Hobart and William Smith Colleges
EN-10: Community Partnerships

Science on Seneca (SOS), an EPA-award-winning environmental education program, is a middle and high school educational outreach program of the Finger Lakes Institute at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. The goals of Science on Seneca are to provide students with an interesting experience in the collection, analysis and sharing of scientific data and to amass baseline data on Seneca Lake's major features. SOS enables regional science teachers to provide their students with an outdoor classroom experience on Seneca Lake using the William Scandling, Hobart and William Smith Colleges' 65-foot research vessel. The FLI staff is also constantly working with teachers to improve the experience of the SOS training and the applicability to the classroom through a number of hands on lessons, curricula, and resources. Website URL: http://www.hws.edu/fli/sos.aspx

Geneva 2020 is an important multi-year effort, launched in 2012, to advance the Geneva schools and build a stronger community. The effort harnesses the resources of the entire Geneva community – non-profit organizations, businesses and individuals – and focuses on three key areas identified by the Geneva City School District as being critical to the future of Geneva’s children:1) graduation rate, 2) career and college readiness, and 3) literacy. Measurable goals: - Raise the graduation rate to 90 percent by 2020 for all students. - Expand Geneva High School alumni outreach efforts to determine higher education and career pathways, and provide role models for students. - The percent of students performing at mastery, scoring 85% or above on NYSED regents exams or Level 4 on NYSED assessments, will increase to at least twenty (20%) of all students. - The percent of students performing at proficient, scoring 65% or above on the NYSED regents exams or Level 3 or above on NYSED assessments, will increase to at least eighty (80%) of all students. - The percent of students performing below standard, scoring 54% or below on NYSED regents exams or level 1 on NYSED assessments, will decrease to no more than ten (10%) of all students. Inclusive process: Geneva 2020 has a well-represented and diverse Steering Committee. Workgroups are filled with members of the community from all backgrounds. Geneva 2020 is building Collaborative Action Networks (CANs) that will do the main work of Geneva 2020, which is building community support to achieve the program goals. CANs must be led by diverse leadership tables, especially those that have been traditionally underrepresented. Geneva 2020 follows the rubric set forth by the national StriveTogether model to make sure that leadership is representative of a realistic cross-sector of the Geneva community. Financial support: HWS financially supports the Geneva 2020 with a half-time Program Coordinator position. A matching partnership between HWS and the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund splits the financials costs of running Geneva 2020. HWS employs a half-time (with benefits) Geneva 2020 Program Coordinator. Website URL: http://www.hws.edu/about/geneva2020_about.aspx Community report: http://www.hws.edu/about/pdfs/Geneva2020_community_report.pdf

Since 1983, the Community Lunch Program has offered a hot meal each weekday to those in need, serving approximately 70 individuals each day and more than 20,000 meals per year. The Colleges’ Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning has long collaborated with the program, and members of the HWS community took responsibility for staffing, planning, preparing and serving lunches each Thursday in October and February. In addition, leftover baked goods from our cafe such as bagels, muffins, rolls, and bread are donated twice a week to help offset the Lunch Programs food purchasing costs and prevent food from being wasted on our campus.

Please view our annual report to see the many ways we work with the local community and help provide leadership and engagement opportunities.