Michelle Lackner selected for new service-based scholarship program

2017 Jan 26

Michelle Lackner is one of 20 college students from Iowa and California selected for the first class of the Principal Community Scholars Program.

The pilot program is designed to encourage student leadership to meet community needs. Selected students will receive a $1,000 scholarship from Principal upon completion of a service project.

Lackner, a junior from Saint Louis majoring in social work at Wartburg College, will conduct a program evaluation study for IMpower, a Wartburg program that seeks to empower and increase self-esteem in elementary-aged girls.

"During Fall Term, I was in a social work research course and conducted a formative evaluation with other students on IMpower's first six-week session," Lackner said. "After analyzing the data, my research group and I realized there were some areas in which our data collection tool needed to be improved to better evaluate the program. It made sense to continue with this project for the scholars program."

Recipients were selected by Principal, Iowa Campus Compact and California Campus Compact after being nominated by faculty or staff from their college or university and a rigorous review process.

"We were impressed by the caliber of the community projects students will be taking on as a part of this scholarship," said Emily Shields, executive director of Iowa Campus Compact. "It is clear they have a deep commitment to their communities, and we can't wait to see what they accomplish."

The scholars proposed projects designed to engage their peers and their institutions in meeting community needs. These projects tap into a variety of skills that can be offered by college students and will impact causes varying from education to environmental sustainability.

"Michelle has shown outstanding leadership potential. For the IMpower program to move forward, college student leadership is needed for communicating with schools, facilitating mentor training and conducting the program evaluation," said Tammy Faux, Wartburg's Tomson Distinguished Chair in Social Work. "Michelle has the ability to help plan for these steps and then train younger students to further expand the program."

Campus Compact is a national coalition of nearly 1,100 colleges and universities committed to the public purposes of higher education. As the only national higher education association dedicated solely to campus-based civic engagement, Campus Compact enables campuses to develop students' citizenship skills and forge effective community partnerships.