Service Learning in Liberal Arts: Embracing Community Engagement
Explore the concept of service learning in the liberal arts, its benefits, and how it enhances student engagement and bridges academia with community needs. Discover why service learning is vital for academic growth and societal impact at Boston University.
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Learning the Liberal Arts through Service Sheila Cordner
Service Project Goals 1 - To gain a new perspective of your study of literature. 2 - To bring literature in some way to a group of people in our city outside of Boston University. 3 - To become more engaged students of literature. 4 - To relate what you are learning as college students to important issues in our contemporary society.
Outline of Discussion 1 - Why service learning and what is it? 2 Sample service projects 3 Service learning in your courses?
Service Learning a form of experiential learning where students and faculty collaborate with communities to address problems and issues, simultaneously gaining knowledge and skills and advancing personal development -- UCLA s Higher Education Research Institute
Service Learning a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities. From: http://www.servicelearning.org/what- service-learning
Why Service Learning in the Liberal Arts? While service-learning may have been taken up originally (and enthusiastically) by faculty in occupational fields such as business and education and social science fields such as sociology and political science, we believe that community service learning certainly can play an equal role, and may even play a larger one, in humanistic disciplines such as philosophy. In order to thrive, these fields need to demonstrate their relevance to a new generation of young adults, and community service learning represents an important vehicle for doing so. --Scott Seider & Jason Taylor
Why Service Learning at Boston University? We remain dedicated to our founding principles: that higher education should be accessible to all and that research, scholarship, artistic creation, and professional practice should be conducted in the service of the wider community local and international. --Boston University Mission Statement
B.U.s FYSOP Program First-Year Student Outreach Project Approximately 1,000 students participated in 2012 11 issue areas (elders, the environment, homelessness and housing)
Community Service at B.U. ...is thriving http://www.bu.edu/csc/news/
Community Service VS. Service Learning?
Reflection component of Service Learning Written reflection relates service to course material
Sample Service-Learning Projects
Service Learning in English and Humanities courses EN 142 Literary Types: Poetry (Fall 2009) EN 121 World Literature (Fall 2010) EN 220 Seminar in Literature (Spring 2011) HU 101 Breaks with Tradition (Spring 2012)
Build up to the service project Introduce the idea early in the semester
Service learning in the Dental school: specific application of course material vs. Service projects in my courses relate to course themes, key course questions
EN 220: SEMINAR IN LITERATURE Seminar theme of EDUCATION Course texts included: Langston Hughes, Theme for English B William Wordsworth, The Tables Turned and Expostulation and Reply Ama Ata Aidoo, Changes: A Love Story Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure Margaret Edson, Wit
EN 220 SERVICE PROJECTS Students participated in 4 educational projects in Boston: Prison Book Program Writing workshop for youth at 826 Boston Sudanese Education Fund Book Club at Hale House, a senior center and nursing home
Project Requirements 1) Sign up for a one-time project 2) Participate with a group in one of the service projects 3) Report back to the class 4) Write a reflection relating the experience to course texts and class discussions
Assessment Tools PROJECT GRADE: Participation in project Reflection Paper First Part - Open-ended reflection Second Part- Make specific connections to course texts, themes, and questions
Student Feedback Seniors need to expand their minds the same way students do. I point this out to prove that seniors and students may seem very different, but at the core, we are all humans and need to fulfill the same basic need for education. -- Seminar in Literature Student (Computer Science Major; Hale House Book Club participant)
HU 102: Breaks with Tradition Spring 2012 80 Freshmen in the College of General Studies (CGS) Humanities course integrating literature, art history, and film Part of the core liberal arts curriculum at CGS
Service project related to overarching course question: What roles do literature, art, and film play in society?
Sample HU 102 Projects Discussions of: The Searchers (course film) with a group of elders at a Hearth house for homeless senior citizens War literature with veterans. Dickens s Hard Times (course text) at Hale House nursing home
Service Projects in Your Courses?
Step 1: Brainstorm Goals? Applicable Knowledge and Skills? Incorporate service project into syllabus
Step 2: Build Partnerships Target projects accessible by public transportation Identify organizations that already partner with colleges and corporations Boston Cares bostoncares.org B.U. Community Service Center
Building Partnerships (contd) State clearly what your students can do for the organization (time commitment, # of students, etc.) Find out the organization s expectations: Volunteer orientation/training? Student preparation? Time commitment? Number of students?
Step 3: Schedule Projects Outline agreement in writing (# of students, dates, etc.) Scheduling students Doodle Contracts
Scheduling (contd) Prepare an alternative research project for students with scheduling conflicts
Brainstorming Service Projects in Upper-level Courses Students choose placements and submit proposals Specialized projects Incorporate a research component
Brainstorming Service Projects in Different Disciplines Possible ideas Foreign Languages partner with elderly immigrants who want to converse in their native language Sciences participate in a project with Science Club for Girls Film screen a film and lead a discussion at a homeless shelter
Further Resources Campus Compact www.compact.org Purdue Service-Learning Center http://www.purdue.edu/servicelearning/index.html
~ Personal experience truly gives meaning to education because it connects you to the subject that seems so far away in the books or on the chalkboards. Seminar in Literature Student (English Major; Hale House Book Club Participant) ~ Thank you and feel free to contact me: scordner@bu.edu
