University of Colorado at Boulder students Anita Lowe and Lauren Black are part of a group of students studying writing and hunger while working with Boulder nonprofits through a service learning course called "Hunger in America and Abroad."
During the fall semester, 17 CU students have been writing grant proposals, funding request letters, marketing plans and operations manuals for local nonprofit groups including Conscious Alliance, Growing Gardens and the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless. The goal of the class is not only to teach students about writing and hunger but also to create hands-on, meaningful experiences, according to Neal McConomy, a CU-Boulder writing instructor with the Program for Writing and Rhetoric who developed the course with Justin Levy.
"This is the best class I've ever had because my work makes a difference," said Black, a junior majoring in communication.
Black and Lowe both said they are enjoying the course because they are helping the community while learning new skills.
"We are actually writing for a purpose," said Lowe, a CU-Boulder junior integrative physiology major who is taking the course this semester. "It's not just a professor reading my work. I'm helping Growing Gardens raise thousands of dollars for a shade structure that will improve their community outreach."
The students will present their class research on hunger and how it impacts different groups of people at a free public symposium on Dec. 3 at 6:30 p.m. in Hale Science Building room 270. The symposium, titled "The Skinny on Hunger," will feature keynote speaker Natalie Hand, co-founder of the Looks For Buffalo Foundation on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
The symposium also will serve as a food drive. Attendees who donate food will receive a commemorative print created by artist Rob Marx.
For more information on the symposium call McConomy at 303-492-7280 or e-mail neal.mcconomy@colorado.edu.