Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

College Credit For Community Service: A "Win-Win" Situation, Janet Patterson Fleischauer, John F. Fleischauer

Higher Education

We need only look at the newspapers today to know that insufficient numbers of college and high school graduates are seriously considering social service careers to meet community needs. Job applications are down at human service agencies. Twenty-first century slogans have not helped charitable fund drives meet goals of past years. Education is being challenged to respond to a social deficit in preparing citizens for community service.

Linking Traditional And Service-Learning Courses: Outcome Evaluations Utilizing Two Pedagogically Distinct Models, Jerry Miller

Higher Education

University students in two advanced introductory classroom-based courses in psychology were offered the opportunity for simultaneous enrollment in a content-related section of a large community service learning course. Students selecting the option did not substantially differ from students who did not select it. Participating students rated the experience as being significantly more valuable than did non-participating students. Students did not differ either in their reports concerning gains in personal development or general mastery of course concepts, or in final course grades received, but participants did report an enhanced ability to apply concepts outside of the classroom. Differences in reports between …

Service Learning: A New Approach In Higher Education, Barbara W. Carpenter, Jacqulin S. Jacobs

Higher Education

Southern University is rare, if not unique, among public institutions in requiring undergraduates to complete sixty-clock hours of community service before graduation. The purpose of this initiative was to heighten the sensitivity of graduates to the indispensable role that volunteerism must play in our society. We also envisioned collectively addressing some of the ills of the State of Louisiana by having a pool of 16,000 students in the Southern University System contributing to the alleviation of human suffering and social decay. In this paper, we describe some of the noteworthy accomplishments that the program has made over the past three …

Teaching Empowerment, Helen Fox

Higher Education

The contradiction inherent in "teaching empowerment" is that students need to learn specific, empowering ways to understand and interact with community people while at the same time feeling empowered, themselves, by the way the service-learning course is designed and taught. This requires a delicate balance between "starting with students where they are" and insisting they confront issues that make them uncomfortable. The author describes her attempt to do this in a new community service learning seminar for freshmen focusing on empowerment education.

Community Service And The Hospitality Curriculum, Florence Berger, Marc Ackerman

Higher Education

Voluntary community service and human-relations courses should be an integral part of hotel administration courses. Such courses allow students to see how their actions can affect other people, appreciate service, dismantle stereotypes, become aware of social issues and develop other skills which they can apply as members the hospitality industry. To become effective, however, these courses should first instill in students the value of initiative, self-motivation and commitment.

A Marriage Made In Heaven: Community Colleges And Service Learning, Judith S. Berson

Higher Education

Today's college student is changing. As America's social problems continue to grow exponentially, more and more students are seeking solutions to those problems through community service. A graduate journalism class examining the rise of student community service referred to it as "a quiet phenomenon taking place on campuses across the country--a surge in volunteerism among a generation of Americans dismissed for their self-interest, apathy, and nihilism" (Shapiro, 1994, p. 85). President Bill Clinton's inaugural address called upon Americans to demonstrate concern for one another when he said, "By fate, the fortunate and the unfortunate could have been each other." With …

The Transformative Power Of Education, Johnetta B. Cole

Higher Education

It's a joy to be here today as your partner in learning and your partner in change. Continuing education has been, and will always be, a vital element in the life of our citizens, communities, and society. The National University continuing Education Association has demonstrated once again its foresight and leadership in choosing the theme of powerful partnerships for change. Education is the key to seeing, understanding, and confronting the major challenges we face today, and we need to enlist each and every one of us, from all sectors of society, in the essential work strengthening our communities.

Creating The New American College, Ernest L. Boyer

Higher Education

How can American higher education successfully contribute to national renewal? ls it possible for the work of the academy to relate more effectively to our most pressing social, economic, and civic problems? These questions, while always appropriate, seem especially relevant today because, for the first time in years, our colleges and universities are not collectively caught up in some urgent national endeavor.

Community, Neighborhood And Family In Ancient Athens And Modern Philadelphia, Ralph M. Rosen

Higher Education

I am delighted to submit to you my report on the freshman seminar which I offered this past semester, Community, Neighborhood, and Family in Ancient Athens and Modern Philadelphia (Classical Studies 125). It was, indeed, an extremely rewarding experience for me, and I am quite certain that the students in the class found it so as well.

As you know, although I had a number of related objectives in running this course, overall I was concerned to see whether I could make students feel that the study of antiquity is as relevant to our contemporary world as I have always …

Placement Services In Today's Economy, Jennifer K. Carter

Higher Education

To fully understand placement issues at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) one must realize that career services functions are decentralized. MU has eight individual career services offices that focus on issues related to careers, primarily for juniors and seniors. These career services are supported by the following schools: Business & Public Administration; Engineering; Education; Human and Environmental Sciences; Library Science; Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources; Law; and Journalism. This structure leaves Arts and Sciences students and freshmen and sophomore students, as well as deciding students to be served by the Career Center (CPPC). To develop and encourage open communication between …

Undecided/Undeclared: Working With "Deciding" Students, Robert M. Mcdaniels, Jennifer K. Carter, Cynthia K. Carter, Karin I. Candrl, Anna M. Wieberg

Higher Education

Nationally, it is estimated that 77 percent of all freshmen and sophomores are in the process of deciding on an academic major (Rayman, 1993). The student body at University of Missouri - Columbia (MU) is no exception. In addition, a number of students have chosen majors, but for the wrong reasons: "My parents want me to be a . . .", "I must have a major in order to get good academic advising . . .", "I have to choose a major or I can't register . . .", "Everyone else has a major . . .", etc. These negative …

Review Of Research And Evaluation On Service Learning In Public And Higher Education, Richard J. Kraft, James Krug

Higher Education

While service-learning, community service and volunteer programs have been a part of schools and colleges in the United States for decades and there have been a range of research and evaluation studies, there is a general lack of solid evidence on its effects. One of the major difficulties in evaluating or researching service learning programs is the lack of agreement on what is meant by the term and exactly what it is meant to accomplish. While some programs emphasize social growth, character development or civic responsibility, others attempt to study psychological development and effects of program.s on self-concept. Moral judgment …

Agency And Community College Leadership Development: Social Science Internships, John Stuart Erwin

Higher Education

When Tracie Huls, a 21-year-old sophomore at Illinois Valley Community College, learned about dysfunctional families the example did not come from a sociology textbook. Huls observed a children's support group at a shelter for battered women operated by Alternatives to Domestic Violence. She volunteered there for a short time through Illinois Valley Community College's internship program.

"One of the children in the group told me her father had died in a fire. I told a staff member at the shelter. The staff member explained that the father was not dead, but that the child was coping with the parents' divorce …

The Effect Of Community Service Work On The Moral Development Of College Ethics Students., Judith A. Boss

Higher Education

A study designed to test the effect of community service work on college ethics students found that community service work along with discussion of relevant moral issues is an effective means of moving students into the post-conventional stage of principled moral reasoning, as measured by Rest's Defining Issues Test. Other benefits of community service work are also discussed in the paper.

Making A Difference? Student Volunteerism, Service Learning And Higher Education In The Usa, John Mohan

Higher Education

This paper reviews evidence concerning the recent growth of volunteerism among college students in the USA. It describes the various pressures to expand such activities and outlines steps being taken to promote them. Reforms of student financial aid can be used to facilitate service among students who would otherwise have to engage in substantial paid work to afford education, while educational institutions are taking numerous steps, most notably through integrating community service and academic study, to promote such involvement. The more general issues raised by all this are: the likely impacts on servers and served of this activity; whether education-based …

Roles For Higher Education: A Resource Guide, National And Community Service

Higher Education

Thank you for your interest in the Corporation for National and Community Service's grant programs. Together with the AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America: Higher Education grant applications, the Corporation's "Principles for High Quality National Service Programs," and the tape of the Corporation's video conference called "National and Community Service: Roles for Higher Education," this resource guide should provide you with a clear understanding of the Corporation's purpose and programs. In this guide you will find the following: National and Community Service: Opportunities for Higher Education; Questions & Answers; Campus-Based Programs: Tips for Proposal Development; Service-Learning: An Overview; Resource List; …