Chuck and Fonda Green to Receive MCC Awards

HOLLAND - Dr. Charles Green of the Hope College faculty and Fonda Green of the Hope College staff will each receive Michigan Campus Compact (MCC) Faculty/Staff Community Service-Learning Awards on Thursday, Feb. 17.

The award recognizes outstanding community service and service-learning by faculty and staff at the colleges and universities that are members of MCC. Recipients are honored for engaging or influencing students to be involved in community service or service-learning through modeling, influence or instruction. The award recipients are nominated by peers at their institution.

Charles Green is a professor of psychology and director of the college's Phelps Scholars Program, and Fonda Green is executive director of the Children's After School Achievement (CASA) program at Hope. Husband and wife, they have been members of the Hope and Holland communities for more than 20 years.

They will be honored formally during a reception and awards ceremony at Adrian College. The ceremony is being held in conjunction with MCC's Ninth Annual Institute on Service-Learning, "Deepening the Commitment to Student Engagement through Quality Teaching."

Charles Green joined the Hope faculty in 1983 and was appointed director of the Phelps Scholars Program in 1998. The Phelps Scholars Program is an academic program for first-year students interested in learning about issues of race and culture. They take one course together each semester, live in the same residence hall, participate in discussions and workshops, take part in service projects and engage in various social activities.

He was director of the college's Carl Frost Center for Social Science Research from 1992 to 1999. His active involvement in the college's academic program has included service in the past as director of the educational assessment program and as co-coordinator of the general education program, and chairing the committee concerned with restructuring the college's core curriculum in the mid-1990s. He delivered the college's Opening Convocation address in 1999. He is currently director of the college's First-Year Seminar program. He was on the planning committee for the first Ottawa Area Summit on Racism. He has volunteered with several local organizations and agencies, including the Greater Holland United Way, the Holland Public Schools and the City of Holland, and is actively involved in his church, New Community Fourth Reformed Church. Fonda Green has been executive director of CASA since 1998.

CASA runs year-round, providing academic and cultural enrichment to at-risk kindergarten through fifth grade students. The program serves to improve the students' academic performance and help them develop healthy, productive lifestyles. CASA's students meet after school twice per week for two hours per session throughout the school year, and in the mornings during a six-week summer session.

She was head resident of Kollen Hall at Hope during the 1983-84 school year. From 1984 until joining CASA, she worked in the Student Development Division as coordinator of special programs, with responsibilities including creating and implementing programs for students and the general campus community in the areas of women's issues, non-traditional students, alcohol education, and sexual assault prevention and education.

She has been an active volunteer in the community. Among other activities, she has served as a facilitator for the Ottawa Area Summit on Racism, as a recruiter and coordinator for the Holland-area CROP Walk and in area classrooms as a substance abuse educator in Project CHARLIE. She has been active in her church, New Community Fourth Reformed Church, and has been president of the Holland Classis of the Reformed Church in America and has worked with the Regional Synod of the Great Lakes of the RCA.

Michigan Campus Compact is a state-level non- profit organization that promotes the education and commitment of Michigan college students to be civically engaged citizens, through creating and expanding academic, co-curricular and campus-wide opportunities for community service, service-learning and civic engagement. Some 31 Michigan colleges and universities are members of MCC.

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