Ithaca, NY--Michael B. Smith, assistant professor of history in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Ithaca College, has been named a 2005 Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL). Administered by the Carnegie Foundation, the program seeks to bring together educators who are developing new models for teaching. Smith is one of 21 faculty members selected from a pool of more than 300 applicants worldwide.

"Michael Smith was selected for this honor because of his work using service learning to enhance history education in several different courses," says Howard Erlich, dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences. "As a Carnegie Scholar, he will be focusing his efforts on refining the service learning components in some courses, developing new service learning partnerships for his environmental history course, and creating tools for measuring the kinds of learning produced through service learning."

During the 2005-6 academic year, Smith will participate with the other recipients in three residencies at the foundation's headquarters in Stanford, California. In addition to presenting and publishing the results of their work in a variety of forums, the 2005 scholars will attend workshops and institutes and work with previous Carnegie Scholars.

"I became a college teacher for two principal reasons," Smith says. "To help produce liberally educated, civically engaged college graduates and to help build a more sustainable society. This fellowship allows me to study and put into practice ways I and others--especially historians--can do these two things through service learning. I feel very fortunate to have been named a Carnegie Scholar."

During the next academic year Smith will be spending time researching the use of service learning in history courses and studying how this pedagogical technique enhances learning outcomes. He will also contribute to ongoing efforts to develop service learning as a teaching tool at the College.

"Service learning offers tremendous opportunities for not only enhancing overall learning but also for making Ithaca College students partners in community building beyond the borders of the campus," Smith says.

In addition to environmental history, Smith has taught courses at Ithaca College on the United States Since 1945, Wealth and Poverty in American History, and Technology and American Culture. His research interests include the history of the summer camp movement in American culture, Liberty Hyde Bailey and the origins of environmental education, and the environmental history of photography. During the past year Smith has coordinated the Sustainability Café, a periodic forum for discussing issues related to the College's sustainability initiative.

Smith holds a doctorate in history from Indiana University, where he first began using service learning in his courses. While a graduate student there, he received one of the institution's top awards, the John H. Edwards fellowship. He also holds a master's degree from Villanova and a bachelor's degree from Truman State University in Missouri.