The faculty and students of SIU’s College of Education and Human Services engage in work that is striking in its quality and its breadth. Visit the college and you might encounter teams helping stroke victims and children with autism or researchers exploring the most fundamental principles of learning with marine invertebrates.
You will find faculty pioneering effective approaches in STEM education and others developing new forms of support for parents of children with rare genetic disorders. You will meet experts in language and literacy, speech pathology, addiction and rehabilitation, and the use of virtual reality as a tool in cognitive development—to sample just a few areas of focus across our departments.
You will also find a community of scholars united by a single mission. Whatever our individual areas of specialization, the people of the College of Education and Human Services are committed to the goal of advancing the health, well-being, learning and self-fulfillment of others, throughout our community and far beyond. We do so through groundbreaking research, through deep engagement with our community, through strong partnership with our public schools, and through education—training leaders who will teach and serve others, implement best practices and effect change in settings from Carbondale and Murphysboro to Zimbabwe and Saudi Arabia.
At COEHS, we take pride in the excellence of our teaching and research and in our many connections with the community beyond campus. We also take pride in the way we bring academics and outreach together—uniting theory and practice, putting our ideas to work.
This happens in many ways:
- when our faculty support teachers at area public schools through professional development programs or deliver supplemental after-school instruction through the America Reads program,
- when our undergraduate and graduate students help recently arrived families navigate their new culture and build literacy skills through the Illinois Migrant Council,
- when our pre-health professions students gain direct experience with patients—for instance, those meeting the challenge of cancer through the Strong Survivors program,
- when our undergraduates join faculty in conducting impressive, original research in areas ranging from exercise science to bilingual preschool education.
At COEHS, hundreds of students engage in these kinds of practical learning opportunities each semester. Most complete multiple experiences before graduating, and often these practicums are planned to synch directly with their current coursework. It is a powerful way to learn and at the same time to have a real, positive impact on the people of our region.
Our campaign goal is to secure new philanthropic investments to fuel the progress of the college by funding initiatives in several areas of immediate priority.
Increased Scholarships
Two factors come together to make scholarships a vital priority in this campaign: the fact that our college continues to serve many first-generation students and many from families of limited means, and the fact that many students and families are challenged to cover the costs of higher education.
As a result, we see promising applicants we would love to enroll for whom cost is too great a barrier. We also see graduates entering the work force with too great a burden of debt. The clear answer is to increase our investment in student scholarship support, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Expanded Opportunities
One of the great strengths of our educational program is the range and richness of options for hands-on learning beyond the classroom—through internships, research projects, and community-based learning. Our goal is to secure funding to allow more students to take advantage of these remarkable opportunities, funds that will afford them the latitude to accept unpaid positions and in some cases help with travel expenses.
Enhanced Facilities and Resources
Our students prepare for success in professional practice by using the same instruments professionals use—from cardiovascular stress testing equipment to metabolic carts equipped for an array of sophisticated tests. We seek to secure funds for three purposes: to afford the ongoing updates needed to keep our equipment state-of-the-art, to invest in new equipment in order to accommodate enrollment in some of SIU’s fastest growing majors, and to renovate space in Davies Hall to house this equipment, providing a home to the departments of kinesiology and public health and recreation professions.
Deeper Community Engagement
The college is committed to applying our expertise and energy to help public schools achieve success—a goal essential to the future of our region and nation. Our plan is to expand many current forms of partnership, funding new opportunities for our faculty and area teachers and administrators so that they can focus together on student success, teacher professional development and areas of critical current need.
