John Hurst Receives Service-Learning Faculty Award

Professor John Hurst in Social and Cultural Studies in Education has been selected as the 1999 recipient of the Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Academic Service-Learning Faculty. The award honors Hurst for the programs he has helped establish that center around service-learning, a type of education that allows students to study both the theory and hands-on practice of a subject. The programs include the undergraduate minor in Education and the major in Peace and Conflict Studies.

The nomination was a grassroots effort initiated by a group of graduate students and staff who have worked closely with Hurst. In their letter of nomination they praised the community projects in his courses for being "student-designed, -developed, and -implemented." For Hurst's course in Environmental Education, for instance, students undertake a group project in the community that lasts at least one semester. An example is the Washington Environmental Yard, where Cal students meet weekly with children from Washington Elementary School in Berkeley to teach concepts of ecology through planting an outdoor vegetable garden at the school. Remarkably, a number of these student-initiated projects have become community institutions, such as STEP, a West Oakland community tutoring and recreation center founded by one of Hurst's students as a project for his course in Democracy and Education. STEP now serves approximately 140 young people a day and is open seven days a week.

The award was presented at the Human Corps recognition ceremony on April 22 in the Lipman Room of Barrows Hall.

John Hurst