By Megan Walsh, Staff Writer

Hofstra’s School of Education, Health and Human Services announced the opening for the Center of Scholarship, Development and Outreach at the end of November. The mission to “enhance the collaboration of SOEHHS faculty and to promote scholarship and outreach to schools and communities,” as is stated in the mission statement on the Hofstra University’s website for the Center For Scholarship and Development and Outreach.

“The concept of developing the center was really a collaboration, a think- tank process for scholarly outreach,” says the Director for the Center of Scholarship, Development and Outreach, Edward Zero.  The idea for the center was a “joint effort,” says Zero as he explains that it took the collaboration of representatives from the different schools in Hofstra to successfully begin working on the idea of the center.

One of the center’s biggest initiatives is the NSF (National Science Foundation)  Project Based Learning Project.

According to Zero “will connect concepts across disciplines and engage learners in critical and innovative thinking and collaborative problem solving related to real world contexts.”  Zero states that work for this grant is basically “done”.

The NYS Statewide Literacy Resource Center, according to information from the NYSED.gov, currently has “proposals to develop, implement and sustain a web based Statewide Literacy Resource Center (SLRC).”

In addition, the Graduate Clinically Rich Teacher Preparation Pilot Program, according to NYSED.gov, states that “the state-wide purposes of the Graduate Level Clinically Rich Teacher Preparation Pilot Program are to effectively prepare teachers for high needs schools and increase the retention of these teachers in order to positively impact student growth and achievement.”

Each initiative portrayed has deadlines for the grant in January.

Zero feels the center is important because it will “serve as a tool for faculty” and allow them to “generate money to support research”.  Essentially Zero is excited about the resource opportunities this will give Hofstra staff in their endeavors.

When it comes to how the center will fair in the future  Zero was clear that he hopes the center will increase in the way they interact within the different departments and gave the example of two different schools coming together to educate the community on “financial literacy.”

As far as how members of the public should obtain information, Zero said there is a website address to look at (http://www.hofstra.edu/Academics/Colleges/SOEAHS/csdo/)which is just starting out, but “in the months to come” will provide information on many different aspects of the center.