By Kendall Deas, Civic Engagement Coordinator
On Saturday March 9th, our grant team hosted its first civic engagement workshop with an eager group of educators from the Sumter and Darlington County School Districts. During our 2024 Spring Grant Workshop, we launched “America: A Story That Must Not Be Forgotten” by bringing together all the participating educators, district liaisons, university instructors, and key grant personnel for a half-day grant workshop. During this workshop, we introduced all the grant partners and personnel and shared significant details about the grant activities. Dean Thomas Hodges, from the University of South Carolina’s College of Education, gave a rousing welcome to grant participants and its partners. Dr. Kendall Deas, Civic Engagement Coordinator, introduced the instructors and provided an overview of summer and fall courses. Dr. Susan Bon, grant Co-PI, demonstrated the use of storyboard as a learning tool or activity for educators to aid them in providing civic engagement education to their students. For our first-year workshop, Dr. Deas provided a general overview of what civic engagement is to lay a foundation for future workshops that will focus more on curriculum and learning tools, activities, and assignments beginning in the spring of 2025.
As we concluded the spring 2024 workshop, we requested “exit ticket” feedback from all participants to capture any less than clear areas of concern they had about the grant overall. The feedback and questions from all the grant participants (33 of 40 participants submitted exit ticket feedback) were collected and answers provided for each question by creating a “frequently asked questions” (FAQ) document. We then sent the FAQ document out to the grant participants and to the university instructors and key personnel. Our grants team is pleased about the success of our spring workshop to launch efforts to achieve the goals of the grant and excited about what lies ahead for our civics engagement initiative with educators from Sumter and Darlington County School Districts.
Event Photos
