Barry Checkoway leads by example when it comes to community service — and he’s teaching others to do the same.
Whether he’s advising college students to become tutors for grade school children or helping Detroit-area high school students from different racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds learn more about each other, Checkoway says he believes higher education institutions can lead civic engagement efforts.
“Civic engagement as an institutional movement in higher education has made tremendous gains in recent years both in research and teaching,” says Checkoway, a professor of social work and urban planning, and founding director of the Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning.
“We’ve established a network of civic and community centers in colleges and universities across the country. The question we must all now answer is, ‘What’s next?’”
It’s that dedication that led to Campus Compact, a nonprofit coalition of more than 1,100 college and university presidents, selecting Checkoway to receive its 2010 Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award.
The national award is presented to a senior faculty member annually for enhancing higher education’s contributions to the public good through scholarship that advances students’ civic learning while meeting community needs.
“Professor Checkoway has been a leader in making service-learning a key part of education at Michigan,” says Provost Phil Hanlon. “The Ehrlich Award is a testament to the important role he plays in furthering student learning and faculty development in this field.”
Throughout his career, Checkoway has sought to enable underrepresented people to participate in strengthening social justice and social change, especially in economically disinvested and racially segregated areas. He also is committed to building community-university partnerships based on best practices of collaboration.
Checkoway has led community health planning workshops in rural areas and small towns, community revitalization workshops in Detroit and voter participation workshops involving traditional nonvoters.
“It is an inspiration to see and participate in Barry’s continuing efforts to build and strengthen community in neighborhoods, schools, agencies and our own university,” says Laura Lein, dean of the School of Social Work.
Checkoway coordinates the oldest and largest Community Organization degree program in graduate education, involving more than 100 students annually in courses and internships nationwide.
He is a “key leader in efforts to transform our university into a more civically engaged one and as an important national voice in the movement to encourage engaged scholarship and teaching in universities,” wrote Margaret Dewar, a professor of urban and regional planning, in her nomination letter to the award’s selection committee.
