Graduation Speech : The Service Learning Program

Serving others is a down deep way of learning more about yourself and helping others to see past themselves. Our Business and Professional Communication class participated in several service projects, which were interesting and exciting to be involved with helping others. As I am studying the major courses of Early Childhood/Special Education, our group project with the “Big Brothers Big Sister” program was very memorable to me. It was wonderful to have fun and participate in various activities with the kids. The environment was caring due to everyone helping each other accomplish different tasks. It was a great feeling to be able to share our time, talents, and hearts with the kids.

Service Learning is an educational strategy set in place to enlighten students with instruction and experience, in addition to improve learning , teach responsibility, and support the community. Service learning is vital to the development of the student, given that it intertwines academic and personal development together. It is aimed to enhance a student’s learning in all aspects of life.

The meaning this service learning project provided me with was how important it is for us, the Hamline University, to build a meaningful relationship with Hamline Elementary. This was invoked because of the impact the students seemed to have due to us being there and working with them. The students were excited for a communal learning experience, and I think that is going to help encourage them to pursue a college career. Because I work at Hamline Elementary and have been doing so for the past 2 years, I have made strong connections with the students and faculty and think highly of them all. The experience was very similar to what I do at Hamline Elementary on a daily basis. Given this, I had a feeling that the content may have been a bit of

The service learning activity that has been the most meaningful to me is the Backpack Program. Over the past four years, I have been involved with the Beta Club which is a big contributor to the program. The reason this activity is so meaningful to me is because if affects the peers in my schools who are in need. Every year we are told a story about a student who was receiving items from the program. One afternoon while selecting items, he picked some bananas and stated "My little sister will be exited about these. We have not had fresh fruit at house in over a year." Every time I here that story, it motivates me to help out my fellow Chase High Students. Not only do I bring food, but I bring necessities that someone would need to maintain

My service learning activity took place overseas on a small island named Haiti. I took the trip with Sister Victoria and five other people. In my short time there I grew a deeper appreciation for all that we have here in the United States. For instance, clear water, readily accessible medical resources, and so much more. Additionally, to a growing deeper appreciate, my team and I did a lot of activities there to help the community of Jacmel. For example, we visited several orphanages within the surrounding communities and helped with meal preparations, feedings, and ADLs. In addition to visiting orphanages, we also had the opportunity to work in the clinic where myself and the rest of our team helped with taking vital signs, general assessments, and wound care. Furthermore, we had the opportunity to visit several hospitals and clinics are were able to drop off medical supplies that the hospital/clinic needed. Lastly, we accompanied Sister Margaret to do home health visits in nearby neighborhoods.

My BU 101 community service project involved volunteering at the Owensboro animal shelter. Some of the tasks we were responsible for completing were spraying down and cleaning the litter pans, spraying out the dog cages, cleaning out the cat cages, filling the animals food and water bowls, bathing the animals, and walking the dogs. I believe this was a good community service project our class because most of us love animals and we were able to do some good. As a class were able to help the shelter care for the animals, giving them more time to do other things like completing paper work or washing and drying the towels. It helped install a sense of responsibility and accomplishment in me.

Planning and directing this service project taught me to lead by example, delegate responsibility, and be a conscientious organizer preparing me for the demands required of a leader in today’s society. I plan to use this experience to continue to serve my community and nation. Service to me is not just another thing that I can add to my college application, but is a deeper commitment. Service forges an unbreakable bond between me and those I serve, and a bond that I cherish very

For my service learning, I volunteered with two different community partners. The first service learning area I volunteered in was connecting with children at shelter and help work on a beautification project at the Miami Bridge Shelter. Miami Bridge is a Miami-Dade shelter for children who are victims of human trafficking, drug dealers, runaways, and abandoned youths which delivers them a fostering and supportive environment. They reconnect the youth ages from seven to seventeen with educational, social and job-related opportunities. While at Miami Bridge, a group of us from Barry had to paint the children’s bathrooms over with a different color such as purple for the girls and a cream color for the boys. After that, we had a task with the kids to pick up rocks in the sand with shovels because the shelter plans on making a play area there.

My service learning experience opened my eyes to many new ideas and supported the information that I have been learning in class. For my service learning, I went to West Elementary school and worked in an all girls first grade classroom. West is located in a very urban neighborhood right outside of East Lansing. In the beginning of my service learning, I was in culture shock due to the size of the school, make up of the students/teachers, and the social economic status of the students. All of these components were drastically different from the school I came from. At first, I didn’t know what to think of the school or students, but I eventually realized that their goals and priorities were different from the elementary school I went to. The three main concepts that stuck out to me during my service learning experience include, the social construction of gender, special and gifted education, and funding.

My name is Kieanna Brown, I met you at the Hood College Community Service Fair. Due to my school schedule I am unable to be a museum teacher; however, I am still interested in being a docent. I was informed that I need to go to orientation and then do training. When is the next orientation and docent training? I look forward to your response.

In order for service learning projects to be successful it is important to establish partnerships with families, parents, and community organizations. PBL projects must encourage and even require students to be engaged in hands on activities or services that meet the needs of community. Service learning and PBL projects and activities cannot be completed through lectures but must actively engage students. By incorporating both of these methods of teaching and learning students are able to learn from the experience as well as meet project requirements. Through using these instructional strategies teachers are able to data about the students during observations, conferences, and informal assessments. These informal assessments allow the teacher to assess where students are and what they have learned, while also allowing the student to gain more knowledge about the topic. It is important that PBL and

The most meaningful service-based experience I took part in was helping kids at Upward Bound Asthma Camp. At this camp I volunteered to be a camp counselor, which required me to monitor the young campers, get them involved in many activities, and teach them how to handle their asthma. Many of students came from different backgrounds and many ranged from ages five to twelve. When it came to teaching the young campers how to manage their asthma, it was a significant moment to me because it brought me memories of when I had trouble dealing with my asthma when I was around their age. Reminiscing about my past experience influenced me to get my campers to be knowledgeable about their condition. After explaining the guidelines to the campers, I noticed

The service project that I did was that I packed food for people that couldn't hada hard time feeding they're families.I chose this project because I felt the need to give back in my community and I wanted to help the less fortunate.The things that I did was that I packed over 500 bags of food for people and I donated many food items also.I packed juices,canned food,snacks,side dishes and many more types of food.After me doing this,I felt really happy and I never knew how it felt to give back to other people. I would recommend other teens to do this because it was really fun and the feeling you get from doing this is indescribable.

As a mentor, I would want to the future of UCAN to keep expanding. I would want to see UCAN attract more students and mentors. As part of attracting a larger broad of students, UCAN could expand their mentorship throughout all the high schools in the Santa Cruz County. With a larger body of UCAN mentors, this could be a very likely possibility. Being able to reach a large number of mentees would mean that a larger amount of high students would be taught about their possibilities for higher education, either at universities, community colleges or even vocational school. To expand our number of students we must also have to increase our number of mentors. An easy way to bring in more mentors at the beginning of the quarter can be to host more meetings and reach out at more events. At the beginning of the fall quarter the SOAR outreach program hosts an event that raises awareness of organizations around campus, this event is great opportunity to attract mentors. Another possibility could be to partner with organizations with newsletters that could sponsor us in the newsletter. Potential increasing the number of mentors will increase the number of high school students that we can help navigate their way through the college process.

The term ‘‘service-learning’’ means a method (A) under which students or participants learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service that (i) is conducted in and meets the needs of a community; (ii) is coordinated with an elementary school, secondary school, institution of higher education, or community service program, and with the community; and (iii) helps foster civic responsibility; and (B) that (i) is integrated into and enhances the academic curriculum of the students, or the educational components of the community service program in which the