Teaching community-based learning (CBL) courses online may be challenging for many of us as it forces us to adapt and make changes to our courses. While we continue to grasp with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Office of Community Engagement would like to offer a few suggestions, Ideas, and resources to assist you as you shift your CBL courses online.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Inform your students that all service to community service is suspended immediately. The suspension of service hours will not affect their grades.  Explain the changes that will need to take place with the course, including revised assignments and activities.
2. Reach out to community partners and explain the current situation to them.
   • Explore ways you and your students may still be supportive during this social distancing period, when students cannot physically be on site.
   • Are their ways for students to still be involved virtually, e.g. phone, or Internet?
   • Think about what processes may community partners want to put in place for future service opportunities?
   • When the University reverts to in-person classes, community partners may not be ready to accommodate students for various reasons so you may want to have a plan in place.

Here is the link to see a webinar on teaching CBL (service learning) courses online, presented by Jonathan H. Westover, Ph.D., MPA, SFHEA, AFCIPD, Associate Professor at Utah Valley University.

Critical Reflection

Use critical reflection as a means to involve students to think critically about current situations and our own values.  It is a great way to involve students to think critically about issues impacting our community if they cannot physically engage with these issues. The Center for Civic Reflection has a wealth of information, activities, and videos that can be incorporated into your online teaching. These already developed plans can be used with your students in your online instructions. Here are a few examples on selected topics:

1. Leadership and Responsibility
2. Is crisis a destructive force or an opportunity for renewal?
3. How should we respond to crisis?
4. What are our responsibilities as citizens? Who or what are we responsible for?
5. Use Online Civic-Minded Games

Here are links to additional resources from other organizations and engaged institutions

• International Association for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement
• Portland State University
• Iowa Campus Compact
• Indiana University, Bloomington
• Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis IUPIU

Please note the Office of Community Engagement is open and available to consult with faculty virtually. We can schedule a phone call, a meeting through Microsoft 365 Team or some other medium. Please feel free to contact us via phone, 852-6026 or e-mail Henry Cunningham. We are here to assist you.

An update from UofL President Neeli Bendapudi regarding COVID-19 is available below. Please note that COVID-19 updates will also be posted regularly online here. 

“UofL Family,

As I shared with you yesterday, my leadership team and I are committed to keeping each of you informed and protected as we deal with the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.  Our people are, and always will be, our greatest asset and highest priority.

After extensive and in-depth conversations with infectious disease experts at our university, and higher education peers in the state and the nation, I have made the following decisions.

• Spring Break is extended through March 17. Classes will be delivered remotely starting March 18 through April 5.
• International travel is suspended effective immediately.
• Non-essential domestic business travel is suspended effective immediately.
• On-campus events will continue, but are under review.
• UofL’s campuses remain open and operational.

 Please read below for further detail on each of these important actions. 

We understand that these restrictions will cause significant inconvenience for many of you. Please know that we do not make these restrictions and recommendations lightly. I am convinced that these measures are essential to preserve the health and well-being of all members of our University community and all citizens of the Commonwealth.

We also encourage you to visit our dedicated Coronavirus webpage for more information about the virus and our response. If you have a specific question about the virus, please direct it to hlthoff@louisville.edu.

The best thing you can do is follow the steps listed here to help prevent further spread of the coronavirus.

• Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
• Stay home when you are sick.
• Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces using a regular household cleaning spray or wipe.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing.
• If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. Always wash hands with soap and water if hands are visibly dirty.

We will continue to provide frequent updates on university activities and decisions in the days and weeks ahead. In the meantime, we ask that every member of our community stay true to our Cardinal Principles as we all do our part to stay ahead of this evolving situation. We are a family and we will get through this period of global uncertainty together.

Go Cards!

Neeli”

DETAILS OF UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE PREVENTATIVE ACTIONS

Spring Break is extended through March 17. Classes will be delivered remotely starting March 18 through April 5.

• There will be no classes on March 16 and 17.
• All classes will be offered remotely via online or other alternative learning options beginning Wednesday, March 18, through at least April 5. Classes already offered online will continue as originally scheduled. Students should anticipate direct correspondence from individual course instructors prior to March 18.
• Health Sciences students who are involved in clinical programs will receive further guidance from their academic deans. Information about labs, testing and other items will also be provided.
• Campus Housing will remain open. Students who are able to stay away from campus until April 5 are encouraged to do so.
• Training is available for all faculty on transitioning their classes to alternative or online instruction beginning March 12.  Training will be offered in-person and online through March 17.  Information on that training will be emailed to all faculty today.

 International travel is suspended effective immediately

• Effective immediately, all incoming and outgoing international university-related travel is suspended through April 30, 2020. Similarly, no future international trips are permitted to be booked through June 30, 2020.
• This means that all previously scheduled study abroad trips, conferences, trainings, speaking engagements or other university-sponsored activities and programs that require travel to or from another country during the months of March and April are now cancelled. Contact your vice president, dean or unit administrator for more details.
• Students, faculty and staff already studying abroad may remain unless the country is declared a Level 3 country by the CDC. Students also have the choice to return earlier, but this should be coordinated through the International Center.
• In addition, we strongly discourage personal travel to international destinations.
• All students, staff and faculty who are already traveling internationally this week or are planning to take a personal trip outside of the country, are required to complete the Returning Traveler’s Report on our website prior to returning to campus. Upon review of the travel information submitted, you will receive confirmation of permission and a timeline for your return to campus.
• Please know that if you are returning from a Level 3 country, a Level 2 country with a COVID indication, or from France, Germany, Japan or Spain, you are required to self-isolate away from campus for 14 days upon your return to the country.

 Non-essential domestic business travel is suspended effective immediately

• Also prohibited is any non-essential, incoming and outgoing travel within the United States during the months of March and April.
• An employee with an essential domestic travel request in March or April may request approval through their vice president, dean or unit administrator. These exceptions will be rare.
• Contact your vice president, dean or unit administrator if you have questions about the types of essential vs. non-essential activities that apply to your program, department or unit.

 On-campus events will continue, but are under review

• At this time, we are not restricting large on-campus events. However, we continue to monitor the situation to determine if such a prohibition will be necessary in the near future.
• We are strongly discouraging scheduling any non-essential events through at least April 30. If you have questions about how essential an event is for your program, department or unit, you should reach out to your respective supervisors.

UofL’s campuses remain open and operational

• Faculty and staff are expected to follow their normal work schedules during this time, but continue to follow social distancing and preventative hygiene practices.
• Campus Housing will remain open, but students who are able to stay away from campus until April 5 are encouraged to do so.  Student housing, food services, libraries, the food pantry and other campus and student services will be open. Check campus websites for further information on hours of operation.
• Research activities will continue at this time. Anyone involved in research will receive a separate communication from EVPRI Kevin Gardner in the coming days with specific guidance.
• Supervisors should begin making plans in preparation for a potential determination that remote work is necessary. We have no reason to believe that this step will be necessary in the short-term, but in an abundance of caution we ask our team leaders to begin preparations.

The student-led Engage Lead Serve Board's MLK Day of Service garnered 235 volunteers Monday, a record turnout. They helped pack warm kits for the homeless, stocked shelves at a food pantry, assembled medical binders, and much more at 12 area nonprofits: Brooklawn and Bellewood, La Casita Center, Critically Loved, The Food Literacy Project, Americana Community Center, KY Science Center, Harbor House of Louisville, Dream Factory Inc, Lampton Baptist Church, UofL composting project, UofL Garden Commons and Dreams with Wings Inc.

From the state Capitol to Belknap Campus, University of Louisville research about and efforts to fight human trafficking are getting extra attention during National Human Trafficking Awareness Month.

UofL will have two new January campus events and offer its 10th annual Human Trafficking Awareness Conference to focus on the issue and to help victims receive aid.

And recent research by UofL’s Human Trafficking Research Institute, announced Jan. 7 in a Capitol Rotunda news conference with Governor Andy Beshear and Attorney General Daniel Cameron, indicates human trafficking, particularly of children and vulnerable youth, occurs at high rates across Kentucky, according to Jennifer Middleton, institute director and associate social work professor.

“These findings serve as a call to action and highlight the need for improved community education and awareness. To respond to this call, we are joining Gov. Andy Beshear, trafficking survivors and our university partners to elevate the conversation here on campus,” she said. “UofL students, staff and faculty can play an important role in preventing and addressing human trafficking in our community.”

The Frankfort announcement included initial results of Project PIVOT (Prevention and Intervention for Victims of Trafficking), which UofL did in partnership with Kentucky’s Department of Community Based Services and the Attorney General’s Office with two-year grant funding of $100,000 from the Kentucky Children’s Justice Act Task Force.

Researchers reviewed 698 reported cases of child trafficking over a five-year period between 2013 and 2018. The review was done primarily to answer the question of what happened to those cases in the child welfare system. Among the findings:

• A majority of the cases involved family-controlled trafficking, meaning a family member (most often a parent or primary caretaker), gave offenders sexual access to the child in exchange for money, drugs or something else of value.
• Children trafficked by family members were younger and more likely to have multiple perpetrators than those trafficked by nonfamily.
• Younger children, rural children and children with previous child welfare involvement were more likely to have multiple perpetrators.
• The involvement of drugs in child trafficking cases increased significantly during the five-year period.

Project PIVOT results will be used to ascertain gaps, systemic issues and opportunities for enhanced education, training and policy development.

“What we are finding is that the majority of the time, the crime of child trafficking isn’t being carried out by strangers passing through our towns,” Middleton said. “This has implications for how we educate our communities about child trafficking as well as how we prepare child welfare workers and first responders to identify and respond to potential child victims. Community awareness and enhanced training for professionals are key to preventing and addressing child trafficking in our state.”

Beshear invited state leaders, advocates and survivors to help draw awareness to the issue.

“By coercing victims into and profiting from forced labor and commercial sex, human traffickers represent some of the worst of humanity,” the governor said. “As attorney general I was honored to work with so many passionate advocates and survivors to help combat trafficking and as governor I commit to do the same. We will not stop until we end trafficking, and we must all work together to do so.”

Campus events 

Here are details about the free, public campus events:

• A January 11 film screening and state premiere of “California’s Forgotten Children,” a documentary about child sex trafficking, and panel discussion afterward will be 5:30 p.m.-9 p.m. at Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium. Donations will be accepted to fight human trafficking in the community. Reservations are requested and can be made online. UofL’s Kent School of Social Work, UofL’s Women’s Center, Louisville Metro Human Trafficking Task Force and Louisville Metro Office for Women are sponsors.
• A January 14 Human Trafficking Awareness Resource Fair and discussion will be in the Student Activities Center Ballroom. Featuring numerous agencies, the fair will be 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; stickers and survivor-designed postcards will be provided as part of a national #EndIt campaign. The fair leads into a 1:30-2:30 p.m. Critical Cardinal Conversation on Trafficking and Missing Women of Color by panelists including a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children representative, a parent and former police officer. Sponsors are the Human Trafficking Research Initiative, Project STAAR, Women’s Center, Cultural Center, Office of Diversity Education and Inclusive Excellence and Women 4 Women Student Board.
• The 10th annual Human Trafficking Awareness Conference is 5:30-8 p.m. Feb. 11 in the Student Activities Center Ballroom. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. for a resource fair and light refreshments. Sponsors are the Women’s Center and the Women 4 Women Student Board.

The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge recently awarded UofL a gold seal for achieving student voting rates up to 49%. 

“Our institution is proud to receive this national recognition for our efforts. Our faculty, staff, administrators and students are committed to working together to reduce apathy, increase engagement and graduate civic-minded students prepared to solve the most pressing challenges facing our country and the world,” said Pam Curtis, director of the Office of Student Involvement.

UofL won a silver award last year. This is UofL’s first year for a gold award. Data reveals a 9.7% increase in UofL’s voting engagement since 2014.

Student participation in elections nationwide has increased from the 2014 midterm election to the recent midterm election. According to Tufts University’s National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement, voter turnout at more than 1,000 institutions participating in the study increased by 21 points from 19% to 40%.

“We are excited to honor University of Louisville with an ALL IN Challenge gold seal in recognition of their intentional efforts to increase democratic engagement and full voter participation,” said Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, executive director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. “More institutions like UofL are changing the culture on campus by institutionalizing nonpartisan democratic engagement efforts that are resulting in the incredible student voter turnout rates that we’ve seen across the country.”

The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge is a nonpartisan, national initiative recognizing and supporting campuses as they work to increase nonpartisan democratic engagement and full student voter participation. The Challenge encourages higher education institutions to help students form the habits of active and informed citizenship, and make democratic participation a core value on their campus.

More than 560 campuses, enrolling more than 6.2 million students, have joined the Challenge since its launch in summer 2016.

- by UofL School of Law News

Louisville Law students volunteer at an expungement clinic on Oct. 26, 2019. Clockwise: Alana Johnson, Elias Kang-Bartlett, Seth Wiseman, Maggie Groot, Sofia Calleja.

Several Louisville Law students volunteered at an expungement clinic hosted by the Louisville Urban League last month.

The Reily Reentry Project Expungement Clinic, named for local lawyer and Urban League board member Stephen Reily, drew hundreds of people who wanted to clear their criminal records.

"In law, 'expungement' is the process by which a record of criminal conviction is destroyed or sealed from state or federal record. An expungement order directs the court to treat the criminal conviction as if it had never occurred, essentially removing it from a defendant’s criminal record as well as, ideally, the public record," according to the American Bar Association.

Having a criminal conviction can make it more difficult to find a job or rent an apartment. But expungements come with fees that can be a barrier to many people; in Kentucky, to expunge a misdemeanor costs $100 and to expunge a felony is $500. Reily committed $100,000 a year for three years to cover the fees from this clinic and clinics planned for the future. Louisville Law students also volunteered at a February 2019 expungement clinic.

"It was an absolute privilege to help the Louisville Urban League provide a service so desperately needed," says Sofia Calleja, Class of 2020. "An expungement of a record can help lift families out of poverty. It opens doors to better jobs with benefits and access to stable housing. It was an amazing learning experience."

See coverage of the October 26, 2019, clinic from WHAS11.

Jarui Desai (’18) and UofL senior Praneeth Goli partnered for a project, called the Droplet Water Project, that is providing clean drinking water to those who need it most. After scoping different places and hiring on-site engineers to test the water in those locations, they are able to find the areas where they can make the biggest impact. After choosing a location, they work to secure funding, figure out the logistics and ensure legal compliance.

As of now, they have completed water projects in both India and Columbia. Desai believes very firmly in the mission of their organization and is rewarded by the smiles on young faces as they take that first drink of clean water.

“For the kids, it was exciting to have someone from a different country come in and play with them, but also provide them water,” she said. “But it’s not just the children; it’s the teachers, and their friends and families. The whole village now has access to clean water.”

The project hopes to expand globally, reaching as many underdeveloped communities as possible.

“There are other individuals that people can’t see right now that are in need,” Desai said. “We’ve been able to open other people’s minds up and get them to realize world topics.”

For the complete story visit uoflalumni.org.

The renewal of a substantial grant will allow the University of Louisville Trager Institute to build on the success of programs aimed at care coordination, professional education, community building and Alzheimer’s and dementia awareness.

The Health Resources and Services Administration has renewed the institute’s $3.75 million grant to expand its Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP) throughout Kentucky. The previous funding awarded in 2015 focused on areas in and around Louisville; the new funding will help the institute reach all 120 counties in the Commonwealth.

The UofL Schools of Law, Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing and the Kent School of Social Work will be part of this program to help individuals optimally age by intervening in multiple facets of care which include patients, their families and caregivers, interdisciplinary health professionals, practice models, health care systems and communities.

“This grant renewal speaks to the success of our Trager Institute, and we are deeply honored to be recognized at a federal level for our success and promise of future achievements to dramatically improve the health and well-being of older adults throughout Kentucky,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi.

“To date, we have helped more than 300 older adults move toward the goal of optimal aging and we have trained more than 3,500 learners,” said Anna Faul, PhD, executive director of the UofL Trager Institute. “Our outcomes include the development of our nationally recognized Flourish Index which assesses the degree to which a patient is flourishing in six determinants of health. We’ve also had numerous publications and have included our model of care at the Republic Bank Foundation Optimal Aging Clinic.”

During the next five years, the program seeks to address the following core health needs of older adults in Kentucky:

• High levels of chronic conditions and poor quality of life among older adults
• Lack of a robust rural primary care system, particularly the low number of geriatricians
• Lack of quality nursing home care in rural areas
• The need to create age-friendly emergency departments
• The need to coordinate coalitions and community stakeholders to maximize the potential of population health initiatives within rural environments
• The need to train a health care workforce that can deliver culturally appropriate services to the growing Hispanic populations
• Lack of knowledge among health care professionals about the need for alternative pain management strategies to address the risk of opioid misuse
• The need for dementia-friendly communities and compassionate care for people with Alzheimer’s and related dementia

Goals of the expanded efforts include strengthened partnerships, professional education for health care providers as well as students, community building and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias training using the institute’s own Compassionate Care curriculum.

Several hundred UofL faculty, staff, students and alumni flocked to several sites across the campus and city for the university’s inaugural week of service last week. 

Cards Come Together service opportunities included a community cleanup in Old Louisville, a composting project, a beautification project with New Directions and volunteering at the Americana Community Center’s fall festival. In addition, daily on-campus donation drives benefited Dare to Care, Volunteers of America Shelby Men’s Recovery program, Jefferson County Public School students and Catholic Charities of Louisville. 

President Neeli Bendapudi and Athletics Director Vince Tyra kicked off the week of service at the Red Barn during the Wear Red to be Fed cookout. Bendapudi asked the crowd to “…think of Cards Come Together as University of Louisville’s love letter to the city of Louisville.”

To show their passion, participants, including a slew of student-athletes, traveled to Old Louisville to begin the community cleanup by landscaping community green space.

Volunteers also painted faces and pumpkins at the Americana Community Center’s fall festival, painted and landscaped a Germantown house at the New Directions Housing Corporation beautification project and sifted worms in super soil and turned compost using pitchforks and shovels at the community composting project.

Niki King, communications and marketing specialist, participated in the community composting project and said the week of service fostered a sense of pride as part of the UofL family.

“I’m passionate about sustainability, so I was excited to have this opportunity to work on composting as part of Cards Come Together,” said King. “During the composting project, we learned that UofL has the only community compost in Metro Louisville, which made me appreciate just how vital UofL’s leadership is for the region’s sustainability efforts.” 

King also pointed out that the service projects offered a rejuvenating change to the normal work day.

“I largely work at a desk all day. It was nice to have a change of pace and work with my hands in the outdoors for a bit,” she said. “It was refreshing.”

Artists from all over Louisville will open their doors Nov. 2 and 3 for Open Studio Weekend 2019. The event, co-hosted by UofL’s Hite Art Institute and Louisville Visual Art, gives everyone the opportunity to step inside studios all over Louisville where they can meet artists and experience how and where local art is made.

This is the seventh annual Open Studio Weekend, featuring more than 100 artists in all visual media. Established professionals, exciting newcomers and students, alumni and faculty from Hite Art Institute will share their work in unique studio spaces. 

This year, the public may visit inside the Hite Art Institute’s new MFA Studio facility, a renovated warehouse at 1606 Rowan St. in the historic Portland neighborhood. Hite faculty and MFA students operate studios there in a range of media, including ceramics, drawing, fiber, glass, painting, printmaking, sculpture, mixed media, book arts and design.

This year also continues a partnership with LouVelo Bike Share, which makes free bike rentals available to OSW attendees from noon to 6 p.m. Nov. 2 and 3.
 
In addition, a distinguished panel of curators from around the region will select works by participating artists to showcase in the Open Studio Weekend Juried Exhibition at Hite’s Cressman Center for Visual Arts, 100 N. Main St. All are welcome to a free opening reception during the First Friday Hop, 6-8 p.m., Nov. 1. The exhibition is on view through Dec. 14.
 
Open Studio Weekend is 12-6 p.m., Nov. 2 and 3. Tickets are $12, or $10 for students, art educators and LVA members. A ticket provides access to all participating studios and includes a 60-page publication with maps to studio locations, suggested routes, information, and images of participants’ artworks. Tickets are available on LVA’s website.

All proceeds from the weekend tour benefit the Mary Spencer Nay scholarship at UofL and Children’s Fine Art Classes through LVA.

Participating Hite students, alumni and faculty, with their studio numbers, include: 

Betty Alvarez Painting 14, Britany Baker Drawing 37, Frank Baldwin Painting 29, Megan Bickel Painting 17, Lindsey Bishop Jewelry 36, Anne Borders Painting 29, Tiffany Calvert Painting 14, Rita Cameron Painting 39, Tom Cannady Painting 34, Geoff Carr Photography 20, Don Cartwright Painting 32, Dave Caudill Sculpture 27, Ying Kit Chan Mixed Media 14, Xin Chen Glass 13, Sandra Chu Painting 27, Andrew Cozzens Mixed Media 11, Sabra Crockett Painting 39, Katy Delahanty Mixed Media 12, Linda Erzinger Sculpture 38, Cassie Fischer Painting 36, Elizabeth Foley Printmaking 27, Jeanne Freibert Painting 35, Angie Reed Garner Painting 20, Will Garner Drawing 20, Terri Gilmore Sculpture 41, Johnny Gordon Glass 34, Jen Grove Calligraphy 23, Claudia Hammer Painting 19, Kaitlin Hennessy Mixed Media 23, Bryan Holden Sculpture 17, Noah Howard Mixed Media 12, Casey Hyland Glass 19, Dawn Johnston Painting 33, Joanna Jorgensen Jewelry 33, Kyle Keeney Mixed Media 35, Megan Kociscak Painting 40, Marti Kuehn Painting 34, Lisa Kurtz Ceramics 29, Lori Larusso Painting 11, Erica Lewis Drawing 16, Debra Lott Painting 44, Aaron Lubrick Painting 29, Scott Massey Sculpture 14, James Russell May Painting 37, Helen Merrick Painting 45, Melanie Miller Glass 19, Nancy Gordon Moore Painting 31, Deb Ogburn Mixed Media 34, Chris Owens Mixed Media 38, Peggy Peabody Painting 33, Amy Pender Glass 33, Tara Remington Mixed Media 11, Rosalie Rosenthal Photography 11, Catherine Rubin Painting 32, Debbie Shannon Printmaking 32, Danny Seim Mixed Media 12, Rachel Singel Printmaking 15, Stacy Staggs Painting 37, Debby Stratford Printmaking 31, Chuck Swanson Mixed Media 31, Victor Sweatt Painting 12, Rachid Tagoulla Photography 13, Maria Tinnell Fiber 40, Susan Tolliver Painting 44, Mark Traughber Drawing 19, Caroline Waite Mixed Media 31, Xuanyi Wang Painting 17, Katherine Watts Printmaking 15, Cletus Wilcox Mixed Media 23 and Jingshuo Yang Painting 16.

Last week, Flora Ponder received a proclamation from former Louisville Mayor Harvey Sloane highlighting her influence in Louisville. Ponder was one of the University of Louisville’s first black nursing students, attending school in 1954 during the peak of segregation. 

She was inspired by her great-grandmother to attend nursing school and was the first African-American nursing student to live in the student nurses’ home. At that time, Louisville General Hospital was the teaching and research hospital for the UofL Medical School.

According to WHAS11, Ponder spent her career working to meet the health care needs of the underserved in collaboration with Sloane, who was a physician. She served as the head nurse of recovery and the Intensive Care Unit at the Louisville General Hospital from 1957-1958, and went on to serve as the head nurse at the Louisville and Jefferson County Health Department form 1959-1965. 

Ponder helped to establish and served as the Director of Nurses at the Park-DuValle Community Health Center. She assisted in establishing the first emergency transportation service at Park-DuValle, which later expanded to the city of Louisville. This evolved into what is today the Louisville EMS Service. 

Ponder currently serves as a nursing consultant to various health organizations. She is listed in the Profiles of Contemporary Black Achievers of Kentucky and the Notable Kentucky African American database.

In 1987, Ponder was recognized as an Adopted Alumna and is now a 2019 Alumni Award winner.

-- via UofL College of Arts & Sciences

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

Registration is now open for the University of Louisville’s inaugural Cards Come Together event, a week of service to improve the campus and community October 22-25.

The goal for Cards Come Together is to have 1,000 UofL community members, including faculty, staff, students and alumni, participate in the event. Participants will complete projects both on campus and at off-campus sites throughout Louisville. 

“One of the things that drew me to this university was its strong to commitment to improving the city of Louisville,” said President Neeli Bendapudi. “I’m so excited for us to work together as a cardinal family to showcase how much good we can do.”

Service opportunities during Cards Come Together include a UofL community composting project, community cleanup in Old Louisville, New Directions Beautification project in the Highlands and assisting with the Americana Community Center Fall Festival. Daily donation drive opportunities on campus will benefit various organizations, including Volunteers of America’s Shelby Men’s Recovery program, Dare to Care, Jefferson County Public Schools and Catholic Charities of Louisville.

“The University of Louisville takes pride in its role as a metropolitan research university,” said Ralph Fitzpatrick, vice president for community engagement and co-chair of the Cards Come Together Committee. “This week of service provides another opportunity for the university community to come together to fully engage in the welfare and vitality of the Louisville metro area.”

Participants must register in advance for Cards Come Together’s service opportunities at uofl.me/cardscometogether. Participation is entirely voluntary.  This is not a work-related activity under the university workers compensation program. Staff can use Community Service Leave, but should obtain supervisor approval before registering to participate.

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

Mahfouz Matthew Batshoun and Antonio Burgess finished the spring semester and were ready to embark on a long-awaited summer – one, looking back, they now call life-changing.

While their friends packed bags for glamorous retreats to international destinations or tropical climates, the pair of UofL students and Pi Kappa Phi brothers chose to be part of their fraternity’s long-standing philanthropic initiative, The Ability Experience.

Each summer, members of Pi Kappa Phi trek across the country and participate in one of six nationally-known programs that are part of The Ability Experience, a nonprofit organization aimed at building relationships and empowering people living with disabilities.

Batshoun found one program that captured him immediately, Build America. The six-week-long event focuses on building or repairing accessible amenities for camps, specifically created to give those who have disabilities a summer camp experience.

“My great aunt was paralyzed from the waist down and before she passed away, she worked incredibly hard to push for equality for the community of people with disabilities in Kentucky, including things like the integration of accessible parking,” Batshoun said.

The sophomore from Northern Kentucky first traveled to Boston, where he and his 10-member team spent time bonding and receiving training on how to correctly use power tools. The group visited with and worked with campers in Ohio, Colorado, Arizona and California. At the end of each trip, Batshoun said his team presented a $5,000 grant from the money raised to each camp to aid in future projects.

Of the many memories he’ll carry with him, Batshoun’s time at Colorado Lions Camp stood out in particular. During a project, his team worked on repairing a wheelchair ramp for the girls’ cabin. One day, the only camper in a wheelchair asked Batshoun if he could test the ramp after it was finished.

“The next workday finished and we finally completed the wheelchair ramp, so I waited until after dinner to tell Easton that we finished the ramp and we were ready for him to test it out,” Batshoun recalled. “We walked up to the cabin and he started to go up the ramp. Once he got to the top, he had the brightest, purest smile I had ever seen on his face, and it was at that instant I truly knew the impact that The Ability Experience has.”

Though it’s impossible to predict memories like that, Batshoun said it didn’t take much convincing for him to dedicate his summer to The Ability Experience.

Batshoun’s friend Davin Newsome, also a Pi Kappa Phi member at UofL, worked with Build America in 2017 and convinced him to do it as well. 

“Davin was not wrong at all. Build America was by far the most impactful and memorable seven weeks of my entire life. From the lifelong brothers I spent every waking hour with for seven weeks to the countless amount of lives we impacted along the way, this was without a doubt the summer of a lifetime,” Batshoun, a sophomore, said.

Burgess elected Journey of Hope, a cycling trip in which three teams ride to spread a message of acceptance and understanding for people with disabilities to Washington D.C., with starting destinations in Seattle, San Francisco and Santa Barbara.

Training started May 27, and the team left June 9 from San Francisco to begin their cross-country voyage, with all three teams converging on Capitol Hill.

As the north route’s crew chief, Burgess led a 29-member team on a trip that lasted 63 days. One of their stops included a two-day stint in Grand Island, Nebraska, where Burgess recalls spending “every moment” with people, sharing meals and visiting their workplaces. He said lunch at a park constructed by brothers of Pi Kappa Phi was easily the highlight.

“The two mothers who gave us the tour of the park have been around Journey of Hope and Build America for nearly two decades and so have their kids,” the Lake Mary, Florida, native said. “One of the mothers had a daughter with a disability in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Her daughter, because of her disability, always had trouble connecting with people until she met cyclist and brother Jason Tirado. He made a lasting impact on her and her family and stayed active in their lives before he sadly passed away in 2000.

“When my team heard that story, we were all moved to tears because both of the mothers were also getting emotional and you can see how much of an impact he had and what he meant to the people of Grand Island, as well as what Journey of Hope and brothers of Pi Kappa Phi mean to the community.”

Beyond the sentimental impact, the three teams contributed financially, combining to raise more than $600,000 and helping more than 3,000 people.

As much as Batshoun and Burgess know they played a significant role in improving the lives of others, Burgess also realizes how much the program impacted him personally.

“Journey of Hope has made me into a better servant leader and in turn has made me want to become a better man, a better citizen, a better friend, a better brother,” Burgess said. “I will continue to dedicate my time and efforts to helping serve the lives of people with disabilities and continue to give back to my local community wherever I am.”

SEPTEMBER 3, 2019

University of Louisville President Neeli Bendapudi and Provost Beth Boehm recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the president of University of Dubai (UD).

Eesa Bastaki, president of UD, talked with UofL administrators about cooperation between the two universities that will enable engineering students to collaborate and perform research activities together.

Bastaki said UD is especially eager to give its students more exposure to industry. Bendapudi noted UofL’s industry relationships are one of the school’s many strengths, citing a recent partnership with IBM as one example.

“We’re perfectly poised in Louisville,” Bendapudi said. “We have so many opportunities for growth. We will make sure your students have a rich experience.”

Bendapudi said she hoped the agreement would lead to more study abroad opportunities for UofL students.

“People’s minds change when they travel,” she noted. UD is in the United Arab Emirates.

The memorandum was also signed by Emmanuel Collins, dean of the J.B. Speed School of Engineering. Hussain Al Ahmad, dean of UD’s College of Engineering & IT, will sign at a later date. The agreement will be in effect for five years.