The final Fireside Chat in February features Ann Oberhauser and Jill Krieskys presentation,”Building Bridges: Teaching, Service and Pedagogy from a Womens Studies Perspective,”a talk about the importance of involving WVU students in community service. The chat is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 24, at 4 p.m., in the Mountainlair Rhododendrom Room.

“Through service-learning experiences, students can better understand the community in which they live and apply academic topics to �€~real worldissues,”said Dr. Oberhauser, the 2001 Stitzel Endowment Teacher and associate professor of geography. She specializes in gender and economic restructuring, feminist pedagogy and regional development and is also an associate faculty member with the Center for Womens Studies.

“This experience encourages students to perform a service to community agencies and organizations by providing assistance in their operations, such as spending time with the elderly, tutoring kids in after-school programs, offering advice to victims of domestic violence or volunteering in the county literacy program. Both students and agencies benefit from these experiences.”

As the director of the Office of Service Learning Programs, Dr. Kriesky helps to facilitate the relationship-building between the community and campus faculty that makes the projects possible.

“These projects are useful in building good relationships between the campus and the communities in which it is located,”Kriesky said.

Also, students who learn best”by doing”find this to be a useful method to absorb course material, she said.

The chat is free and open to the public; refreshments will be provided. This event is sponsored by the WVUCenter for Womens Studies, Eberly College of Arts and Science and the Womens Studies Program Development Fund, with funding provided by the Judith Gold Stitzel Endowment for Excellence in Womens Studies Teaching and Learning.

Dr. Judith Stitzel, professor of English, founded the WVUCenter for Womens Studies in 1980 as a program within the College of Arts and Sciences. She served as the centers first coordinator and continued as director until 1992. Each year, a grant from the Judith Gold Stitzel Endowment fosters the creation of new, and enrichment of existing, courses.

For more information, call Marlene Robinson, Center for Womens Studies, 293-2339, ext. 1153.