Dr. Lisa Lapeyrouse has been selected as one of UM-Flint’s five Boyer Faculty Scholars for 2013-2014. The goal of the Boyer Faculty Scholars Program, according to the program’s Web page is to “deepen the campus-wide discourse, practice, and recognition of the scholarship of engagement at UM-Flint.”
Dr. Lapeyrouse is dedicated to developing courses in which students not only gain knowledge and develop new skills, but have opportunities to apply their skills to meaningful scholarly activities that can benefit the Flint community. Readers may recall the service-learning project she implemented in her health communications course, in which graduate health education and MPH students sponsored and promoted a blood donation drive on campus in partnership with the American Red Cross. Lapeyrouse also integrated community-focused activities into her undergraduate course on program planning and implementation. She plans to further develop this course as a Boyer Scholar, to cultivate a partnership with a community organization focused on mental health and/or community violence issues that is seeking assistance with formal evaluation of their services and activities. The project would aim to create an undergraduate service-learning course that would allow students to:
- Engage in a meaningful project where assignments and activities will culminate in experience and materials they can include in their portfolios;
- Provide a meaningful service to a community partner;
- Apply evidence-based practices and techniques to develop and execute a needs assessment;
- Get hands-on training in valuable public health education approaches like collaborative decision-making and resource sharing.
“Using my skills, knowledge, and efforts to empower the students and communities where I teach and work, to live safe, happy, and healthy lives, is a core tenet of my teaching philosophy,” says Lapeyrouse.
To learn more about the Boyer Faculty Scholars Program, visit the University Outreach website.