Building Leaders in the Community

Fri, 06 Sep 2002 04:00:00 -0400
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Mark Terranova is assistant director of service learning for the Shriver Center.

Building Leaders in the Community

Mark Terranova has to think like a sixth grader � literally. As part of a new Shriver Center service-learning program, Terranova is sending a team of UMBC students back to middle schools to share their talents with teachers and children. The program is funded by a three year, $1.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation called The Teaching Enhancement Partnership Project (TEPP).

In this first year of the project, Terranova�s goal is to take UMBC students studying math, science, engineering and technology and pair them with under-resourced middle schools in the Baltimore area. �I�m looking to encourage college students to explore teaching as a possible career and show the importance of being connected with their communities,� he says.

�Our students help to motivate and set good examples for the middle schoolers, who in turn find valuable role models in our students,� explains Terranova. UMBC students involved in TEPP also enhance the professional development of the teachers by working with them one-on-one in the classroom. Students are able to supply fresh content and lab work that can bring the subject matter to life.

�I see this providing a structure that can be replicated in countless schools for various subjects across the country,� says Terranova, who knows the importance of service learning in the community. He began working with the Shriver Center�s Choice Program after graduating from college, focusing on the problems of juvenile delinquency in East Baltimore for three years before becoming assistant director of service learning at the Shriver Center.

In fall 2000, Terranova was instrumental in developing the first-ever Shriver Living-Learning Community (SLLC) at UMBC in collaboration with the Division of Student Affairs and the Residential Life Office. SLLC provides 29 undergraduates with a unique and exciting residential opportunity where students live the experience of being a leader in the community. SLLC students live in Erickson Hall and are engaged in service-learning through the Shriver Center.

Terranova was also responsible for helping to build the UMBC Serves program on campus. �I looked at the campus as a whole and tied in all areas of campus who participated in service related activities,� he says. �I was able to partner with many different groups on campus to bring each of their individual activities under a single mission � to promote a continuum of opportunities of service on campus. It was a real institutional shift in thinking about how the university gives back to the community. It�s been an amazing learning experience for me.�

In addition to his work with the Shriver Center, Terranova is a student in UMBC�s M.A. in Sociology program.