Service Learning Commons^™

2005 Service Statistics: Highlights And Trends Of Campus Compact’S Annual Membership Survey, Campus Compact

Higher Education

Campus Compact’s 2005 member survey reveals a strong commitment to service and civic engagement among college and university presidents, faculty, students, and service staff. Results confirm a long-term trend toward increasing support for higher education’s role in educating citizens and building strong communities.

Learning To Give: Addendum (2005-2006), Michigan State University

Higher Education

This report is best understood as an addendum to the final report that the Michigan State University evaluation team submitted to the Learning to Give project staff in September 2005. This overview summarizes the three evaluation tasks that were yet to be completed at the end of the 2004-2005 school year and ends with a few reflections on the evaluation process and the overall findings.

Modeling Learning: The Role Of Leaders, Judith A. Ramaley, Barbara A. Holland

Higher Education

What follows is the Portland State University story, a reflection on change as a scholarly act within a learning community using techniques from organizational learning.

Engaged And Engaging Science: A Component Of A Good Liberal Education, Judith A. Ramaley, Rosemary R. Haggett

Higher Education

We live in a period of rapid and complex socioeconomic change. The forces driving this change are reshaping the educational landscape in ways that we are only beginning to understand. Many recent reports and books, including the 2002 report from the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College, have explored the implications of these changes and have identified growing gaps between the intentions and assumptions of faculty, the actual experiences of students, and the demands of the workplace. The lack of clarity of purpose in undergraduate education …

Transcending Disciplines, Reinforcing Curricula: Why Faculty Teach With Service Learning, Rudy M. Garcia, Gail Robinson

Higher Education

Service learning as a teaching methodology has a growing following among faculty in higher education. Service learning combines community service with classroom instruction, focusing on critical, reflective thinking as well as personal and civic responsibility. Service learning programs involve students in activities that address local needs while developing their academic skills and commitment to their communities.

Perceived Effects Of A Correctional Health Education Service-Learning Program, John Amtmann

Higher Education

The Montana State Prison (MSP) Wellness Program was designed to provide educational and service activities to male inmates for the purpose of improving health status and increasing knowledge on significant health issues relevant to contemporary society. The Applied Health students at Montana Tech of the University of Montana aided in the delivery of the MSP Wellness Program. These services and activities were designed to meet the goals of Healthy People 2010, a national prevention agenda written in a collaborative fashion by governmental agencies and highly regarded health educators.

The Third Way, Richard M. Freeland

Higher Education

Liberal education and professional education have traditionally been considered opposites. According to received academic wisdom, students seeking broad exposure to the arts and sciences should not be burdened with acquiring workplace skills, and students preparing for careers in fields such as business and engineering should not be diverted by more than a token engagement with "irrelevant" liberal arts content.

Storm Water Management For Society And Nature Via Service Learning, Ecological Engineering And Ecohydrology, Theodore A. Endreny

Higher Education

A framework for urban storm-water management that moves beyond flood control to improve societal and ecological services will maximize the functions and benefits of water resources management. Theoretical constructs for such work originate from the integration of ecological engineering, ecohydrology and service learning paradigms. Implementation consists of simulating, monitoring and reporting how storm-water design decisions to infiltrate or directly discharge runoff result in a complex set of linked adjustments to the dynamics of the water table, soil chemistry concentrations, plant stress/viability, terrestrial habitat, river loads/flows, and aquatic habitat patterns. Coordination of a socio-ecological-based urban storm-water management programme is discussed using …

Participatory Research And Service-Learning: A Natural Match For The Community And Campus, Robert Blundo

Higher Education

Integrating academic content and service in the community brought my students a sense of connectedness between classroom learning and their personal lives and the lives of others within the larger community. This is the intent of service-learning, and like many other efforts at service-learning, this experience once again engaged students in terms of academic learning as well as affirming their connectedness to the larger community (Stanton, Giles, & Cruz, 1999). How we as faculty can create a setting for this to occur is always challenging and exciting in terms of the unique and creative ways faculty are making these connections …

Community Colleges Broadening Horizons Through Service Learning, 2003-2006, Gail Robinson

Higher Education

The goals of Community Colleges Broadening Horizons through Service Learning, supported by the Corporation for National and Community Service and administered by the American Association of Community Colleges, are to build on established foundations to integrate service learning into the institutional climate of community colleges and to increase the number, quality, and sustainability of service learning programs in colleges nationwide. The Horizons project features model programs, national data collection and dissemination, and an information clearinghouse. In addition, Horizons provides professional development opportunities and technical assistance through regional workshops on service learning and civic responsibility, chief academic officer summits, mentoring, presentations, …

Csl Facts 2003/2004: Facts On Community Service Learning In The California State University, California State University

Higher Education

This report includes: The California State University; Commitment to Service; California's Call to Service; Facts and Figures; Service Profiles Across the CSU; and Contact Information

Community Partner Guide To Service-Learning & Volunteerism, California State University - Northridge

Higher Education

I am pleased to welcome you to our Community Partner Guide to Service-Learning and Volunteerism at California State University, Northridge. As I stated in my Annual Convocation message this year, we at Cal State Northridge are very proud of our mission, which is to serve the higher educational needs of this region.

Our academic and student service programs help to grow our region’s intellectual capital by providing classes and activities that prepare an educated workforce. We emphasize programs that place our students in the community to learn and then to serve which positions us as a major force in meeting …

Service-Learning In Engineering: A Resource Guidebook, William Oakes

Higher Education

Several issues have motivated reform in engineering education over the past decade. Industry’s call for more well-rounded graduates who are better equipped for today’s fast-moving, global economy has motivated the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) to redefine its accreditation criteria in a way that places professional skills such as teamwork, communication, and awareness of social issues into core engineering curricula. The continued underrepresentation of women and minorities in engineering has fueled innovative curricular models that integrate active learning with relevant engineering applications. At the same time, the overall decline in interest in engineering among high school students has …

2004 Service Statistics: The Engaged Campus - Highlights And Trends Of Campus Compact’S Annual Membership Survey, Campus Compact

Higher Education

Campus Compact’s latest annual member survey reveals a strong five-year trend toward increased civic engagement among U.S. colleges and universities, as measured by student service opportunities, faculty participation in service-learning, community partnerships, and campus infrastructures to support service work.

Incorporation Of Service Learning Into An Interpersonal Skills For Leadership Course Using The Serve Model, Susan Fritz, Brent Goertzen, Lillian Gomez

Higher Education

Interpersonal Skills for Leadership has been taught at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for more than 30 years and has been a key course students use to satisfy the communication/interpersonal skills requirement in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. While interpersonal skills topics are covered and practiced in the course, additional practice occurs through service learning with a client in a community agency. This requirement equates to approximately 6,500 service hours provided annually in the Lincoln community. This level of service requires a well-developed placement and evaluation process. The course incorporates the SERVE model for integrating service learning into …

Student Experiences With Service-Learning In Sport Management, Gregg Bennett

Higher Education

Many professors utilize academically-based service-learning in their classes to provide students with an experiential experience. In fact, service-learning has increased in popularity in higher education due mainly to the many perceived benefits of the method. Service-learning is being written about extensively by several authors (Gray, Ondaatje, Fricker, & Geschwind, 2000; Hilosky, Moore, & Reynolds, 2000; Jackowski & Gullion, 1998; Mattson & Shea, 1997; Sutton, 1989; Zlotkowski, 1995), as educators grapple with how to implement this effective means of learning into the curriculum.

Mentoring Youth: A Service-Learning Course Within A College Of Nursing, Janis C. Childs, Susan B. Sepples, Kimberly A. Moody

Higher Education

Faculty at the University of Southern Maine College of Nursing and Health Care Professions developed a service-learning course that connected students and faculty with at-risk children in a local community. Nursing students, with faculty supervision and support, developed, implemented, and evaluated interventions to reduce risk factors and increase protective factors to build and strengthen the participants' resiliency.

Students enrolled in the service-learning course worked in the community where they gained an understanding of what it was like for children and adolescents to live in an impoverished community setting with disorganized family units and weak community support. The students learned to …

A Status Report On Community Service Learning In The California State University For The 2001-2002 Academic Year, Season Eckardt

Higher Education

Community service and service learning arc long-standing touchstones in the mission and purpose of the California State University since the first campus was founded in 1857. Partnerships between local communities and CSU faculty and students make numerous goals achievable: they improve the quality of life across California, promote faculty research, and support CSU programs- all while students learn the value and satisfaction that comes from contributing to society. Policymakers and leaders of higher education have expressed renewed interest in utilizing service learning as a vehicle to instill civic values in students. All these elements have contributed to the profound advancement …

2003 Service Statistics: Highlights Of Campus Compact’S Annual Membership Survey, Campus Compact

Higher Education

The trend toward increasing civic engagement among colleges and universities is stronger than ever. In Campus Compact’s 2003 survey, member institutions reported not only record participation in community service but also an increase in structural and financial support for initiatives to improve communities and to make civic learning part of academic life.

Seizing The Moment: Creating A Changed Society And University Through Outreach, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

This conference is built on two very interesting premises; first, that university outreach can change society and second, that outreach can also change the university. What is the mechanism by which this mutual influence can occur? What does the university offer the community, and what does the community offer the university? The short answer is--the opportunity to learn in the company of others in a situation where learning has consequences.

The Impact Of Community Service Involvement On Three Measures Of Undergraduate Self-Concept, Joseph B. Berger, Jeffrey F. Milem

Higher Education

The central purpose of this study is to increase our understanding of how community service involvement affects the development of undergraduate self-concept. The findings from this study suggest that the quality of service involvement is more important than the amount of service performed by students.

Foundation Resource Guide: A Compilation Of Major Foundations That Sponsor Activities Relevant To College-Community Partnerships, Office Of University Partnerships

Higher Education

This guide was prepared by the Office of University Partnerships (OUP), an office established by HUD in 1994 to encourage and expand the efforts of colleges and universities that are striving to make a difference in their communities. The original version of this publication was developed as a resource for grantees under HUD’s Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) Program. OUP now administers seven university and college programs serving a broad range of institutions of higher education. The foundations described in this guide are national foundations that likely will fund the kinds of projects OUP grantees are undertaking.

Connecting The Classroom And The Community: Service-Learning Programs Allow Students To Apply Real-World Experience With Classroom Studyblack Issues In Higher Education, Phaedra Brotherton

Higher Education

The events of Sept. 11 have been credited with awakening a desire for many to do something meaningful and give back to their communities. But for the past decade, a growing number of institutions of higher education have been doing their part in developing civic-minded citizens through service-learning programs that allow students to earn credit for performing community service.

Principles Of Best Practice In Community Service Work-Study, Erin Bowley, Marsha Adler

Higher Education

The following document outlines best practice in combining college and university work-study experiences with community service and service-learning. The principles were created by Erin Bowley and Marsha Adler for Campus Compact after conducting focus groups with practitioners from 52 colleges and universities in May and June, 2002. Ten principles that help construct an effective community service work-study program are listed below, then explained in greater detail with key points and specific campus examples. Representatives from the campuses used as examples are willing to be contacted for further information; their contact information appears at the end of the document.

Images Of Service: Reflections From The Campus Compact Midwest Collaboration Community Service Directors Fellowship Program 2000-2001, Beth Blissman, Jay Cooper

Higher Education

We Americans are people of the journey. From boats across the Atlantic by way of Pilgrim quest, to the holocaust of the middle passage, to classic travelogues such as On the Road or Travels with Charley (in Search of America}, the stamp of the mythic journey seems to be indelibly planted on our national psyche. And as we all know, journeys have several staple elements: anticipation, consumption of a variety of foods at exorbitant prices, wrestling with a roadmap, and children in the back crying, "Are we there yet?" A quintessentially American component to the journey, however, is the postcard.

Service-Learning On American Campuses: Challenges For Pedagogy And Practice, Sandra Enos

Higher Education

Over the past twenty years, there has been a steady increase in the number of students involved in community service and service-learning programs on college campuses. A recent report by Campus Compact (2003) noted that 33 percent of college students on its member campuses were engaged in community service programs during the last academic year. Surveys by Compact found that eleven percent of higher education faculty offered an average of 30 service-learning courses on campuses (Campus Compact 2003, 2003a). Increasingly, institutions of higher education are supporting these efforts by establishing community service and service-learning offices, staffing them, and by providing …

Summer Service Learning — What Distinguishes Students Who Choose To Participate From Those Who Do Not? Part One: Religion, Parents, And Social Awareness, Mary Beckman, Thomas A. Trozzolo

Higher Education

Since 1980, 2455 Notre Dame students have participated in the Center for Social Concerns’ Summer Service Project Internship (SSPI), previously referred to as the Summer Service Program, or SSP. Currently, over 200 students choose this experience yearly. These students spend eight weeks working with disadvantaged populations during the summer, as part of a three-credit course. Students have volunteered in homeless shelters, hospitals, soup kitchens, day care centers, schools, and boys and girls clubs in more than 300 cities since the beginning of the program two decades ago.

Moving Mountains: Institutional Culture And Transformational Change, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

Our institutions are changing all the time but for the most part these changes do not make a big difference, either because the results are confined to an isolated segment of the organization or because the environment is not responsive. To be considered truly transformational, the initiative must alter the culture of the institutions by changing select underlying assumptions and institutional behaviors, processes, and products; it must be deep and pervasive, affecting the whole institution; it must be intentional; and it must occur consistently over time (Eckel, Hill, & Green, 1998).

At A Glance: What We Know About The Effects Of Service-Learning On College Students, Faculty, Institutions And Communities, 1993- 2000: Third Edition, Janet Eyler, Dwight E. Giles Jr., Christine M. Stenson, Charlene J. Gray

Higher Education

"At A Glance" summarizes the findings of service-learning research in higher education over the past few years and includes an annotated bibliography. It is designed to provide a quick overview of where we are in the field today and a map to the literature.

Technology As A Mirror, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

IN CYBERSPACE instructors are more exposed, vulnerable, and less able to retain a veil of superior knowledge and expertise that has given scholars a sense of identity. We can, however, deepen our understanding, authentically practice the disciplines that we love, and enter new relationships to the learners who entrust themselves to our care. This I learned from faculty I consulted at the University of Vermont. And this is how technology can influence--and further--the aims of education.