Stonehill Welcomes New Director of Community-Based Learning

August 17, 2009

The new Science Center isn't the only recent addition to Stonehill. Corey Dolgon, a sociologist and community organizer, joins the administration and faculty as director of the College's new Office of Community-Based Learning.

Dolgon comes to Stonehill after serving for 12 years as professor and chair of Worcester State College's sociology department and director of its Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement.

Housed within the Center for Teaching and Learning, the CBL Office will be focused on developing campus and community capacity for partnerships that simultaneously enhance student learning and address community needs.

The Office promotes a pedagogical and social justice mission claiming "the world as our classroom and its problems our curriculum."

For the last several years, community-based learning has flourished on campus under the guidance of Nuala Boyle, director of the Office of Community Service and Volunteerism. Last year, nearly 20 courses incorporated specifically designed projects outside the classroom.

This year, Dolgon says there are almost 20 courses in the fall semester alone. He believes the CBL Office is just the next logical step to build on Stonehill's nationally recognized commitment to community service and civic engagement.

Last year, Stonehill achieved the distinguished Carnegie Foundation classification as an "Engaged Campus," and appeared on the Presidents National Honor Roll for Community Service in Higher Education.

A part of Stonehill's Center for Teaching and Learning, the CBL Office will run faculty and community partner workshops on designing CBL courses, host speakers on public scholarship and teaching, and provide consultation and logistical support for new and seasoned CBL courses.

Much of the office's work is supported by a generous $238,959 grant from the Davis Educational Foundation.

An accomplished singer, Dolgon brings a unique style of teaching to Stonehill as he often performs "singing lectures" on the role of folksongs in labor organizing and other social movements.

He is also author of three books, including the forthcoming Living Sociology: Social Problems, Service Learning, and Civic Engagement from Pine Forge Press.

His first book, The End of the Hamptons: Scenes from the Class Struggle in America's Paradise won book of the year awards from the Association for Humanist Sociology and the American Sociological Association's Marxist Section.

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