This section provides some recent examples of student service learning projects. Student did these projects in a variety of departments. For more information on these projects, contact the director of Urban Studies at Mkirby@Rhodes.edu.

Campaign Assessment of a Memphis Municipal Election

As part of a directed inquiry, Beau Gambold worked with the Mary Wilder campaign for City Council District 9-3. He used a combination of field experience, GIS maps, election data, and interviews to analyze the election. His findings were: door-to-door canvassing, the endorsement of an incumbent for winner Reid Hedgepeth, and the demographics/party affiliation of the district were factors in the election results.

Welcome Home Memphis: VECA

Students created a public relations flyer for distribution to residents in the Vollintine-Evergreen area. Community activist Gloria Singleton Fulton worked with students Colleen Jones, Megan Flatt, Erin Foster, Masters Richards, and Alex Liu.

In the process, students learned about the complex makeup of VECA, a neighborhood organization that serves the area.

Jefferson Davis Memorial at Confederate Park

Students worked on a variety of issues related to the Memphis riverfront in partnership with community activist Virginia McLean of Friends of Our Riverfront. The students created a brochure for a downtown park, examined issues related to vagrancy in the park, and examined financial issues related to a quasi-public agency. The students learned about designing park space, but they also learned about the complex relationship between citizens and public agencies. Left to right in the photo are Jordan Russell, Elizabeth Holladay, Larry Hurd, Virginia McLean, Nick Margello, Brice Cambas, Nicholas Threlkeld, and Ben Sieken.

Utility Easement

Students Rachel Austin, Carl Cook, Allie Kotula, Brad Muller, and Whitney Palla examined a utility easement and created a plan for converting it to a walking trail. In the process, the students learned a great deal about public ownership issues, the role of nonprofits and neighborhood groups, and the difficulty of creating public facilities.

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