SESSION 6B: Best Practices for a Student-Run and Student-Centered Service Project

Dr. Michele A. L. Villagran, Kara (K. René) Price and Laura Dowell | San Jose State University (CA)

Zoom Room B*

Outcomes
Identify best practices implemented in creating a EDI service project for students.
Engage with one another in discussion of similar initiatives within their institutions.
Describe the barriers and challenges in the development and implementation of a sense of community for students.

Description
Your Voices: Listening, Learning, and Sharing was made possible by the San José State University AY 2022-2023 Assigned Time for Exceptional Levels of Service Award. Your Voices was a project that provided underrepresented students in library and information science and applied data science the opportunity to share their stories, support each other, and learn from information professionals like themselves on how to navigate equity, diversity, and inclusion. The project consisted of three elements—community learning spaces, e-newsletters, and webinars—that were executed four times during the project’s lifecycle.

For AY 2024-2025, Dr. Villagran received another Exceptional Levels of Service Award to build off the experiences and data collected over the Your Voices project. Students: Amplifying Your Voices (SAYV) is a service project focusing on community learning spaces, a Discord server channel, and a podcast series for underrepresented students. SAYV has the following goals in mind:

Have spaces for underrepresented students to interact by implementing student-centered spaces where students can freely exchange ideas with each other.

Share stories through podcasts that people can listen to in their own time to make the stories feel more natural and personable and elevate the voices of underrepresented students.

Giving back resources and information to the community by encouraging students to get involved in more networking experiences.

This session will highlight the Best Practices Guide which was developed as an outcome of the Your Voices project as well as plans for the upcoming SAYV project: https://sites.google.com/view/your-voices-best-practices/

Presenters: Dr. Michele A. L. Villagran, Kara (K. René) Price and Laura Dowell
Date: Monday, April 29, 2024
Time: 2:00 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. (Pacific Time)
Location: https://sites.google.com/view/peraltaequityconference/2024-conference/2024-program/2024-apr-29-sessions?authuser=0