Distinctive Programs

The Thomas Reynolds Center for Special Education Services
and After School Programs

The mission of the Center is to provide a rich learning and teaching environment where scientifically based research methods are used to assist students with disabilities to learn essential academic skills in the areas of reading, writing, mathematics and use of learning strategies. The Center will provide services to school-age children and their families to assist students from partner school districts in bridging the academic gap these students are currently exhibiting. Current partners include Amherst Middle School, Buffalo Public School District, Lackawanna School District, and Niagara Falls School District.

For more information, see the link to the Reynolds Center for Special Education

International Consortium for Education on Civic Society
and Sustainable Communities

An exchange program that engages faculty and students from seven universities in North America, CSSC offers students one-semester or full-year exchanges at partner institutions. Participants probe how local and North American issues intersect to shape a regionally focused civil society and sustainable community; participate in experiential learning at local organizations and agencies; and cross borders, working collaboratively to solve problems. CSSC is possible through support from The Program for North American Mobility in Higher Education, a grant competition run cooperatively by the governments of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

For more information, see the link to CSSC.

The Daemen College Academic Festival

The Daemen College Academic Festival is an annual campus-wide festival that celebrates the achievements and creativity of students and faculty in all disciplines. Students and faculty gave presentations in the form of posters, papers, panel discussions, exhibits, or videos, to artistic, musical, or theatrical performances. The next Academic Festival will occur in April.

For more information, see the link to Daemen's Academic Festival.

International Studies / Study Abroad Programs

Daemen College offers exciting study abroad programs in the following cities and countries: Florence, Italy; Seville, Spain; Havana, Cuba; Mexico City, Queretaro, and Guanajuato, Mexico; Quebec, Nova Scotia, and British Columbia, Canada; and Costa Rica. Programs are offered during semesters and summer sessions.

For more information, see the link to Global Programs.

The Western New York Service - Learning Coalition (WNYSLC)

WNYSLC is a group of colleges and universities, K-12 schools, service providers, government agencies, and private organizations. We are committed to creating valuable service-learning experiences for students that meet local, regional, and global community-identified needs. The WNYSLC accomplishes this through a sharing of resources, curriculum, and best practices. Daemen College is a co-founder and current member of the Coalition.

For more information, go to the WNYSLC link.

WNY Higher Education Teacher/Leader --
to improve math and science instruction

Since 1999, Daemen College has been working with four schools in the Buffalo Public Schools district to improve math and science. The goals of the project are to: 1) catalyze school-wide and institutional teaching and learning reform; 2) promote standards- and inquiry-based instruction at all levels; 3) prepare and support educators in helping all students achieve excellence; 4) promote and support exemplary teaching practices that result in eliminating statistical student achievement differences by gender, race, ethnicity, SES, disability, or any other population grouping and; 5) deepen collaborations and promote the development of K-16 learning communities.

For more information, please see the link to the Teacher/Leader Quality Partnership.

The Student-Faculty Interdisciplinary Research Think Tank (SRT)

The Student-Faculty Interdisciplinary Research Think Tank (SRT) at Daemen College works to support applied joint student-faculty research projects that make a difference in our community. Established in the fall of 2002 as a project of the Center for Sustainable Communities and Civic Engagement at Daemen, SRT focuses on research projects that fall under the general concepts of sustainable communities, civic engagement, and historical and cultural preservation.

For more information, see the link to SRT.

The Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies (IIS)

As part of the restructuring of Academic Affairs in 2000-2001, a middle division (IIS) was developed. The Institute assumes broad responsibilities for such programs as the Core Curriculum and all interdisciplinary initiatives. The IIS Committee is comprised of elected representatives from the other discipline-based divisions and reports to the divisional deans.

Biotechnology in Healthcare (BIHC)
Dr. Kathleen Murphy, Project Director

Partners: Daemen College, NY; Pitzer College, CA; New College of Florida, FL; Athlone Institute of Technology, IE; Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld, University of Trier, DE; and Central Ostrobothnia Polytechnic, FI.

The program will develop a model for a one semester international exchange of science students, involving students taking coursework in traditional areas of science coupled with study of related areas of biotechnology within the context of wound care management. Wound care management is a pressing international problem from both societal or economic viewpoints that presents a difficult, varied scientific problem. It utilizes knowledge the underlying cellular, biochemistry, molecular biology, materials chemistry and bio-engineering along with methods of clinical practice. With this unifying health care issue, the project partners will promote the understanding of the diverse scientific and international approaches to health care in their students . Through the combination of the joint course; chosen scientific coursework; and possibly, participation in undergraduate biotechnological research projects; students in the program will apply basic science principles from the standard curriculum to a international healthcare issue while still progressing towards their degree. Each student will be encouraged to take course(s) in the local history or language of the host country to add to their cultural perspective. Each student will be asked to construct an electronic learning portfolio of their experience which will act as both an learning tool for the integration of the cultural and scientific perspectives and assessment tool.

Formal agreements for credit recognition of the courses, as well as the necessary financial components needed for each institution, will be achieved by the end of the first year of the grant. In addition, the joint course modules and a rubric of learning objectives for the joint course reflecting its interdisciplinary nature, as well as guidelines for the student learning portfolios for the exchange experience will be developed. The exchange of students will take place in the second and third years of the grant. The joint course will then be offered electronically from the lead institutions each semester, but will also utilize a biweekly chat room and laboratory exercises at the host institution. Formal assessment of the planning will take place at the end of the first year, while that for both the experience and joint course will occur at the end of each semester during the second and third years. For dissemination purposes, the partners, each members of other international consortia, will be able to extend their experience with this model to other members of the consortia and also present at international conferences to provide a potential model for other colleges.

Funded By: The Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education

For more information, please contact Kathy Murphy, Project Director.

For additional projects, sources of extramural funding and a current list of grant funded projects please see the Academic Grants resource page.