Students planning to apply for the Shouse Nonprofit Leadership Program this year may be shocked to discover that, within months, the program will no longer exist. The Shouse Program has been funded by an $116,000 grant from the Catherine Filene Shouse Foundation, and was implemented in the fall of 1998. Unique to Oberlin College, the program was designed to prepare students for careers with nonprofit organizations. A joint collaboration between the Office of Career Services and the Center for Service and Learning, the two-year program combined academic coursework with internship placements, community service work as well as skill-building workshops, and was intended to accept a new group of “Shouse Scholars” each academic year.
Last school year, however, the original three-year grant expired. The administrators of the Shouse program applied for additional endowed funds to maintain the program, but the request was denied, and the Foundation has since dissolved. Without any funding from external sources or from the College, it was impossible for the program to continue, though the Foundation did provide support for one final year, allowing students already accepted to complete their two-year term.
According to Beth Blissman, director of the Center for Service and Learning (CSL), externally funded programs are hard to maintain, as grant awards tend to vary from year to year. The need to raise funds can put a strain on offices such as the CSL. Blissman, who taught a popular Environmental Studies course last semester, is not teaching this semester in order to focus on applying for grants to fund programs that integrate aspects of civic engagement within a liberal arts curriculum.
The loss of the Shouse Program is particularly acute because it was a program unique to Oberlin, and ideally suited to the interests of many Oberlin students. Director of the Office of Career Services Wendy Miller and former Director of the CSL Daniel Gardner, created the program, partially in response to strong student interest in the nonprofit sector. “Because Oberlin College students have a history of taking on internships and community service in addition to their course work, we always saw the program as just helping students connect and make more meaningful what they are already doing,” Miller said.
The commitment to community service is strong among Oberlin students. At this year’s Volunteer Fair, held Feb. 12, five of the 34 nonprofit agencies in attendance were either led by or represented by students. The Shouse program was also innovative. Miller and Blissman recently presented the program model at a meeting of the National Society of Experiential Education.
The Shouse program was an important complement to a liberal arts education, according to Miller, because it provided job skills that aren’t necessarily taught within an academic context. The College emphasizes the possibility that one person can change the world. However, as a liberal arts institution, the College doesn’t necessarily equip students with practical skills to enter the real world. “If you want to do work that makes a difference… you need to be marketable,” Miller said.
Miller and Blissman are currently working on a plan to develop a career-related program similar to the Shouse program. By examining the strengths and weaknesses of the old model, they hope to design a program that focuses on ways students can make a difference. Finding adequate funding for this new program may pose a challenge. “The climate for funding is not good right now,” Miller said. Many foundations have diverted much of their funds to relief efforts for the events of Sept. 11. The current recession has made funding even harder to come by. For now, students looking to gain experience and career skills will have to take initiative and utilize available resources as best they can.