The Nashman Hive Jordana Rubenstein-Edberg

Steven and Diane Robinson Knapp established the Knapp Fellowship for Entrepreneurial Service-Learning to recognize, reward, and facilitate creative public service and academic engagement. Community engaged projects range from academic research to documentary film making. Listen to Diana Aguilar and Erin Powell, the 2020-2021 recipients of the Knapp Fellowship. Through her connections at the Bokomoso Youth Center in Winterveldt, South Africa, Erin conducted a study on the impact of gender in the community. Though her original plan was to go to the conduct and conduct the research herself, travel restrictions due to the COVID19 pandemic changed her plans entirely, and an even more authentic project was born by partnering with people in the community who conducted the research themselves. Diana worked with La Clínica del Pueblo, a health center in Hyattsville, MD-and examined the impact of Telehealth in the Latino community during this time. She worked through a range of challenges, from connecting to a community facing a multitude of barriers to healthcare, to reflecting on her own place as both an insider and outsider in this community. With the COVID19 pandemic, this year was unusual to say the least, but provided openings to new ways of thinking about connecting with community. Let’s hear how Diana and Erin worked through what it means to engage in a year defined by distance.



For more information on the Knapp Fellowship visit: https://serve.gwu.edu/knapp-fellowship-entrepreneurial-service-learning

To lean more about Erin Powell's Project: https://blogs.gwu.edu/nashmanfacultyupdate/2020/09/15/erin-powell-a-2020-knapp-fellow-winner-discusses-her-project-gender-as-a-barrier-in-winterveldt-south-africa/

To lean more about Diana Aguilar's Project: https://blogs.gwu.edu/nashmanfacultyupdate/2020/09/03/diana-aguilera-a-2020-knapp-fellow-winner-discusses-her-project-latino-immigrants-and-telemedicine-approaches-and-her-ongoing-civic-engagement/

While talking to Professor Pamela pressers University Writing course, Caitlin Haynes discusses all of the wild and interesting stories she gets to archive while working at the Smithsonian Transcription Project.

Check out the collaboration between Dr. Sean Cleary's community engaged course "The Autism Experience" with the non-profit organization Our Stomping Ground, which supports people with autism in accessing inclusive, affordable independent housing in Northern Virginia. In Dr. Cleary's class students learn directly from people with autism, form friendships and break through assumptions about what it means to truly provide equitable access to education, housing and healthcare.

Music Credit: Ketsa, "What's Manifesting"