Community Consulting Projects
Case Studies. In this section, four projects have been highlighted. Each community organization
involved has had an ongoing relationship with USC's Engineering Writing Program
and has worked closely with USC Viterbi School of Engineering undergraduates of
all disciplines for multiple semester's in order to meet their goals.
First African Methodist Episcopal Church - Fame Renaissance
FAME Renaissance is an economic development initiative of FAME Assistance Corporation
and was established on August 1, 1992, by Dr. Cecil L. Murray of the First African
Methodist Episcopal Church to enhance business and economic development in the
African American community. FAME Renaissance's goal of improving the economic
conditions of the African American community in the West Adams Corridor (of which
USC is a part) are being met through the development of a multimedia business
incubator which was designed in collaboration with Engineering Writing Program
students through multiple semesters of community consulting projects. FAME Renaissance's
Business Incubator will serve to promote and accelerate the growth of small businesses
through an array of business support resources and services, equipment, and office
space all located at the FAME Renaissance Center, 1968 West Adams Blvd. For more
information about this business incubator development, please see
Engineering a Renaissance: A collaboration between FAME Renaissance and USC's
Engineering Writing Program.
In recent semesters, a number of student groups have responded to calls from
FAME Renaissance to design affordable wireless Internet access for the West Adams
Corridor, broadcast facilities in order to deliver FAME's religious services to
the community, and mobile computer labs which could be sent to the multiple elder
and infirm care centers in the area in order to teach computer skills to an often
overlooked segment of the population, to name a few.
Blazers Youth Service
The Blazers Youth Service is a non-profit organization located in Central Los
Angeles. It's organizational goal is to serve the community through providing
a safe learning envronment where students, kindergarden through 12th grade, can
cultivate life skills. Over many semesters, Eningeering Writing students have
worked with Blazers on a variety of engineering-related issues, including computer
laboratory setup and curriculum development, ADA complience, security and energy-efficiency.
Though the use of documents and plans developed by Engineering Writing Students
during their community consutling projects, Blazers has been able to recieve sizable
grants from multiple organizations including the Water Buffalo Society, the Wolfson
Family Foundation, the Los Angeles Times Foundation, and Pacific Bell among others.
According to Bennie Davenport, director of Blazers, Engineering Writing students,
"have given The Blazers technical support that the agency could not afford. We
consider them a vital part of our staff."
African Millenium Foundation
The African Millennium Foundation is dedicated to the empowerment of the African
people and creating continent-wide progress in agriculture, nutrition, health
and education. In the Spring semester of 2004 engineering students began working
with AMF in order to develop resources that can be used in multiple impoverished
areas of the African continent and specifically in the Democratic Republic of
Congo. Engineering Writing students face the unique challenge of designing solutions
to improve irrigation, power and infrustructure, transportation, affordable housing
and computer training in towns and villages half a world away.
Through the use of new technologies such as video conferencing and the added
facilitation provided by organizations like the World Bank, Engineering Writing
students are afforded the opportunity to work with people that truely benefit
from their ideas, fulfilling the goals of the USC Engineering Writing Program.
