Prof brings classrooms to life through community partners

Communication professor Vicki Mayer received this year's Barbara E. Moely Service Learning Teaching Award at Tulane University. The award is presented each year to a faculty member who brings classrooms to life though engaged community partnerships.

Communication professor Vicki Mayer is the recipient of this year's Barbara E. Moely Service Learning Teaching Award. (Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano)

The university's provost, Michael Bernstein, presented the award on Tuesday (Nov. 27) to Mayer during a faculty appreciation event for faculty members who have taught service-learning courses during the academic year. Service-learning course credit is required for Tulane undergraduates.

“Vicki Mayer has been teaching service learning for at least five years, and is one of the faculty exemplars employing the pedagogy,” says Vincent Ilustre, executive director of the Tulane Center for Public Service.

She has partnered with a variety of agencies, including the Bayou Keepers (Neighborhood Partners Network) and the organization's newsletter "Trumpet," and the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and its KnowLA project.

During her service as the chair of the Tulane Department of Communication, Mayer encouraged other faculty members to get involved with center programming, through participating in the faculty seminar or teaching service-learning courses, Ilustre says.

During the 2010-11 academic year, Mayer was one of the recipients of the Community-Based Research Grant from the Center for Public Service, allowing her to establish MediaNola, a project that connects her research, teaching, undergraduates and the public at large. Numerous service-learning classes partner and contribute to MediaNola every semester.