Community-Based Learning Commons^™

Staying Engaged While Staying Home?: Service-Learning, Writing, And Covid-19, Christopher Iverson

The SUNY Journal of the Scholarship of Engagement: JoSE

As an approach to writing instruction that has traditionally required students to engage in in-person community projects, service-learning has also traditionally involved risks. For example, students engaging in service-learning without proper support often do not approach community partners with the appropriate respect, and when university stakeholders fail to make clear what their side can offer in a partnership, they can leave community partners in the lurch when the semester ends and students finish their community-engaged coursework. These risks can be mitigated through education and reflection for instructors and students alike. The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing social distancing orders, however, left …

Pushing The Boundaries Of Healing, Alankrit Shatadal

VA Engage Journal

This paper explains a summer volunteering opportunity at a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a home environment for low-income families coming to city hospitals for intensive pediatric care. The importance of social determinants of health during the healing process is explored through examples of services provided by the Ronald McDonald House. These services range from meeting basic human needs to emotional care of pediatric patients. In addition, routes to potentially ameliorate observed challenges associated with pediatric hospitalization are discussed.

In fall 2020, Alankrit Shatadal will begin her senior year at Washington and Lee University, where she is pursuing degrees in …

Community Initiatives Multiply University Partnerships, Christopher Lafontaine

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Christopher LaFontaine is a senior studying psychology and sociology at Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne (IPFW). He has concentrated on community engagement and service learning as areas of focus for the past year. He plans to pursue a career in applied sociology and he has been involved with applied research among vulnerable populations. Christopher has worked with homeless veterans in Fort Wayne and has studied health conditions in a rural county that ranks low in health outcomes. In this article, he describes his experience with service-learning partnerships between community organizations and an institution of higher education.