College of Arts & Sciences

Community Outreach Programs

English Department faculty perform much service for local communities and are regularly listed in the Honor Roll of NKU Outreach Participants. Our activities include: 

  • Judging many writing competitions for local schools and organizations, the most prominent being the Scholastic Writing Awards and the Campbell County Historical-Genealogical Society Writing Contest;
  • Teaching community-based courses;
  • Delivering lectures and presentations to community organizations, arts clubs, museums and churches;
  • Giving readings of creative work in bookstores, coffee shops, and libraries;
  • Appearing as guest speakers and tutoring in local schools;
  • Serving on community boards for arts and heritage organizations;
  • Serving on editorial boards for professional organizations;
  • Sharing expertise with newspapers and radio and television stations;
  • Consulting and responding to queries in areas of expertise.

Programs that promote reading and writing

  • Early Assessment Program (EAP) in English provides high school students with early indications about their readiness for college-level writing.

  • First West Workshop is a conference dedicated to the development of the woman writer.

  • Northern Kentucky Area High School Creative Writing Contest awards cash prizes and certificates of achievement for poetry, fiction and personal essays submitted by students at local high schools.

  • Journal of Kentucky Studies is an annual publication that features scholarly articles on history and literary criticism as well as personal narratives, short fiction and poetry.  

  • Licking River Review is a literary/art magazine published at Northern Kentucky University. The primary mission is to showcase outstanding student work in writing, art and photography. We also promote the outstanding work of writers/artists from any region in the country. Our third goal is to provide student editors and staff members with valuable hands-on editing/publishing experience.

  • Bookfest is a celebration of reading and writing that brings hundreds of middle school students and teachers to the NKU campus every spring. Students meet an author, discuss books they have read, participate in workshops conducted by NKU faculty, compete for awards, and receive recognition for their accomplishments in reading and writing. Bookfest exists because of the vision and generosity of Dr. Robert Collier, Professor Emeritus of English at NKU. Our department collaborates on this project with our co-sponsors, the Department of Communication and the College of Education.

  • Let’s Talk About It is a series of book discussions conducted by English faculty at branches of the Campbell County Public Library. Professors give presentations and lead discussions about classic and contemporary books. Coordinated by Dr. Barclay Green.

Community-based courses

  • Storyboard Service Learning Project: Several writing classes in the past few years have partnered with non-profit agencies such as Senior Services of Northern Kentucky, Little Brothers-Friends of the Elderly, and the Fort Thomas Museum. Students have interviewed and written profiles honoring residents of our community.

  • Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project: Several writing courses for the past several years have been taught through the Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project, sponsored by the Mayerson Family Foundation of Greater Cincinnati and administered by NKU’s Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement. Students do research to learn about community needs and then disperse funds to non-profit agencies serving those needs.

  • Writing for Social Change: Students in this class, taught by Dr. Chris Wilkey, meet in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood and interact with community residents and activists as a way of examining how an actual social movement and everyday people use language and writing to work for social change.

  • Fieldwork in Community Literacy:  Viewing community literacy as literacy work that exists outside of mainstream educational and work institutions, students in this course, taught by Dr. Wilkey, engage in a community-writing project that is publicly oriented and designed to inspire social change.  Through this course, students learn to identify genuine community needs, develop a socially relevant community-writing project, and apply research to specific community interests.

  • Web Writing for the Professions: Students in this course, taught by Dr. Tom Bowers, recently collaborated with representatives from Vision 2015 to develop various prototypes for NKYHelps.org, a website designed to enhance regional participation in non-profit activities.  The website provides individuals access to information on local charitable activities and nonprofits while also allowing nonprofits the ability to post their activities and to locate potential volunteers.

  • Grant Writing: Students in this course, taught by Dr. Bowers, have worked with numerous local non-profits to identify and develop projects to help the non-profits meet their missions.  Students have also identified funders for these projects and have completed and submitted grants for these projects.