Two University of Georgia faculty members and a UGA Archway Partnership community member were recognized at the 2023 Gulf-South Summit on Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Through Higher Education hosted this month by the University of Georgia Office of Service-Learning.

Paul H. Matthews, associate director of the Office of Service-Learning, was awarded the 2023 Award for Outstanding Faculty Contribution to Service-Learning in Higher Education – Research; Don Powers, president and CEO of Forward McDuffie and chairman of the executive committee for Thomson-McDuffie’s Archway Partnership, won the Gulf-South Summit’s award for Outstanding Community Partner Contributions to Service-Learning in Higher Education; and Sarah Adams, the Archway Professional in Colquitt County, was recognized for the Best Poster in Research for her poster, “Food Insecurity: Barriers for Elementary School Students in a Rural Community.”

The Gulf-South Summit is the region’s largest conference bringing together practitioners, research, sustainable programs and a culture of engagement and public awareness through service-learning and other forms of civic engagement. More than 300 faculty, community partners, practitioners and students in service-learning and civic engagement fields attended the conference, which was held April 12-14 at the UGA Center for Continuing Education & Hotel, the first Gulf-South Summit conference held in-person since 2019. UGA has been an institutional sponsor of Gulf-South since 2007.

Matthews was recognized for his significant contribution to research and scholarly publications in service-learning and his support in the scholarship of engagement, teaching and learning of service-learning among his colleagues. He serves as the section co-editor for the International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement and as an associate editor for the Journal of Higher Education Outreach andEngagement. Since 2010, he has led over 40 peer-reviewed state, national, and international conference presentations, and has published in several service-learning and community engagement journals as well as book chapters.

“It’s a real honor to be recognized by the Gulf-South Summit for contributions to the service-learning research field that I’ve been part of over the past several decades along with many great colleagues and co-authors,” Matthews said. “I think this award also points to the strength of the institutional supports that we have here at UGA for faculty—even those not formally budgeted for research—to collaborate, to investigate and share out applied scholarly work that then influences our understanding of how service-learning and community engagement can best be accomplished.”

Powers has been the long-time chair of the UGA Archway Partnership Executive Committee in Thomson-McDuffie, first while in his role as city administrator and then after transitioning to president of Forward McDuffie, the umbrella economic development team for the city of Thomson and McDuffie County. Since 2018, Powers has collaborated with UGA on more than 100 projects, involving 25 faculty and upwards of 230 students. These projects have provided a return on investment to the Thomson-McDuffie community of greater than $2.5 million, along with invaluable professional development for students involved in active learning opportunities.

“It is an honor to receive this award from the Gulf-South Summit for community partner contributions,” Powers said. “It has been incredibly rewarding to work with the Archway Partnership and the University of Georgia in Thomson-McDuffie and to see all the outstanding progress that has been made thanks to these efforts.”

Adams’s poster, “Food Insecurity: Barriers for Elementary School Students in a Rural Community,” focused on children living in poverty in rural Southwest Georgia. While many students in the region experience food insecurity and live in a Title I school district where morning and lunchtime meals are provided free of charge during school days, the poster shares results from focus groups conducted with school social workers to identify the main barriers for K-5 students’ access to after-school meals.

“This would not have been possible without the PSO Faculty Scholarship Academy,” Adams said. “A big thank you to the Faculty Scholarship Academy board, my research teammates, my mentors and Archway Director Michelle Elliott, whose support was monumental in my pursuit of this opportunity. This research led me to establish new relationships with elementary school social workers that helped reveal barriers to after school meals for K-5 students. Some of the issues appear to be readily fixable problems if the available resources can be effectively aligned in a sustainable way. I’m looking forward to continuing this research to serve communities across the state and beyond.”

The 2024 Gulf-South Summit will be hosted by Auburn University from April 15-17. The event is hosted by a different institution each year.