Pavlis Honors College Blog

Community Engagement, Service, and Volunteering at Michigan Tech

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What is community engagement?

Community engagement is a broad category that includes:

  • Service and volunteering in any community, at home or abroad
  • Projects and research in partnership with community members and community organizations
  • Addressing issues affecting a community in a way that is mutually beneficial to all participants

Who participates in community engagement at Michigan Tech?

Students in many majors and aspiring to diverse careers choose to engage with communities.

For example:

Can I do international community service?

Interested in international service?

  • Join Peace Corps Prep, a program that helps you gain technical and cultural skills to be successful working in cross-cultural service
  • Students in Peace Corps Prep typically integrate a study abroad and/or community project into their Pavlis experience
  • Peace Corps Prep is an official partnership between Michigan Tech and the U.S. Peace Corps. It prepares students to serve in another country in the Peace Corps or other community service opportunities.
  • You can earn a certificate from the Peace Corps, a minor at Michigan Tech, and honors recognition from Pavlis by completing Peace Corps Prep

What kinds of work have Pavlis students done?

Here are some stories of Pavlis students who focused on community engagement in their honors program.

  • Elise Cheney Makens designed a Science Fair Mentoring Program for 4th and 5th graders, and volunteered at a Ronald McDonald home during a research summer experience at Mayo Clinic. She earned two Michigan Tech awards for Community Service and is now in medical school at Michigan State.
  • Addie Saltarelli coached basketball and designed a greenhouse and gardening course at Jeffers High School. She was awarded the Exceptional Community Service Project Leadership Award from Michigan Tech for this work. Also highlighted in this video is Lydia Savatsky, who has managed low-income housing projects with the Appalachian Service Project for two summers. She also has worked extensively with K-12 students, including helping to found a new virtual tutoring group during the pandemic, TechTutors.
  • Quite a few students have used the International Senior Design Program in Panama, faculty-led study abroad, and/or European Project Semester for part of their honors experience and Peace Corps Prep.

Who should I contact to learn more?

Kari Henquinet (kbhenqui@mtu.edu) can help you find the right connections for a community-engaged immersion, project, or leadership/mentorship experience. Other Pavlis faculty and
staff also have great connections, such as Dar Slade, Mary Raber, and Vienna Leonarduzzi.

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Meet the Students – Lydia Savatsky

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Lydia is a fourth-year majoring in math. For three summers, she has worked with the Appalachia Service Project (ASP), a non-profit organization that provides home repairs for low-income residents in five states. This summer for her honors project, she designed surveys to gauge general homeowner satisfaction and basic needs, and to track how utility bills change after ASP completes repairs. She is compiling the data from these surveys to improve the organization’s impact and help secure grant funding. Lydia is also on the leadership team of Tech Tutors, a student and alumni-led Covid-19 response to virtually tutor K-12 students.

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Register to vote!

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Are you ready to vote? Are you registered? Do you have questions about voting? Visit the Michigan Tech voter registration drive on Tuesday, September 22, from noon-3 p.m. Bring a valid driver’s license/state ID and a mask, and make sure you know the last four digits of your Social Security Number.

Michigan residents who are unable to make it to the Voter Registration Day event can register to vote online until Monday, Oct. 19. They may also visit any Michigan Secretary of State office. Residents of all states can find voter information at http://www.vote411.org

Last year, Michigan Tech was awarded a bronze seal for excellence in voter engagement, but there’s still a long way to go.

“The (Washington Monthly) listing reflected a significant increase in voter registration, But MTU is still well below our peers. I’d like to increase our numbers so we are above the national average,” said Zach Olson, USG’s Political Affairs Committee chair and a recently named fellow of the Campus Election Engagement Project.

So: visit the drive if you’re not registered to vote, or have questions. And vote this November!

[Portions of this post were excerpted from Tech Today. Read the full article.]

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Finding an Undergraduate Research Mentor

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Are you an undergraduate interested in research, but unsure how to get started? Our video tutorial may be exactly what you need. This video addresses:

  • how to identify and contact a research mentor
  • what to expect when beginning research
  • opportunities for research internships and fellowships for Michigan Tech students

Watch the video on your own time, and if you have specific questions, feel free to email honors@mtu.edu, or make a 10-minute appointment for one-on-one research mentoring via Zoom on September 22, 24 or 28.

If you’re a current or prospective graduate student interested in finding a research mentor, please contact the Graduate School.

Interested in Undergraduate Research?

Pavlis Honors College can enhance your involvement in undergraduate research. Learn more about our Honors Pathway Program, meet an honors student who co-authored a field guide based on her research, and see other research options and exhibitions available to undergraduate students.

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“Radar and Risk in the Straits of Mackinac” in Michigan Tech Research Magazine

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A map of the straits of Mackinac

As Great Lakes water levels rise to record highs, remotely monitoring currents and waves grows in importance. Lorelle Meadows, dean of the Pavlis Honors College, is co-conducting the first test of an onshore high-frequency radar system specifically tuned to map complex current patterns in the Great Lakes.

Read “Radar and Risk in the Straits of Mackinac” in the 2020 Michigan Tech Research Magazine.

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Results of the TCNewTech Pitch Competition

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On August 4, 2020, six Michigan Tech teams participated in a takeover of TCNewTech’s virtual pitch competition. TCNewTech is a community of tech enthusiasts, businesses, entrepreneurs, and Michigan policymakers building a culture of innovation, economic growth and opportunity for local talent in the Traverse City region.

Mitch DeLong won the one-minute “bar napkin” pitch with InnoFreightive, which uses software to consolidate less-than-truckload freight into full truckloads, saving time and money and eliminating the need for warehouses to consolidate services. Ranit Karmakar won the five-minute new venture category with FOCUS, which combines a cell phone and a slit-lamp microscope to make eye diseases diagnoses more accessible to all parts of the world.

Read the full results in Tech Today.

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Michigan Tech Teams to “Takeover” TCNewTech Pitch Contest

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TCNewTech Pitch Contest, streaming live on Tuesday, August 4 at 6 p.m.

Join the TCNewTech Community as Michigan Tech and Husky Innovate takeover their August Pitch Contest for startups. TCNewTech is a community of tech enthusiasts, businesses, entrepreneurs, and Michigan policymakers building a culture of innovation, economic growth and opportunity for local talent in the Traverse City Region.

The competition will showcase three MTU student-generated “Bar Napkin” business ideas or innovations and three commercialized startups with roots connected to MTU and the Husky Innovate program.

This year six teams will present:

Idea pitch category

  • Kyra Pratley with MercyAid
  • Jacob Soter with SwimSmart
  • Mitch DeLong with FreightMate

Business model pitch category

  • Ranit Karmakar with Focus
  • Steve Tokarz, Yoke Khin Yap (Physics) and postdoc Nazimye Yapichi with StabiLux Biosciences
  • Steven Senczyszyyn and Andrew Barnard (GLRC) with Nanosound

Read more in Tech Today or register to watch the competition on Tuesday, August 4 at 6 p.m. EST.

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Honors student teaches innovative, hands-on science class to teens

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Read about honors student and recent graduate Addie Saltarelli (Forestry, 2020) in the Western UP Food Systems Collaborate blog. Addie designed and co-taught a greenhouse and gardening course at Jeffers High School. She was awarded the Exceptional Community Service Project Leadership Award from Michigan Tech for this work.

https://www.wupfoodsystems.com/blog/2020/4/28/planting-a-seed-for-generations-to-come-school-greenhouses-and-gardens

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