Students
The Education Department attaches great importance to the integration of academic study, pedagogical preparation, and classroom experience. Students are encouraged to constantly apply the knowledge they acquire through their studies to actual settings for teaching and learning. This pairing of abstract knowledge and concrete experience occurs in many forms—community service projects completed in conjunction with formal courses, fieldwork assignments in local schools and social service agencies, independent research projects, and collaboration with faculty. Listed below are some examples of projects recently completed by students in the Education Department:
Fieldwork Placements and Independent Work
- Volunteering as a teaching assistant in a local K-12 classroom
- Assisting special needs students at Rehabilitation Programs, Inc.
- Serving as an intern at the Arlington School District central office
- Working with a child with autism through the Son-Rise program
- Designing and implementing a children’s theater program at a local children’s center
- Creating original curriculum for our Exploring Science at Vassar Farm program
- Working as a docent in the education section of the Museum of Jewish Heritage
- Conducting research on teaching of Karuk (an endangered Native American language)
- Conducting research on class size for a local school superintendent
- Producing a video about parenting children with Down Syndrome
- Designing an early intervention program for preschoolers with special needs
- Create an inclusive extracurricular program for high school students
- Conduct a qualitative interview study of international student experiences at Vassar
- Serve as a tutor for ESL students in the Poughkeepsie School District
Correlate Projects
- Education Volunteer Opportunities at Home and Abroad
- Portfolio of Early Childhood Education: Art and Literacy
- Writing Pedagogy and Process in the American High School Curriculum
- The Immigrant Experience of Education
Independent Outreach Projects
Programs offered by the Education Department reflect the philosophy that schools can be sites of social change where students are given the opportunity to reach their maximum potential. Courses are organized to encourage students to imagine possibilities for local change in educational opportunities for youth. To support this goal, several courses encourage students to work closely with local schools and organizations to better serve the needs of children. The following Community Collaboration Projects were completed by students enrolled in Education 235: Issues in Contemporary Education:
Literary Analysis with High School English classes
A group of four Vassar students worked with two 11th grade English classes at Poughkeepsie High School assisting them in preparing a required portfolio that included a Task IV section, creating an original piece of writing and the performance/sharing of that work, as well as assisting them to prepare for the Regents Exam. Building on existing analytical skills, this group helped the high school students transfer analysis of Hip Hop and Rap to critique of canonical texts thereby making connections to what they already knew well how to do.
Preparation to Apply to College
A group of six Vassar students worked with the Children’s Home to provide individualized attention regarding collegiate aspirations and the college application process. The college preparation process is long and arduous, and through their relatively recent experiences, these Vassar students sought to help the high school students avoid the many pitfalls and mistakes that are likely without adequate guidance. This group completed a website to catalogue the culmination of their work for others.
Debate Series
A group of six Vassar students hosted a debate series for youth at Poughkeepsie Middle School. Their idea was that a debate series creates an environment conducive to democratic equality and the development of citizenship, and creates a space for students to learn through argument and formulate their own ideas. The debate series provided a way for students to delve into issues they were passionate about, controversial topics such as capital punishment, gay marriage, and video games.
Discovering Poughkeepsie
Two students mapped the City of Poughkeepsie with a focus on highlighting the natural resources of the community. These two students worked with the science program at Vassar Farm and through their participation in this program, they became motivated to create web-based resources for Poughkeepsie teachers to enhance science curriculum in their classrooms. Their goal was to encourage students and teachers in Poughkeepsie to view their own community as a resource for academic endeavors.
Youth Newspaper through VAST+ (Vassar After School Tutoring)
Two Vassar students worked with VAST+ youth to create a newspaper that allowed middle school students to express their opinions on school, elections, and other events that affect the lives of youth. The middle school students were involved in all aspects of the production.
Drama Group
A group of Vassar students worked on a drama project with Poughkeepsie High School youth in the Special Education department. The goal of this project was to allow students in the program to practice their nonverbal communication skills. Among other goals, this group introduced careers in drama to students often not expected to do more than graduate.
Collaborations with Mill Street Loft
Mill Street Loft is a not-for-profit, Multi-Arts Educational Center based in the the City of Poughkeepsie, New York.
Several projects have been aligned with Mill Street Loft, working closely with Joan Henry, resident artist and director of two girl empowerment groups there. The Food Feminism group worked with Poughkeepsie girls to re-imagine the role that food can play in their lives. They hoped to reclaim cooking as a girls’/women’s empowerment ritual. The Mural group worked with alumni of the Mill Street Loft program on a “portable mural.” The mural incorporates individual conceptions of community as well as group conceptions of this term.
Another group of Vassar students designed a project that revolved around collaborative learning, personal insights, and goal setting. The theme for their project was derived from “Nobody Knows My Name” by James Baldwin, in which Baldwin ends the introduction by stating, “(O)ne can only face in others what one can face in oneself.” The project was to create a video journal illustrating the progress, inner thoughts and feelings that the girls struggle with on a daily basis.
Collaboration with Children’s Museum and Project Thunder
This group created an exhibit at the Children’s Museum that taught youth about the physics of sound and our ear and brain’s perception of music. The group has recruited middle and high school students from Project Thunder in this creative process to give them an opportunity to become involved in making and teaching this project. The Children’s Museum, in support of this effort, offered space at the museum for this exhibit.
Collaborations with the New Hope Community Center Garden Project
This project taught kids about the environment through gardening and learning about nature & plants, as well as through other activities. They met to garden and teach kids about today's very pressing environmental issues and allow them to get in touch with nature. The project culminated with an Earth Day celebration & "salad party" where they eat the things that they’ve grown.
Collaborations with Poughkeepsie High School Theater Workshop
This group initiated a theater workshop that focused on building self-confidence, self-awareness and self-expression through acting techniques and in particular, monologue skills. The class combined analytical literature skills with the interpersonal and intrapersonal skills built through theater games and exercises.
Other Independent Outreach Projects
- Created video about parenting children with Down Syndrome
- Case study video of dyslexia
- Designed early intervention program for preschoolers with special needs
- Designed inclusive extracurricular program for high school students
- Created video of international students describing their experiences at Vassar