Melanie Schiele-Gady receives the Michigan Campus Compact Faculty/Staff Community Service-Learning Award

Melanie Schiele-Gady

Michigan Campus Compact recognizes the contributions of faculty or staff in the areas of community service and service-learning.  Each campus selects one faculty or staff award recipient who uses modeling, influencing, or instruction to engage or influence students to be involved in community service or service-learning.

Melanie received her award among her peers while attending the Civic Engagement Institute on February 3rd at Grand Valley State University.

Her nomination stated…

It is my pleasure to support the nomination of Melanie Schiele-Gady for the 2013 Michigan Campus Compact Faculty/Staff Community Service-Learning Award.  Melanie is a highly talented, devoted, and inspirational faculty member who has contributed significantly to the growth of the academic service-learning initiative at Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC).  Melanie has made a positive impact on her students, other faculty, administrators, GRCC, and the community as a whole.

Melanie has integrated service learning into her physical education courses specifically partnering with Grand Rapids Public Schools to introduce healthy living practices into elementary school curriculum.  A recent accomplishment was finishing second place in the 2013 Armen Awards a team competition event designed to inspire best practices for teaching and learning while using the principles of innovation and service learning.  Melanie reinforced her partnership with Grand Rapids Public Schools by purchasing additional curriculum materials to sustain the service learning project.  Additionally, Melanie helps to coordinate the Service Learning Task Team, facilitate on-going faculty professional development training and maintain the Experiential Learning blog.

Melanie’s work with academic service-learning is an excellent example of the power of this pedagogy which impacts student learning, encourages engaged citizenship, and addresses community needs.  Her significant service to GRCC and to the larger community, through practice of community engagement and leadership, make her not only an outstanding asset to our institution, but also an important ambassador of the college to the community at-large.

Congratulations, Melanie Schiele-Gady!