Roads Scholars Day visits Ohio State Newark campus, community landmarks

The spring 2024 Roads Scholars Day, held Friday by The Ohio State University Office of Outreach and Engagement, highlighted the university’s Newark campus, as well as community organizations and historical landmarks. The semiannual seminar takes faculty, administrators and community partners through a region of Ohio to discuss current and future collaboration.

The event included a tour of Ohio State Newark’s campus and a driving tour of the city with Professor David Ruderman and students who are participating in service-learning through the LeFevre Fellowship program. The event also included stops at The Works: Ohio Center for History, Art and Technology, SciDome planetarium and the Newark EarthWorks Center.

“It’s an opportunity for folks to see some of the hidden assets that we have in our community,” said Jason Reece, Ohio State’s vice provost for urban research and community engagement. “We have resources that may be amazing, but we don’t always have a good understanding of what they are – we have a World Heritage Site in our backyard, the tremendous investment in the Newark campus.”

Ohio State Newark Dean William MacDonald said the campus continues to expand course offerings to prepare students for in-demand careers in health sciences, engineering and other fields.

“We have to look at, what is the regional campuses’ role within the university and helping the state of Ohio, and then what are the programs that make sense?” MacDonald said. “We’re looking at the regional campuses and the Columbus campus, as well, as a way to help the state with its workforce needs.”

Ohio State Newark is the latest regional campus offering the Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology program. The degree integrates leadership principles with engineering skills as the job market prepares for the opening of Intel’s nearby $28 billion microprocessor facility in Licking County.

“Of course, we’re about more than just careers,” MacDonald said. “We’re about an education, a college degree, and what that means more broadly.”

During the city tour, Ruderman and the LeFevre Fellows spoke about the work that the students are doing with Newark community organizations.

The LeFevre Fellowship, named after Ohio State Newark co-founder Howard E. LeFevre, is awarded to students who are interested in community service. Fellows receive $1,250 per semester and take a one-credit course in the fall and a three-credit course in the spring. They discuss service-learning best practices, learn about the needs of the Newark community and participate in service-learning activities in Licking County.

“They’re out in the community. They’re at the Newark Homeless Outreach,” Ruderman said. “They’re volunteering at community gardens. They’re volunteering at the humane society.”

At The Works, Assistant Director Meghan Federer described the museum’s partnership with Ohio State Newark. LeFevre was not only a founder of Ohio State Newark; he also founded The Works in downtown Newark on the site of the former Scheidler Machine Works.

“There’s a lot of connection” between Ohio State Newark and The Works, Federer said. “The reason that [The Works] ended up getting founded was the interest in not just preserving the building … as an element of industrial history, but also being a connection between industry and education, and a conduit for education K-12 through to higher education on the campus. There’s a lot of intentional cross-section collaboration between our organizations.”

At the Newark Earthworks Center, Historic Site Manager Sarah Hinkelman and Brad Lepper, an Ohio State visiting professor and The Ohio History Connection’s curator of archaeology, explained the landmark’s historical significance.

The Newark Earthworks are the largest set of geometric earthen enclosures in the world. The complex was built about 2,000 years ago by the ancestors of contemporary American Indian peoples who are today identified as the Hopewell/Culture Era.

In September, the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks sites, which includes the Newark Earthworks, became Ohio’s first United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site.  

“That puts us on the same platform as Stonehenge, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Great Wall of China,” Hinkelman said. “We’re expecting visitors from literally all over the world. We’ve actually had visitors from Sweden here just yesterday. We’re absolutely thrilled to have recognition for how truly amazing these sites are.”

The Newark Roads Scholars Day offered educational and networking opportunities for Ohio State students, faculty and staff, Reece said.

“We hope this exposure is a good learning experience for folks,” he said. “It also creates an opportunity to build relationships within this group of folks, but also the community partners out there, as well.”

For more information about Roads Scholars Day, visit the program’s website.