Food Security Scholars is a collaborative leadership development program for students passionate about making progress toward a more food secure world. Housed in the Staley School of Leadership Studies, scholars experience a two-phase program exposing them to a variety of experiences surrounding food security, food waste and recovery, and global food systems.
Each academic year, students apply and interview to become a member of the next cohort. As scholars in the new cohort, they engage in a two-phase program during the fall and spring semesters, respectively. Phase I consists of an eight-week curriculum where students meet once per week to discuss a topic in a roundtable-style dialogue. Various activities are interspersed, such as a tour of Cats’ Cupboard, or a stakeholder roundtable discussion. Continue reading “Food Security Scholars updates”→
Guest authors Kate Lewis (K-State student, Global Food Systems Leadership, pre-veterinary medicine and Animal Sciences and Industry), Peter Maier (K-State student, Master of Public Health program), and Justin Kastner (K-State faculty member, Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology) wrote this article to highlight leadership principles in operation in a past infectious disease event—one that occurred over three and one-half centuries ago.
For readers of The Loop, it is axiomatic to say that leadership involves focusing on others and their needs, even if it requires subordinating or abandoning one’s self-interest. Whether aiming for a societal goal or an individual team’s success, good leadership involves “put[ting] others’ interest before your own.”[1] Leadership is not meant to be a self-promoting enterprise, but one that brings with it real, anticipated, expected costs borne by servant leaders—costs often measurable in concrete financial, political, relational, and personal terms. Indeed, servant leadership may include forgoing a lucrative career for the sake of working in the so-called “third sector” of the non-profit world; it may mean embracing and advocating for a politically unpopular principle or practice; as many seasoned leaders can attest and as admirable biographies narrate, service to others may feature profound personal loss—losing the esteem of friends, or even life itself.
International Service Teams (IST) is a program housed in the Staley School of Leadership Studies that sends students abroad to engage in ethical service-learning work. During the summer, student-led teams work with our partners in community efforts abroad. Students gain leadership experience, become more culturally sensitive, and develop a critical understanding of global inequality.
This year we are piloting a two-week-long IST trip to Guatemala that is faculty-led from July 28 to Aug. 13. Applications are due by Feb. 7.
We are partnering with Tejiendo Futuros, a nonprofit organization that works to empower every member of the families in the Panajachel community. They aim to provide holistic education, increased food security, access to affordable medical services, support for social entrepreneurship and environmental conservation. Students will work with the organization’s school and eco-farm.
All students, including those graduating in May 2022, are eligible for this trip. All students will be required to have basic conversational Spanish. Additionally, there will be a three-credit hour leadership course the final eight weeks of the semester to prepare students for the summer experience.
IST is also hosting four other sites for 8-10 week experiences in the Dominican Republic, Kenya, South Africa, and The Gambia.
In this series, authors will explore how individuals and communities imagine new ways to lead change, new mindsets to approach complex issues, and new strategies to align leadership theory and practice. We will share examples of how local leaders address global issues, highlighting leadership perspectives and strategic change actions.
In this blog, Josh Brewer illustrates the challenges associated with neighborhood revitalizations through an adaptive, critical lens. He describes how the practice of “Front Porch Conversation,” disrupted dominant expert-driven practices and centered resident experience in improving the quality of life of neighborhoods.
On an unusually hot summer evening in Kansas, two homeowners sat in their driveway anxiously waiting near a cooler of iced drinks. Over the prior two weeks, they had walked up and down their neighborhood, knocking on doors, posting flyers, and sticking yard signs in front lawns. “Front Porch Conversation,” the signs read, promoting the first step, a conversation, in a grassroots neighborhood revitalization process for the older Manhattan neighborhood that residents affectionately call “So Po.” Some say the term was derogatory decades ago, “so poor on the Southside,” but the new residents are reclaiming it as South of Poyntz, a primary corridor in town.Continue reading “Shifting the power dynamics of neighborhood revitalization through Front Porch Conversations “→
How do you want to define your college experience? For many students at Kansas State University, it’s a question without an answer. Of course, it’s learning, but it’s also something beyond the classroom. The answer includes something with meaning beyond oneself—something that gives to others and has tangible impact. For many students, community service is the mechanism to realize that desire.Continue reading “Students utilize service and learning to benefit community”→
HandsOn Kansas State’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service will take place Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022. The Day of Service will consist of multiple service projects that take place simultaneously at different sites across the city of Manhattan, beginning at 9 a.m.
All members of the K-State and Manhattan community are invited to participate. Volunteers will be assigned to a location: Manhattan Public Library, Sunset Zoo, Ogden Friendship house, Goodwill, Hope Ranch, Wonder Workshop, or within the Leadership Studies Building working on projects for various local organizations. A grab-and-go breakfast will be provided for volunteers from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Leadership Studies building.
Apply to be an Academic Mentor today for spring 2022. Academic Mentors are K-State students who engage with youth in the Greater Manhattan community at schools and community programs. Our mentors support academic skills and positive youth development in children, in grades kindergarten through middle school.
All hired Academic Mentors must be Federal Work Study Eligible (FAFSA must be completed), be interested in working with youth, and accept a criminal background check.
More information and the online application can be found here.
This is a story of student leadership development that results in tangible community impact. Through staying the course and engaging others, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library is now sending free books to children in the Manhattan area.
The story begins with a group of honors leadership students in 2015. In an introductory course taught by Marcia Hornung, students selected childhood literacy as the issue that they wanted to impact in the local community. They identified a gap in service from the Dolly Parton Imagination Library; there was no opportunity for kids in the community to sign up for the program. Children enrolled in the Dolly Parton Imagination Library receive a free book each month by mail. Communities raise money to pay for their own books ($2.00 per book) and the national program covers overhead, shipping, logistics, and all other necessities to get the books out.
Students in the course formed the group “Little Apple Need to Read” and became the partner organization for Manhattan. They undertook all sorts of fundraising and grant-writing efforts to raise money for the program and made presentations across the community to spread the word. They continued to move the effort forward long after the class was over. For the next five years, they persisted in the endeavor and eventually graduated and moved away from the community. Subsequent students in the same course continued to impact the program after the original class moved on.
Students from the honors leadership class, 2015, selected childhood literacy as the issue that they wanted to impact in the local community.
Then, students in the Nonprofit Leadership program at the Staley School of Leadership Studies continued raising funds and spreading the word to move the project forward. These efforts aligned closely with the fundraising, grant-writing, and partnership-building taught in their nonprofit leadership courses, so they were putting their academic experience into practice in the community. Each group of leadership students moved the project forward, continuing to raise money and promote the program, little by little. And then the breakthrough happened: They found a critical organizational partner, the local Konza United Way.
The Konza United Way believes that everyone deserves opportunities to have a good life. Led by Tara Claussen, executive director, they took on the charge of becoming the partnering organization and got things off the ground. Through their generous donors, and the efforts of Governor Laura Kelly and Representative Troy Waymaster to take the program statewide, the Imagination Library will now become a reality in our community and the entire Konza United Way service area.
“Thanks to the tireless work of many community members, the generous contributions of donors, and public policy initiative, kids in Manhattan and the surrounding area will have a book in their mailboxes December 2021.”
This story demonstrates many leadership lessons. Leadership is collaborative. It often requires diverse stakeholders to come together in common cause; and it doesn’t happen overnight. At the Staley School of Leadership Studies, we engage students in finding purpose in their efforts. They don’t just learn in the classroom; they connect to the community. And little by little, we progress together, alongside phenomenal community partners, to create real impact—in this case, for Kansas kids.
If you have kids in your life ages 0-5 years, consider signing them up for the program. Also, as you are able, consider supporting this fantastic program through a donation.
Special thanks to the 2015 class of honors leadership students, Marcia Hornung, former nonprofit leadership instructor at the Staley School of Leadership Studies, the Manhattan Rotary Club for continued support, and the Konza United Way.
HandsOn Kansas State’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service will take place Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022. The Day of Service will consist of multiple service projects that take place simultaneously at different sites across the city of Manhattan, beginning at 9 a.m.
Apply to be an Academic Mentor today for spring 2022. Academic Mentors are K-State students who engage with youth in the Greater Manhattan community at schools and community programs. Our mentors support academic skills and positive youth development in children, in grades kindergarten through middle school.
