Santa Clara University

Santa Clara, Calif. — May 17, 2007. Laura Nichols, associate professor of sociology at Santa Clara University, has been selected as a faculty fellow for the California Campus Compact—Carnegie Foundation Faculty Fellows: Service-Learning for Political Engagement Program. Nichols is one of only 25 faculty members from public and private universities across California who have been chosen for this honor.

As a faculty fellow, Nichols will work with other colleagues from a wide variety of disciplines over the next two years to create, implement, and reflect on service learning in at least one of her courses with the goal of increasing students’ understanding, skills, and motivation for political participation. Beginning this summer with a three-day institute at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, she will also be engaged in the scholarship of her teaching and students’ learning to deepen her understanding of service learning for political participation. Eventually she will advance the field of service learning by sharing the results of her scholarship with faculty at SCU and those in her disciplines.

About Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California’s Silicon Valley, offers its 8,377 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master’s and law degrees and engineering Ph.D.s. Distinguished nationally by one of the highest graduation rates among all U.S. master’s universities, California’s oldest operating higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. For more information, see www.scu.edu.