Western Michigan University students Colleen Ames, Geena Holman and Deondra Magett were identified as future leaders in nonprofit work and philanthropy as scholarship recipients for the Next Generation Nonprofit Leaders Program.

The WMU students and 48 others chosen nationwide will each receive $4,500 scholarships from American Humanics to cover expenses while completing an internship with a nonprofit organization. In addition to the scholarship, each NextGen Leader is paired with a nonprofit professional mentor during the internship period. They also will be recognized at the 2012 American Humanics Management/Leadership Institute in January in Orlando, Fla., an annual educational symposium.

A political science major from Brighton, Mich., Ames will be conducting her internship with Michigan Citizen Action and will pursue a career in an organization that concentrates on direct service to and advocacy on behalf of the indigent.

Holman, a human resource management major from Plymouth, Mich., will be conducting her internship with Kalamazoo Communities in School and plans to pursue a career in youth development. She is a WMU student ambassador, a job through which she often introduces the University to prospective students and represents WMU in the community.

Magett, a social work major from South Haven, Mich., will be conducting her internship with Advocacy Services for Kids and will pursue a career in after-school programming.

All three students are members of the American Humanics Student Association at WMU and were instrumental in granting $13,750 to five Kalamazoo nonprofit organizations this year through a nonprofit leadership class and funding from an anonymous donor, the School of Public Affairs and Administration and Campus Compact and Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund.

Established in 1948, American Humanics is a national alliance of colleges, universities and nonprofits dedicated to preparing the next generation of nonprofit sector leaders. It is affiliated with 70 colleges and universities across the country and is designed to help a racially and ethnically diverse group of students with demonstrated leadership potential complete their American Humanics certification requirements, specifically a 300-hour internship with a nonprofit organization. The NextGen Leader awards are funded by a $5 million, five-year grant provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. By the end of the grant in 2012, American Humanics and the NextGen Program will have provided 1,000 students with stipends.

A new study by Western Michigan University researchers shows charter schools typically get less funding than the traditional public schools with which they compete, but those traditional public schools have additional obligations that account for much or all of those funding differences.

That finding is one of several that WMU's Dr. Gary Miron and Jessica Urschel make in "Equal or Fair? A Study of Revenues and Expenditures in American Charter Schools," co-published by the Education and the Public Interest Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Education Policy Research Unit at Arizona State University.

In their study Miron, professor of educational leadership, research and technology, and Urshel, a graduate research assistant, also point out that, compared with traditional public schools, charter schools spend proportionally more on administration--both in the percentage of overall spending that goes to administrative costs and in the salaries they pay administrative personnel.

Overall, however, the study finds charter schools spend less than traditional public schools--less on instruction, less on student support services and less on teacher salaries and benefits.

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"Equal or Fair?"   

Released in late June, the study comes amid a growing debate over the question of whether charter schools are inadequately funded compared with traditional public schools. In recent years, numerous charter school advocates have cited the purported funding gap to help explain charter schools' achievement results compared with traditional public schools.

Miron and Urschel's study is the most comprehensive to date on the question. It uses data from the U.S. Department of Education on revenue sources and spending patterns of charter schools and traditional public schools and districts across the nation. It also examines patterns across nine different comparison groups, ranging from traditional public schools to various sub-groups of charter schools.

Charter schools get $9,883 per student, compared with $12,863 for public schools. But that direct comparison can be misleading, Miron says. States vary considerably in the way they channel funds to charter schools. Moreover, public schools provide--and receive funds for--certain services that most charter schools do not.

"While public schools receive revenues and spend money for such services as special education, student support services, transportation and food service, charter schools, with few exceptions, spend far less on these services," Miron says, "which largely explains the differences in revenues and expenditures for charters compared with traditional schools."

When charters and traditional public schools have similar programs and services and when they serve similar students, funding levels should be equal to be considered fair, the study notes.

"However, as long as traditional public schools are delivering more programs, serving wider ranges of grades and enrolling a higher proportion of students with special needs, they will require relatively higher levels of financial support," Miron says. "Under these circumstances, differences or inequality in funding can be seen as reasonable and fair."

For more information, call Dr. Gary Miron, WMU professor of educational leadership, research and technology, at (269) 599-7965.

The search for a founding dean of a medical school at Western Michigan University moves into its second phase this month, as candidates screened by the search committee are invited to town for informal interviews and a look at the community's resources.

Meanwhile the development of the school that is a collaborative effort involving WMU, Borgess Health Alliance and Bronson Healthcare Group is continuing, with new working groups being formed to tackle issues like communications, curriculum and facilities.

The position of founding dean for the school, which has been the subject of a search since late February, has proven extraordinarily attractive to candidates from around the nation, says Dr. Jack Luderer, interim dean of the new school and chair of the search committee. The seven-member search committee, which includes communitywide representation, has been sorting through the credentials and backgrounds of more than 60 candidates who are interested in the position. Preliminary screening has narrowed the number of candidates for a first round of private visits to the community that will take place over the coming weeks.

"We went into the search expecting to see the names of 15-20 good candidates surface," Luderer says. "But the caliber of both the community and the partners in the enterprise as well as the description of the position itself has resulted in a far larger pool of outstanding professionals. This will take a bit longer than originally anticipated, and our focus will continue to be on finding the right match. Judging from the outstanding candidates in the mix, though, I have great confidence that we'll be successful."

The search remains at a confidential stage, Luderer says, so no public schedule of visits will be announced or identities of the visiting candidates disseminated. However, he says, late in the summer or early fall, the committee expects to narrow the field of candidates and bring several finalists back to town for a round of interviews and public presentations.

Progress on other fronts for the founding of a medical school continues, as an early organizational structure is formalized and working committees formed. A steering committee has been meeting regularly. It consists of Luderer and the three founding organizations' leaders--WMU President John M. Dunn, Borgess President and CEO Paul A. Spaude and Bronson President and CEO Frank Sardone. In addition to the search committee, there is a new communications committee charged with building awareness and communicating about the initiative. In mid July, a committee to focus on facilities will be launched, and soon after, a curriculum will be formed. The goal is to have both committees in place so that they are ready to move quickly once the founding dean is on board.

A school of medicine in Kalamazoo has been under discussion and in the planning stage since late 2007. During a November 2009 meeting, the WMU Board of Trustees endorsed the steps taken to date and voiced its support for the proposal. During that meeting, Dunn announced a $1.8 million anonymous gift made to provide seed money for the next steps in the development process, including the search for a dean.

The Seita Scholars Program at Western Michigan University is seeking volunteers for its newly established career mentoring service.

The Seita program is a supportive WMU resource for students who have aged out of the foster care system. More than providing an undergraduate education, the University, through its Seita Scholars Program, helps former foster care students transition into young adulthood and develop life skills to achieve their full academic and career potential.

The new Volunteer Career Mentor Service will link Seita Scholars to professionals who engage mentees in such activities as mock interviewing, job shadowing, networking, information sharing, and discussions of career paths and plans.

Marian Hawkins, Seita Scholars Program volunteer coordinator, says the mentoring service is looking for career professionals with a bachelor's or higher degree. Program officials will match the professionals and mentees based on the mentees' career interests.

Minimally, mentors must be willing to commit to participating in an application process, attending a two-hour orientation session and interacting with their mentees four hours per month for one school year. At least half of that interaction time must be spent meeting with their mentees, while the remaining time may be spent interacting by e-mail or telephone.

Those interested in becoming a Seita Scholars Program Volunteer Career Mentor may request an application or more information by contacting Marian Hawkins at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or (269) 387-8357.