About Service-Learning Faculty Fellows
The Pearce Center Service-Learning Fellows Program is a year-long faculty development program that provides an opportunity for selected faculty members to learn best practices in service-learning and community engagement and to integrate service-learning into their teaching, research, and public service work.
The program includes a $2,500 fellowship award.
The Service-Learning Fellows Program is open to all Clemson Ph.D. students with teaching responsibilities (graduate teachers of record) and faculty members with an interest in service-learning in any rank. Previous experience in service-learning pedagogy or familiarity with service-learning or civic engagement research is not required.
The Pearce Center Service-Learning Fellows program is committed to supporting participants in the following endeavors:
- Developing and implementing a new service-learning course or project (see below);
- Transforming an existing service-learning course or project;
- Becoming part of a core group of faculty leaders engaged in service-learning pedagogy;
- Increasing familiarity and exposure to service-learning theory and current research;
- Applying best practices of service-learning research and pedagogy;
- Considering ways to integrate service-learning throughout the curriculum or programs of study;
- Connecting to public service and outreach initiatives and existing community-University
- partnerships; and
- Considering the development of interdisciplinary service-learning projects through conversation and collaboration with faculty from other disciplines.
WHAT IS SERVICE-LEARNING?
Service-Learning at Clemson University is experiential education in which community service experiences complement academic course material. It allows both instructors and students to apply their acquired knowledge and skills in a public setting by performing tasks with or for a community or a specific public organization. These tasks include but are not limited to identifying and analyzing real community needs and developing and implementing solutions to meet those needs. The process is accompanied by reflection activities over the course of the class or project.
PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
Commitment to full participation in the program activities is essential and is required for consideration as a Pearce Center Service-Learning Fellow.
Applicants must commit to the following activities in order to be considered for selection:
- Participation in mandatory six Zoom Fellows meetings.
- Fellows are required to develop a service-learning project throughout the Fall semester and implement this project or course in the Spring.
- Fellows are asked to share their materials with the current and future Faculty Fellows.
PROJECT GUIDELINES
The Service-Learning Fellows program is a faculty development program, not a grant or project funding source. Each Fellow develops and/or implements a service-learning project during the year. Generally, projects are implemented during the Fellowship year but in some instances may extend past the Fellowship year.
APPLICATION SUBMISSION
Applications for the 2024-25 Service-Learning Fellows program are closed.
2024-2025 Service-Learning Faculty Fellows
Elizabeth (Betty) Baldwin
Associate Professor, Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management
Elizabeth (Betty) Baldwin holds a B.A. in art history from Hollins University, where she studied American art and the role that it played in conservation and a master’s in environmental science degree from Miami University and the Institute for the Environment and Sustainability. In 2006, she earned her Ph.D. in forest resources from the University of Maine. Baldwin’s current research is focused on human connection to nature, motivations for conservation and operationalizing these motivations. She teaches classes in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management focused on environmental interpretation, land management strategies, outdoor recreation management and leadership. She uses experiential learning, process learning and/or service learning in every class she teaches, initially inspired by her job as a teacher/naturalist at Tremont Institute – an environmental education center inside the Great Smoky Mountain National Park – and her six years as faculty for the Audubon Expedition Institute, a traveling field-based college program.
Kirk Bingenheimer
Lecturer, Nieri Department of Construction, Development and Planning
Kirk Bingenheimer, a lecturer at Clemson University’s Nieri Department of Construction, Development and Planning, brings over 30 years of residential construction industry experience to his role. Known for his toughness, transparency and strategic approach, Bingenheimer has consistently streamlined processes and reduced costs through his expertise in purchasing systems, negotiations, estimating and product development. His proficiency extends to implementing enterprise systems software, creating databases and managing various aspects of purchasing, estimating and contracting functions. As a seasoned professional and teacher at heart, Bingenheimer is committed to sharing his wealth of knowledge and industry experience with both former teams and current students, contributing to the growth and development of aspiring construction management professionals.
Nancy Paxton-Wilson
Senior Lecturer, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies
Nancy Paxton-Wilson earned her Ph.D. in the Department of English at Georgia State University. She is interested in the early modern period through the long eighteenth century with a focus on the political nature of British closet drama. At Clemson, she teaches Scientific Communication 3150, Scientific Communication (Nursing) 3150, Technical Writing 3140, Business Writing 3040 and Survey of Science and Technology in Society 1010. She teaches the Creative Inquiry Humanities Prison Initiative 1745 INNO8990. She is also an instructor at Phillips State Prison, Buford, Georgia, where she teaches literature and composition. During the summer of 2024, she taught Daniel DeFoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” to a class of incarcerated men at Phillips.
Em Adams
Assistant Professor, Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management
Em V. Adams, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of recreational therapy in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, a certified recreational therapist and a certified yoga therapist. Her professional experience is mostly in behavioral health settings including residential treatment centers, community centers, acute psychiatric care and long-term psychiatric rehabilitation. Her research focuses on embodied approaches to build resilience and promote flourishing for communities and individuals who have experienced violence, trauma and toxic stress.
Lauren Crosby
Assistant Professor, Department of Performing Arts
Lauren Crosby is an assistant professor of music (theory) at Clemson University. She has presented her research at The Society for Music Theory, Music and the Moving Image and several international conferences on music for film and television. Her work on music in “The Book of Boba Fett” is forthcoming in a John Williams-centered issue of Émergence•s. In addition to her work with music for television, Crosby is currently writing “Music Theory Fundamentals: Exploring Classical and Commercial Music,” a textbook that weighs classical music education and commercial music interests equally by introducing each element of music in both staff and musical instrument digital interface notations.
Mashal Saif
Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy
and Religion
Mashal Saif, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion. She specializes in the study of Islam. Saif’s first monograph, “The ‘Ulama in Contemporary Pakistan: Contesting and Cultivating an Islamic State,” was published in 2020 with Cambridge University Press. Her co-edited volume, “State and Subject Formation in South Asia,” was published in 2022 with Oxford University Press. She is currently working on her second monograph, tentatively titled “Traditional Islam and Modernity in Pakistan: An Intimate Account.”
Click below for information about our former Service-Learning Faculty Fellows.
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