadership Studies Community Engagement Project Showcase set for Dec. 5

Western's Karen W. Morse Institute for Leadership will host its Project Showcase during the annual Campus Holiday Gathering from 3-4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 5, in the VU Multipurpose Room (please note location change).

This is the first time the Leadership Studies 101 class has been offered during Fall Quarter, and thus the first Showcase Event to happen in the fall! Students in the LDST 101 and 450 classes will be presenting the work that they all contributed to their quarter-long service projects, and displaying the positive impact that they had on the Bellingham community. This event is free and open to all WWU faculty, staff, and students. There will be light refreshments served as well.

The LDST 101 class is divided up into four discussion groups with more senior LDST 450 students mentoring the 101 students in their projects. As a group, students select an issue facing the Bellingham/Whatcom County community and support that issue with a service-learning project. This projects helps students understand how to work in a team, how leadership happens in various forms in the completion of a project, and how to support others when they are leading. This quarter, the students developed the following projects:

• Collecting donations and hosting a Game Night with hot chocolate for the homeless population served by Lighthouse Mission,
• Raising monetary support and hope through the symbolic creation of origami cranes for cancer patients at St. Joseph Hospital in Bellingham,
• Offering extra hands and efforts of fundraising to help stabilize the lives of at-risk youth in our community through Northwest Youth Services,
• Partnering with the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association to plant native vegetation along local salmon streams, and sharing their learning experience with the community.

If you or someone that you know would be interested in learning more about the Institute and the programs and classes it has to offer, there will be staff from the Morse Institute for Leadership present at the event, so you are encouraged to attend and ask questions!

Attendees at the Community Engagement Project Showcase Event will have the opportunity to cast their vote for the overall best community engagement project, and for the best poster. The winning groups will be entered in the Poster Showcase competition during Scholars Week, so let your voice be heard!

For more information on the event, please contact Sandra Clossey at Morse.Institute@wwu.edu, (360)650-4000 or visit the Institute’s website: https://wp.wwu.edu/morse-leadership/. For disability accommodations, please contact DRS at drs@wwu.edu