Integrating Service Learning

It is also a “boundary spanning” activity in that it requires active involvement from people both within and outside of the classroom context, often resulting in participant contributors who represent a variety of generations, ethnicities, social groups, and experience levels (Billig and Furco, 2002, p.vii). Service-learning is designed to reduce the boundaries between an institutional campus environment and the community around it. It is designed to connect learning to real experience through service and reflection (Ball and Schilling, 2006; Becker, 2000). As a baseline to facilitate this development, service-learning is distinct from other types of community service and civic engagement experiences in that the service-learning experience must not only have a service and reflective component but also be clearly tied to the curriculum through learning objectives and theoretical underpinnings (Bloomquist, 2015; Pritchard, 2001). As Barbara Holland, former Director of the U.S. National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, shared, “Service-learning is all in the hyphen. It is the enrichment of specific learning goals through structured community service opportunities that respond to community-identified needs and opportunities.” (Kenworthy-U’Ren, Taylor, and Petri, 2006: 121).

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.

Before deciding where I wanted to do my service learning, I knew I wanted to do something that had some relevance to my degree that I will be receiving in healthcare management. I was eager to gain more experience and become more knowledgeable of how an organization operates as it relates to healthcare management. I was able to secure an opportunity to volunteer at the Dallas Veterans Affairs (VA) Hospital. After completing the required VA forms, I got partnered with Mr. Alonzo Price Jr. who is a Management Analyst in Ambulatory Care, which is the department that oversees the Primary Care Providers.

In the summer of 2014, I started as a volunteer tutor for the Youth Tutoring Program

Before commencing service learning, I had a number of misconceptions towards people with disabilities. Before volunteering, I had a lack of understanding, viewing people with disabilities as dependent and in need of constant help. Another misconception towards people with disabilities was focusing on the person’s lack of ability rather than the individual which consequently resulted in a one-dimensional outlook towards people with disabilities. Reflecting upon these views, I am appalled with these naive and prejudice

The purpose of the service learning activity is to experience community service and feel more connected to the community, Edgewater. When I am able to reach out to my community members, specifically older adults, I believe I will be able to address their needs as well as contribute myself to provide them the essential services they want/need in their surroundings. Also, as a part of the course “Aging in America,” my goal is to be familiar with the different aspects of Aging in America such as demographics, aging and ageism, gerontology, and healthcare workforce. Upon completion of this service learning as well as this course, I want to be able to demonstrate the aging process, describe the theories of aging, and appreciate the multidisciplinary

The facility I chose to volunteer at to complete my service learning was the CMPD Animal Care and Control. The CMPD Animal Care and Control was a good place to do my service learning because it related to my topic perfectly. The CMPD Animal Care and Control because they take a variety of breeds. They are also very informative about breed discrimination. The organization is part of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, but they work with animals. The organization provides safety to citizen and animals in the community. They promote proper pet ownership and loving homes for adoptable pets. Another goal is to decrease the overpopulation with spay and neuter clinics.

If I could do a service learning project I would do an adoption event for cats and dogs, I chose this because a lot of people love animals and I think a lot of people would love to help with this sort of event. Also there are a lot of animals out there that need homes and they absolutely do not deserve to be put down so it’s really important. I think personally talking to people would be the best way to get them involved, possibly having a presentation so more people can focus on you and listen to what you have to say would also work.

Service learning helps me prepare for college with developing the traits of social involvement with others, organization, a consistently good behavior, and global awareness. These themes are commonly shown throughout 6 different articles involving service learning.

Throughout my service learning, I have mainly experienced working with children, at all different levels of skill set. There are several children in my classroom, who have Individualized Education Programs (IEP). I have worked with most of these particular students in small groups. One student I have spent a quality amount of time with is recovering from a serious brain injury. Although, my assistance has also been provided to all the students through teaching lessons and reading to the classroom. Thus, my service learning experience, has consists mainly of differentiating approaches, in order to provide support to students with a vast range of ability.

In my pre service learning reflection I talked about that when I go to my service learning classroom I want to be invited with open arms and be included into the classroom. This was very important for me because I know that it is hard to include someone new into your classroom. When I actually went to my service learning class I was welcomed by the teachers and by the students. I became a very helping hand because I was included in teaching lesson and helping get the students to use their words when they wanted something. I also became very close with not only my mentor teacher but also with her aids. I felt so loved and happy to be in my service learning classroom. I remember om my last day that they asked me are you going to miss us and would

The $100 solution is a service learning model that institutionalizes community development. This solution is meant to encourage students from all grades and age ranges, to interact with people in their community and create sustainable projects to make their community better.

A service-learning project is designed to have some kind of lasting effect on a community. Nursing schools have begun encouraging students to do service-learning project in order to graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree or simply a BSN. These projects can range from teaching a class to helping future nursing students. Regardless of what is chosen, the nursing students in my class have started to make an impact on the community. This paper is directed towards talking about my own service-learning project.

For my service-learning assignment, I will be assisting students with their English via, Learn English Online (LEO). Our first week was used as an Open House, where we tried to work out some technical errors, and get a feel for the program we will be using. This was our first week of LEO, and I had only one student, Suyuan Chen, a 26-year-old PhD student from China. Since it was an Open House, there wasn’t an exact lesson for the week, but I did take the opportunity to go over Past Tense Verbs with Suyuan. I had her tell me stories about previous vacations, so I could hear her use verbs in the past tense, and help her correct her speech. Suyuan, also had some issues when it comes to using plurals, and singular forms of a noun, we worked on

Service-Learning is a way of teaching and learning. It is a great opportunity to involve in community service activities and to apply the experience to the academic and personal development.