Kenai Peninsula College (KPC) receives national recognition for program engaging students and community in creative expression

Janice Maloney High, associate professor of English, reports that KPC earned a Diana Hacker Two-Year College English Association (TYCA) Award for Outstanding Program in English for Two-Year Colleges and Teachers. Partnering with the Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center, the Interdisciplinary Service-Learning program that earned the award creates formal exhibits that use art and writing to explore community concerns and history. For example, for the first exhibit, "The Heritage Portrait Project," student writers and artists captured the histories of the peninsula's homesteaders. In the second exhibit, "Exploring Perspecitves: The Art and Science of Climate Change," art, science and communications students came together to create works expressing related research and data surrounding climate change. The newest exhibit, "Harvesting the History of Work," is being developed for this spring.

"Overall, the projects have had a broad impact, resulting in community-wide dialogues in forums, special programs and presentations," High writes.

Read more in the latest KPC Connection (PDF)
.