1. Business Writing & Community Partnerships: It’s about Change Jim Dubinsky English Department Virginia Tech Kim Kirk Town of Blacksburg Planning & Engineering Office Association for Business Communication Annual Conference, Cincinnati, OH October 23-26, 2002

2. Who we are  Kim Kirk Coordinator Neighborhood Enhancement Program Town of Blacksburg’s Planning & Engineering Office Blacksburg, VA 24060 http://www.blacksburg.gov/services/planning/neighborhood_enhancement.php 540. 961-1126 / KKirk@blacksburg.gov  Jim Dubinsky Director of Professional Writing Program Department of English Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA 24061-0112 http://www.english.vt.edu/~dubinsky/ 540.231-7909 / dubinsky@vt.edu

3. What we did & how we did it  What? Semester-long, Service-Learning Partnership  How? Before term: Met to discuss goals, develop projects, and discuss deadlines/schedules During term: Introduce project to class, work with students, share notes and evaluations, present material, revise & edit material  Student tasks: Informal Proposal, Progress Report, Oral Presentations, Final Written Project After term: Refine products, discuss results, and use products and what we learned

4. Why we did it  Kim Address local government’s responsibility to reach out to citizens (including 4-5,000 transient students) Gave access to student perspective Additional resources (in terms of experience, labor, and talent)  Jim Belief in service-learning’s pedagogical value Belief in fulfilling land grant’s civic mission & introducing students to the concept of civic duty Teach students the importance of deadlines Gain another perspective on my students’ work & my class

5. Importance of Partnership  Partnership changes dynamics of relationship, increases accountability, & expands potential for learning  Kim’s previous experiences with interns Student labor but no faculty involvement Issue of accountability  Jim’s early ventures in service-learning Client projects or service-learning Balancing number of projects with goals of pedagogy

6. Student’s Perspectives  “ The service-learning project exposed us to what really goes into developing professional documents.... We learned... more than any lecture [could present].”  “Before our group began this project, none of us knew that the [NEP] existed. We now know it does, have helped Kim do her job, and, more importantly, have helped countless tenants (particularly students) in single-family homes.”  “There is definitely a place for academic service-learning; our class played a pivotal role in helping us learn group skills. We applied the material in the class, using our different backgrounds, and... channel[ed] our diversity towards the community project to achieve a goal that benefits everyone involved: all of us, Kim, and our fellow students who live in town.”

7. Overall Benefits: Effect “Change”  Personal  Pedagogical  Political  Professional

8. Immediate Impact  Town Outreach (student outreach to effect change in government’s ability to reach out) Valuable input for town government from students Valuable input for students about town government and its services / roles Use of materials in presentations

9. Long-term Impact  Boundary between town and gown dissolves  Feedback and suggestions on methods for Town to communicate with students living “in town”  On leading edge of movement to help community regain trust of student population  Products and their potential value Survey, brochures, information sheets, newsletter  Establish models for partnerships at many levels  Addresses notion that courses with strong practical components are “market-driven” or, worse, simply “vocational”