Professor Receives Prestigious Award posted 1/28/09
Dr. Jim Martin is honored for service-learning contributions

ADRIAN, Mich. – Adrian College is pleased to announce Dr. Jim Martin, professor of biology, will be honored with a Michigan Campus Compact (MCC) Faculty/Staff Community Service-Learning Award at the 13th Annual Institute: Service-Learning and Civic Engagement, on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009. This prestigious annual award is the highest MCC bestows on faculty and staff in the state of Michigan.

Dr. Martin was designated by peers as the faculty/staff person on campus who has made the most outstanding contributions in service-learning and community service. This award recognizes his influence on and the engagement of students to be involved in community service or service-learning through modeling, influencing or instruction. He was nominated by Dr. Dale Nesbary, vice president and dean of academic affairs at Adrian College.

In his current position, Dr. Martin has used service learning in his biology classes. He has been a member of the faculty at Adrian College since 2002. He teaches a number of courses in Biology with a specialization in entomology. One of Dr. Martin’s most important accomplishments is the discovery of a new species of mite in Honduras in 2004. Besides his scholarly accomplishments, Dr. Martin is also the recent organizer of a new service learning project with a local non-profit. It is for this work that he is nominated.

Dr. Martin began working with the River Raisin Watershed Council in 2006. Since then, he not only has conducted an analysis of six years of data for the group, he is the primary organizer of the Bug ID and stream search days each fall and spring. This program involved advisory meetings and training with colleagues at Central Michigan University’s MiCorp stream training. In adapting the program to southeast Michigan, this event involves not only biology majors, but other students, faculty and staff at Adrian College. Additionally, in fall 2007 Dr. Martin offered his entomology class as an academic service learning course. Students worked in the local streams identifying and studying insects.

As a result of his work, Dr. Martin is a featured speaker in the community at local libraries and civic groups. He is also an active scholar most recently presenting at the Sixth National Water Monitoring Conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

He will be formally honored during the 2009 Institute: Service-Learning and Community Service Awards Ceremony and Dinner, held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids. Dinner will begin at approximately 5:30 P.M. with the ceremony to follow.

Michigan Campus Compact is a coalition of college and university presidents who are committed to fulfilling the public purpose of higher education. MCC promotes the education and commitment of Michigan college students to be civically engaged citizens, through creating and expanding academic, co-curricular and campus-wide opportunities for community service, service-learning and civic engagement.

For more information about the award and ceremony please contact the Michigan Campus Compact at 517-492-2424 or visit their Web site at www.micampuscompact.org. To learn more about Dr. Martin’s outstanding contributions on campus and in the community, please contact him directly at 517-265-5161 ext. 3927 or via e-mail at jmartin@adrian.edu .

Some information courtesy of Michigan Campus Compact.