We are now recruiting for spring 2010 projects! Please contact the project faculty mentor for more information about a specific project. General inquiries about the Building Better Communities (BBC) Fellows program, including requirements for student participants, may be directed to bbcfellows@bsu.edu or 765-285-1817.
Charter Schools: Patterns of Innovation--A New Architecture for a New Education
You will work with selected charter schools in Indiana as you research best practices and high performance school design to develop ways to incorporate environmentally sustainable strategies into the planning and design of charter school buildings. Your team will develop solutions for both new construction and the adaptive reuse of existing buildings. You'll travel to the schools, interview charter school students and faculty, discuss and present your ideas to school administration and board members, and contribute to school profiles examining curriculum, funding, and facility planning. At the end of the semester, you'll present design principles and curricular innovations in an illustrated guidebook. You'll also explore opportunities to produce an interactive Web site or video documentary based on your work. For more information, please contact Pam Harwood.
Educate Medical Volunteers for the Nonprofit Organization Without a Voice
Are you aware that many elderly individuals must make important medical decisions without the guidance of family or friends? If you would like to help provide a solution to this growing issue, consider joining this team. In order to help those individuals who are “without a voice,” a committee has been formed to recruit and train volunteers willing to serve as medical guardians for these individuals. We are looking for students to develop training protocols and processes for these volunteers who act as medical guardians. Students from the departments of health sciences, journalism, nursing, psychology, religious studies, social work, and sociology will develop a training manual, along with implementation of the training protocol designed by you. Vast knowledge regarding medical and legal issues related to the care of the elderly, along with available community and regional resources will be gained. For more information, please contact Ron Dolon.
Get Involved with Historical Tourism in Wayne County
Are you interested in historical sites or tourism? Would you enjoy the opportunity to prepare a strategic business plan and marketing strategy for a nonprofit historical organization? In this project, you will help the Levi Coffin House Association in Wayne County to prepare for upcoming growth opportunities as a result of a new visitor center planned for this site by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Students majoring in architecture, business, and humanities are needed to develop plans for the facility, to create community walking tours, to prepare reports based on findings from focus groups, and to write grant applications, among other activities. For more information, please contact Ron Morris.
Develop an Evaluation Strategy for the Weed and Seed Program
Would you like to work for a nonprofit organization, public agency, or private sector firm after graduation? This project will provide you with valuable professional experience that will prepare you for any of these fields. The Weed and Seed program, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, is an initiative to reduce crime in targeted neighborhoods in Muncie. The Weed component refers to intensifying law enforcement efforts, while the Seed component seeks to leverage existing community development efforts and initiate new ones in areas such as ex-offender employment, mentoring and drug education for youth, and academic skills enhancement. You will work as a team to develop and implement an evaluation strategy to satisfy reporting requirements for the program grant. Your team will evaluate goals, processes, and performance outcomes for one of six separate projects within the Weed and Seed program. For more information, please contact Jerome McKean.
Create a Plan to Revitalize the Ball State Indianapolis Center
Are you interested in hospitality and tourism, retail, or entrepreneurship? In this project, you will help the Ball State Indianapolis Center, located in downtown Indianapolis, increase the utilization of its first floor storefront space. You will create a plan to increase the amount of traffic to and within the center. Creating a Ball State atmosphere with the intent of drawing in Ball State alumni and others who may live or work within the downtown area will help revitalize this center and allow your creativity and ideas to be implemented. If you have a passion for being creative in business and for Ball State University, this project is for you! For more information, please contact Brian Geiselhart.
Conduct a Needs Assessment for Ball State’s New Student Recreation and Wellness Facility
Would you like to help shape the future of Ball State’s new $40 million, 200,000-square-foot recreational facility? This facility will open in August 2010 and will include a climbing wall, a recreational running track, and an indoor turf field. We are looking for students, especially those from dietetics, exercise science, health science, marketing, nursing, psychology, social work, sport management, and wellness management, to create and implement a needs assessment to guide Ball State Recreation Services staff in developing programming options for the Ball State community. Your team will collect data, assess the capacity of the university to offer wellness activities, along with a final presentation of your findings to the Recreation Services staff. For more information, please contact Jim McKenzie.
Teach Elementary School Students to Dance with Dance Indiana
Are you interested in helping elementary school students get up and get moving through the world of dance? Then this project is for you! If you are majoring in or have experience with physical education, dance performance, adapted physical education and/or special education, music (keyboard or percussion), or telecommunications, you will be able to enhance your skills by participating in this project. Your team will create, plan, and implement the music, the dance, the costuming, and programming, along with all of the advertising and marketing for an Event of the Year performance. You will embrace the National Dance Institutes’ pedagogy while engaging and teaching a diverse group of fourth-graders the power of dance. For more information, please contact faculty mentor Marjorie Hobley.
Bridging the Gap: Matching Businesses with Older Adults for Work, Volunteer, & Mentoring Services
Do you enjoy working with community businesses and organizations? Do you appreciate the knowledge that older adults possess? If so this project is for you. Students will work with businesses, nonprofit organizations, and older adults in Delaware County to develop a strategic plan for identifying individuals and businesses or volunteer organizations that would like to expand or diversify their labor pool. This will include organizing and moderating focus groups, developing a database and a possible Web site, and creating a marketing campaign to announce the project. Students with an interest in gerontology, public relations, Web design, graphic design, sociology, communication, and marketing are encouraged to apply. For more information, please contact faculty mentor Peggy Fisher.