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Current Projects, 2004-2005

Midwest Assistance Program
Mofuah Walker-Arthur, a freshman from Ghana, majoring in Management and Global Business
Elizabeth Greipentrog, a sophomore from Milwaukee, Wisconsin with an undecided major.
Ben Winchester, CST Staff

The Midwest Assistance Program (MAP) (www.map-inc.org) provides assistance to rural communities for water and wastewater infrastructure projects across 9 mid-western states: Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming. Elizabeth and Mofuah are involved with the design and implementation of a survey that measures quality of life in small towns that have replaced their water and/or wastewater system.

University of Minnesota Extension Service
Jessica Anderson, a freshman from Mapleton, Minnesota with an undecided major.
Daan Nayar, a senior from Savage, Minnesota with a double major in Statistics and Computer Science.
Ben Winchester, CST Staff

The University of Minnesota Extension Service provides a number of valuable services to small towns across the state. A number of surveys are collected to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the various programs. Jessica and Daan provide data entry, analysis and reporting of results. UMES program areas include leadership development, facilitation, and social capital.

Technology Team
Kevin Logan, a senior from Madison, South Dakota majoring in Computer Science with minors in Music and Statistics
Ben Winchester, CST Staff

The Tech Team is a continuous component of CST that provides website development and training to community-based organizations. Kevin is working with the Sustainable Farming Association (www.sfa-MN.org) to redesign their website to create a user-friendly web environment with features such as a message board and a "trading post". The Community Assistantship Program of the University of Minnesota Center for Urban and Regional Affairs funded this project. On-site training is also provided to understand the web site and to learn how to update the information. Other projects completed this year include the Health Care Purchasing Alliance (www.insuremn.org), the Regional Fitness Center (www.morris.umn.edu/rfc/), and Community Education (www.morris.k12.mn.us/commed/).

Highway 29 North Shore Asset Mapping
Neil Linscheid, a senior from St. Paul, Minnesota majoring in Political Science
Andrea Maringer, a junior from Lewiston, Minnesota majoring in Environmental Science
Ben Winchester, CST Staff

A group of involved citizens along the Highway 29 corridor, running through Swift and Pope Counties, are interested in their future. The group has received funds from the Community Assistantship Program of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs. CST provides supervision on the project. Neil and Andrea are compiling an inventory of regional assets to transform these results into a digital layer. This digital infrastructure is utilized by a Geographic Information System (GIS) package to allow one to view the assets in the region on a map, such as one found through Map Quest. This allows the group to attain educational, environmental, and economic outcomes.

Benson Chamber of Commerce Business Barometer Survey
Neil Linscheid, a senior from St. Paul, Minnesota majoring in Political Science
Ben Winchester, CST Staff

The Benson Chamber of Commerce is interested in better serving the needs of the local business community. To accomplish this, Neil helps implement a Business Barometer Survey to provide measures of business owner confidence, financial requirements, and overall satisfaction with the support services that are available in the community. This project is in partnership with CST and the Extension Service.

Civic Engagement Workbook for Statistics
Dr. Engin Sungur, Professor of Statistics
Dr. Jon Anderson, Associate Professor of Statistics
Dr. Jong-Min Kim, Assistant Professor of Statistics
Mah Yanti Johnson, a senior from Fresno, California majoring in Sociology
Ben Winchester, CST Staff

Two courses, Statistics 1601: Introduction to Statistics and Statistics 2601: Statistical Methods, are now integrated with a civic engagement component that allows for the survey, analysis, research and reporting of rural statistical indicators. Students are involved in the compilation of variables, the analysis of rural indicators, and the creation of "media reports" that are distributed to communities and counties across Minnesota.

This workbook http://www.mrs.umn.edu/services/cst/statbook/ is used as a supplement for The Introduction to the Practice of Statistics (4th ed) by Dr. David S. Moore and Dr. George P. McCabe. This workbook will follow the textbook and provide problem sets for each chapter. The primary data source for this workbook is the 2000 US Census. The Census Bureau and the Minnesota Department of Administration (formerly Minnesota Planning) data repository web sites, which contain a wealth of data about the area, will be used throughout these problem sets. Mah Yanti provides guidance to students completing reports and reviews submissions for publication on the website.

Data Analysis and Research
Kevin Logan, a senior from Madison, South Dakota majoring in Computer Science with minors in Music and Statistics
Ben Winchester, CST Staff

The DAR unit is a key component of CST. Kevin is primarily involved in helping with the entry and consolidation of historical census data from Minnesota. This data is made available on the CST website, and is the first of its kind available to offer census data, population estimates, and projections from 1900-2050 for counties, cities, and townships across the state of Minnesota.

Student Administrative Assistant
Emily Elsner, a senior from Coon Rapids, Minnesota majoring in English
Jessica Beyer, CST Staff

This is an on-going position within the Center in which a UMM student is hired to learn and assist the administrative functions of this community outreach program. Emily's responsibilities include assisting with all aspects of the Student Involvement component, including the recruitment, placement and evaluation of student employees and volunteers. Other duties include participation and recording of weekly staff meetings, assisting with special projects like the Annual Symposium on Small Towns, and working on publicity and visibility efforts.

Futures Festival
Emily Elsner, a senior from Coon Rapids, Minnesota majoring in English
Amy Fox, a senior, from Linwood, Minnesota with a double major in Anthropology and Art History
Nick Peterson, a junior from Elk River, Minnesota with a double major in Political Science and History
David Fluegel, CST Staff

A CST Conversation Series event called the "Futures Festival: Opportunities, Challenges and Strategies for Older Adults" will bring people together from 14 counties in western Minnesota to explore positive aspects of aging, envision a healthy future, and make connections to people and resources. This Futures Festival held on November 12, 2004 in the Student Center on the University of Minnesota, Morris campus and serves as a springboard for creating a network of people and activities around vital aging and communities that support aging vitally. Students help with the coordination, publicity, development of a resource handbook and overall preparation for the event.

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Small Towns and the University of Minnesota Extension Service, Regional Center - Morris. This event is also supported with encouragement and funding from the University of Minnesota Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, College of Continuing Education, the Bernard Osher Foundation, and other partners.

Clean Energy Research Team
Luke Zachman, a junior from St. Michael, Minnesota with a double major in Environmental Studies and English
Jessica Beyer, CST Staff
Melissa Pawlish, Research Fellow and the CERTS Coordinator, AES Regional Partnerships at the UMN Twin Cities, project supervisor

The Clean Energy Research Team is a statewide project funded by the Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships. Zack will work with the West Central Partnership staff to perform an energy inventory of the West Central region that looks at current energy usage, opportunities for conservation, current renewable energy activities underway in the region, and the availability of and potential for local renewable energy resources.

Kids Voting/Service Learning Assistant
Emily Schweiger, a sophomore, from Nicollet, Minnesota with a double major in Political Science and Spanish
Cheryl Kuhn, Morris Area School District Service Learning Coordinator, site supervisor
Jessica Beyer, CST Staff

Kids Voting is designed to get students involved in the democratic election process. It teaches young people and through them, their parents, the importance of informed voting and offer them a chance to experience what it is like to vote in a polling place on Election Day. Students are taught the basics of voting history and the principles, which are the foundations of our democracy, through exciting hands-on lessons. The curriculum goals foster the skills of information gathering and decision-making, complex judgments, empathy and empowerment. Emily will work with the Morris Area School District to provide support and enhancement to service learning in the district by coordinating and helping to create a kids voting program. Emily will be spending the rest of the semester on the evaluation of the program and presenting the program to other school districts.

West Central Regional Sustainable Development Partnership Evaluation
Dr. Engin Sungur, Professor of Statistics
Dr. Jon Anderson, Associate Professor of Statistics
Kelly Whipple, a junior, from St. Francis, South Dakota majoring in Financial Business Management with minors in Economics and Statistics
Laura Hildreth, a senior

This project involves an assessment of community needs and assets in the West Central Minnesota region, as well as an evaluation of Partnership programs since its formation five years ago. Dr. Sungur, Dr. Anderson, and Ms. Whipple are working together to analyze programmatic documents and conduct a survey of board members, project leaders, and partners to measure progress towards goals. These results will inform the WCRSDP board to indicate directions of future support.

West Central Healthcare Purchasing Alliance Web Design
Kevin Logan, a senior from Madison, South Dakota majoring in Computer Science with minors in Music and Statistics
Ben Winchester, CST Staff

The West Central Health Care Purchasing Alliance is a group dedicated to finding a local solution to the accessibility and affordability of healthcare insurance in rural west-central Minnesota. Kevin works with the WCHCPA staff to design and code a website for the West Central Healthcare Purchasing Alliance. The website will allow visitors to track the progress of the group, offers avenues for discussion, and disseminate research completed by the group.

HUD COPC Administrative Assistant
Joe Basel, a freshman from Mankato, Minnesota majoring in Management
David Fluegel, CST Staff

This is an annual position for the term of the COPC grant (fall 04' - spring 07'). Joe will help with the administrative needs of the grant and its activities.

Benson Business Profile
Kathryn Albright, a senior from Sioux Falls, South Dakota majoring in English
Jessica Beyer, CST Staff
Heather Le Clair, Chamber of Commerce, Site Supervisor

Kathryn is working with the Benson Chamber of Commerce and local businesses in Benson that are involved with renewable energy. Kathryn will be interviewing business managers, as well as local citizens about their involvement with this resource and then writing up business profiles about them that will be used to publicize and educate people about the Benson area. The profiles will be sent out in press releases to the media in order to get the word out that Benson is a renewable community and we encourage new businesses to locate here.

Project Iraq
Kelly Alsdurf, a junior from Hastings, Minnesota, majoring in Speech Communication
Jessica Beyer, CST Staff
Cheryl Kuhn, Morris Area Service Learning Coordinator, Site Supervisor

This project was to connect the Morris Area Elementary School, more specifically the 4th graders, to the Morris area troops. The individual parts of the project can be divided into these sections.
1) Gathering school supply donations and packing them up to send to the Morris troops so that they can hand them out to Iraqi children in need.
2) Mailing supplies and managing left over donations for disposal to other groups in need.
3) Producing a video from the 4th graders to be sent to the troops
4) Creation of a plaque dedicated to the soldiers to be displayed in the new school
5) Designing a specialized flag to be produced and then flown at the new school
6) Culmination event for students and families of the troops where video, flag and plaque will be displayed
7) Service Learning Day bracelet making for the families of Morris area troops
8) Curriculum about Iraqi culture and people taught to 4th graders
Kelly has specifically been involved in all of these tasks. She is a mediator between the fourth grade teachers and provided them with curriculum on Iraqi culture to teach with. She sorted, packaged and mailed the donations for the Iraqi children in need and mediated communication for others to receive the extra donations. In regards to the video she has done all of the taping and will be working on the overall production and editing as well. For the Service Learning Day Kelly taught how to make the bracelets and taped the actual event. Kelly has also helped plan and negotiate details of the Culmination event for the project. Her daily tasks are involved with all of these major sections of the project, and included in that is her office work and communication with teachers, employers and fellow workers.

USDA GIS Mapping Project
Brent Hanson, a junior majoring in Chemistry
Jessica Beyer, CST Staff
Steve Wagner, USDA office, Site Supervisor
Melissa Pawlish, Research Fellow and the CERTS Coordinator, AES Regional Partnerships at the UMN Twin Cities, project supervisor

Brent is working with the Clean Energy Resource Teams, and staff at the USDA-ARS North Central Soil Conservation Research Laboratory in Morris and University of Minnesota West Central Research and Outreach Center to develop a tool to identify likely locations for wind energy development in West Central Minnesota. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Technology is being used to develop a tool that uses topographic information, existing wind data and wind maps, transmission line and substation location, and fetch conditions to identify best bet locations in the region for location of wind turbine projects. In the first phase of this project, a prototype tool will be developed one or two counties in the West Central CERTS area. In a planned second phase the tool will be developed for other regions.

Brent is work with ARCGIS software to develop a tool to map locations with high potential for wind energy development, researching existing wind data sets and wind resource maps, topographic maps, and fetch conditions to incorporate in GIS maps and working to develop "rules of thumb" to incorporate in the tool to combine layers of maps to provide useful output. We will develop graphical output in poster format to demonstrate findings.

Morris Area Park Project
Jeff Janca, a senior from Lyons, Illinois with a double major in Biology and Psychology
Ben Winchester, CST Staff

Jeff will work with the Morris area park board to identify and locate various assets with in Pomme De Terre Park. Each item such as camping locations, restrooms, trails, etc, will be on electronic software to create a map of the park. A GIS map of the park will enable to better plan future developments and provide visitors with a web-based interface to obtain further information.

US Fish and Wild Life
Rachel Meiser, a junior from Circle Pines, Minnesota majoring in Biology
Jessica Beyer, CST Staff
Debbie Beck, US Fish and Wildlife, Site Supervisor

Rachel has been using ArcView software to delineate grassland and wetland habitats in Fortier Township, Yellow Medicine County. She then used the information that she entered, including landowner contact data, to create landowner-specific maps showing habitat that our office is interested in conserving through our easement program. Rachel has also been responsible for using the same software to digitize survey areas for a waterfowl pair survey that we do annually. Rachel experienced other aspects of the US Fish and Wild Life agency including prairie chicken surveys, buckthorn control, and observing a prescribed fire.

Summer Technology Team
Kevin Logan, a senior from Madison, South Dakota majoring in Computer Science with minors in Music and Statistics
Eric Bergeland, a senior from Madison, Minnesota majoring in Historical Perspectives with Computer Design, History, and Social Studies with Secondary Education licensure
Ben Winchester, CST Staff

The Tech Team is a component of CST. A current project involves Kevin working with the Sustainable Farming Association to redesign their website to create a user-friendly web environment with a message board and a "trading post". The Community Assistantship Program of the University of Minnesota Center for Urban and Regional Affairs funded this project. On site training is also provided to understand the web site and to learn how to update the information.

Newspaper Indexing
Kayla Kloos, a senior from Starbuck, Minnesota majoring in English
Jessica Beyer, CST Staff
Lori Pickell-Stangel, Site Supervisor, Museum Director

Kayla will work with the Renville County Historical Museum to aid in project of developing the newspapers on microfilm. The collection of data spans from 1870 to 1930 and covers 12 different newspapers that operated at one time in the county or are still in business. Kayla will develop an indexing information sheet that will be used to collect data from each paper and then entered into the newspaper collection searchable data base.

Video Preservation Project
Michele Olson, a senior from Bemidji, Minnesota with a major in Chemistry with a Pre-Med and Sign Language emphasis and Math minor
Ben Winchester, CST Staff

The student will work with CST to preserve existing films/videos and establish archival procedures and process. The films are taken by one of the city of Milans's residents for over 60 years. The city is cognizant to the value of these films as the life of a small rural community is documented through the eyes of a single individual. The plan is to incorporate these films with local diaries, biographies, oral histories, and still photographs to form a historical research center emphasizing the Milan area.

4-H Summer Assistant
Laura Anderson, a senior from Evansville, Minnesota with a double major in History and Social Studies Secondary Education
Alexis Danielson, a junior from Correll, Minnesota majoring in Elementary Education
Sarah Gulbrandson, a junior from Herman, Minnesota majoring in Elementary Education
Jennifer Evenson, a senior from Villard, Minnesota majoring in Biology
Nicole Mc Clernon, a junior from Wheaton, Minnesota majoring in Education
Amanda Murphy, a sophomore from Glencoe, Minnesota majoring in Management and Music
Jessica Beyer, CST Staff

This project involves working with the University of Minnesota Extension Service county offices in six of the surrounding counties. Responsibilities include assisting with all aspects of the 4-H programs, including day camps, trainings, working with different 4-H clubs, and other short-term activities to get youth involved in the community. Other duties include participation and recording of meetings, assisting with special projects like the county fairs, and working on publicity and visibility efforts of the county's 4-H programs.

Third Annual Symposium on Small Towns
Jessica Anderson, a freshman from Mapleton, Minnesota with an undecided major
Ben Winchester, CST Staff

The Center for Small Towns is hosting the 3rd Annual Symposium that will have a futuristic theme. The students will be working with the Center for Small Towns and the Minnesota Association of Small Cities to help with the 3rd Annual Symposium on Small Towns. The symposium is a celebration of rural life through a keynote speaker, community project showcases, legislative forum, and a musical concert. The students will help organize packet material, help with registration, and direct and answer questions from the Symposium participants.

New Minnesotan Project
Kate Raymond, a junior from Mankato Minnesota, with a double major in Music and Spanish Education
Ben Winchester, CST Staff
Dr. Stacy Aronson, professor of Spanish

This position provides for new residents of West Central Minnesota primarily from under represented racial and ethnic groups to be welcomed into the community. Help identify new populations and fid ways to support them in our communities

Social Capital Measurement
Emily Loehr, a sophomore from Savage, Minnesota majoring in Political Science and a minor in Economics
Ben Winchester, CST Staff

This project will work with the CST staff, MN extension personnel and UMM faculty to research models of social network analysis and Social Capital measurement.

South West Housing Authority
Nick Peterson, a junior from Elk River, Minnesota with a double major in Political Science and History
Jessica Beyer, CST Staff
Lisa Graphenteen, Site Supervisor

Nick will work with the SW housing partnership to create a survey instrument, help develop a list of customers to survey and distribute and collect the surveys

COPC Housing
Nick Peterson, a junior from Elk River, Minnesota with a double major in Political Science and History
David Fluegel, CST Staff

Assist the Morris Housing Study project team with research and coordination. Assist with the formation of other project teams.

Cyrus School Marketing Study
Joe Basel, a freshman from Mankato, Minnesota majoring in Management
David Fluegel, CST Staff

Work with the Cyrus k-6 school to help better market the school to the surrounding area. Help develop a marketing plan and survey.