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Community Service

Community service is an important component of the Kugelman Honors Program student experience. Students contribute to the campus and local communities by actively engaging in service and developing valuable leadership skills.


Student working in community garden
Student holding supplies for a community building project

Before graduating as a Kugelman Honors Scholar, Honors requires students to complete focused community service. Students can complete community service at their own pace and are encouraged to participate consistently in service activities throughout their time as undergraduates.

Honors students are responsible for documenting their completed service hours. They must include locations, dates, the amount of time they volunteered/served, and brief descriptions of their service activities. Once they reach the required hours threshold--40 for two-year pathway and 80 for four-year pathway students--they can submit their log to the Honors Advisor, who will mark the requirement as complete on their degree audit.

 

Students standing in the community garden
Students in UWF Community Garden

UWF Student Community Garden

The UWF Community Garden is an active Kugelman Honors Program service project. It is open to the public, and we welcome anyone who shares our passion for digging in the dirt and growing things.

The garden helps develop, cultivate, assess, and sustain a network of mutually beneficial community partnerships by producing a large and growing network of community partners committed to food sustainability, nutrition, and student development.

Student presenting community research project for Honors Core II

Honors Core: Social Sciences

In this first-year course in the Honors Core, taught by Dr. Jocelyn Evans or Dr. Meredith Marten, students will explore the philosophical and cultural underpinnings of community and investigate the distinctive features of communal life. This foundation will prepare students to address those features of modern society that either support or threaten community. Specific attention will be given to conceptions of justice and equality, political engagement, social interaction, urban design and city planning, public presence, personal meaning and usefulness, notions of public/private property and collective responsibility, and shared physical and virtual space. Likewise, we will consider threats to community including: (potentially) social networking and technology, lawlessness and violence, collective efficacy and problems of collective action. Students then will consider the ways in which citizens can benefit from engaging their respective communities of interest, can foster more meaningful civic life, and can provide leadership to build a better future. By the end of the semester, you should be thinking about your community and culture and raising the following questions. What is your community and cultural heritage? How do you define it? What does it provide you? How is this community and cultural heritage different than it was for your parents and grandparents? What can you do to make it better?