Developing Sustainable Community-University Partnerships
Sustainable partnerships between academic institutions and community organizations must rest on a strong foundation of personal relationships, trust, service, place-based approaches to research and learning, and the ability to maintain connections and shared work as funding ebbs and flows. In this seminar, Melvin Giles and Dr. Nic Jelinski discuss lessons learned from several years of collaborative work and a living and growing set of principles and values for initiating and developing sustainable community-university partnerships.
Melvin Giles
Melvin Giles is coordinator of the St. Paul-based Urban Farm and Garden Alliance and Director of The Storymobile project He is a veteran peace, diversity, and dismantling racism educator. He has extensive experience working with youth, academia, government agencies, nonprofit agencies and neighborhood groups.
Prof. Nic Jelinski
Nic Jelinski is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate at the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on pedology, variation of soil properties at multiple spatial scales, and the use of isotopic tracers in studies of soil genesis. He is also interested in innovative approaches to teaching soil science in classroom and field environments.