Motivation For Service Learning Experience

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 assigned article entitled “Why Service Learning” by Bruce W. Speck, it provides great insight as to why we need to engage in service learning. This article focused on the questions that were like the reasoning behind service learning and how does it benefit the student. One definition in the article that stood out to me was service learning being defined as a pedagogy that fosters the development of skills and knowledge needed for participation in public life. This was prevalent because it allows the student to network with others outside of the community while giving back. Service learning was created to get away from the traditional way of learning while implementing a new learning system.

A Service Learning project is one of the project requirements to complete the Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree through Ferris State University (FSU). My Service Learning experience was completed at the VA Medical Center (VAMC) in November, 2014. This paper includes details of the facility along with the contact information for the coordinator of the project. A description of my role as a volunteer, critical reflection of my experience, and a synthesis of the Service Learning are also included.

Through out my service-learning project there were different activities and sites my cousin and I visited in the community. The first site my cousin and I had our activity in was in my home in Boyle Heights, where we had a conversation about his diabetes and talked about his experiences with type1 diabetes as a teenager. I decided to choose my home as our first activity because it was the perfect place to ask my cousin to participate in my project and make him feel comfortable enough to share his experiences with me. The second activity we arranged was a lunch date at Outback Steakhouse in Glendale. Having lunch at a restaurant was my cousin’s idea because he wanted to show me how different and difficult it can be from eating a home made meal.

Within two passages, “The (Untrue) Story of John Smith and Pocahontas” and “The General History of Virginia” the capturing of John Smith is portrayed. The story of the capturing and rescuing of John Smith is briefly documented in this form: John Smith was captured by a person claimed as Powhatan, who was understood to be the tributary leader of several tribes on the tidal rivers and creeks. One day, Warriors associated with Powhatan captured Captain John Smith in the late 1607 and threatened to kill him. However, within a month of his capture, Smith was free, in Jamestown, and reporting that he had concluded an arrangement in which Powhatan would provide the colonists with food. The stories do show this historical event rather variously.

My service-learning practicum takes place in the community setting at Connaught Elementary School in St. Catharines. At Connaught, I am doing a one-on-one mentorship with a grade eight student to help her with her transition into high school. I am at the school twice a week for a half hour; however this position requires a lot of pre planning outside of the school, in order to effectively help her with her transition. My tasks include preparing different activities for each time I go into placement. Our first few weeks consisted of preparing a resume for my student so that in 2-3 years when it comes time that she starts applying to part-time jobs she has a resume already put together, which she can add things and take things away from. Along with resume preparation, we have done a job interview role-play where I am the interviewer and she is the interviewee. In this time, we have had fun days where she would make popcorn, with two other students, and sell it to other classmates. My student has had a lot of problems with a bully, and she has an issue of being assertive to other people- meaning she finds it difficult to state her opinions and she easily gives in to other people. With that, I brought two jars from home and I turned them into “problem” and “solution” jars where we filled each up with a problem and a few solutions to that problem. My position is extremely important because I am a mentor to this student and our relationship involves support, patience, and

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

I have aspired to attend a service academy since I entered high school in 2012. My interest in attending a service academy is derived from my goal to serve as an officer in the military. While many other universities offer quality educations, the service academies teach beyond the typical academic subjects. The academies instil values of duty, country, and honor in each individual that graduates from the academies. Furthermore, he academies are challenging programs with a commitment to serving the nation upon graduation and I am sure I am up to the challenge. Another reason that I want to attend a service academy is, throughout my life as a military child, countless service members have inspired me to join the military with their selflessness

The purpose of this service-learning project was to educate and provide evidence based knowledge to associates that work at ShopRite in Flemington, N.J. on easy ways to identify, selected foods, which are beneficial to a similar looking body part. For example, the kidney beans are beneficial to the kidneys except if someone has kidney disease. My aim was to increase the knowledge of ShopRite associates so that they will be able to identify and more importantly recall quickly while shopping what foods are good for what parts of the body. The importance of associating foods that looks like body parts help keep learning simple, fun and informative. The best way to learn is to engage in an activity where learning does not appear to be the objective. Accidental learning can ‘stick’ so that when individuals are trying to incorporate healthy eating options into their diet recalling it will be simple.

After some research and deliberation, I chose Habitat for Humanity (HFH, 2016) for my service project. There were several reasons that Habitat for Humanity appealed to me. The first reason is that I consider HFH to be a worthy cause is that I appreciate that it’s for a lower income family that would not otherwise be able to afford a home. The facts that the beneficiaries are expected to help build their home or other HFH homes with sweat equity, they’ll pay a mortgage, combined with the way it’s set up so they won’t be able to just sell as a short term flip, gives me the impression that it’s not a freebie entitlement program, but a program that promotes responsibility with some life changing results.

Compute the uncollectible account expense, and make the appropriate journal entry, for the current year assuming the uncollectible account expense is determined as follows:

Kenneth had the opportunity to serve as chair of a service-learning project and plan the project for the last several weeks. Service-learning projects provide college students with a new method of learning. Kenneth is very active in the community, but planning a project was new so his expectations were low. His expectations changed once his service-learning team put all effort and dedication into the planning process. Kenneth found that serving as the chair of a service-learning project takes analytical and communication skills, dedication, flexibility, firmness, understanding, and hard work. The group discovered that service-learning projects take a great deal of effort and team work. The project strengthened, increased, and developed the

When I first found out that my service learning partner was from Ecuador, I tried to think of my initial opinion of Ecuadorians. Instantly the first thing I knew about Ecuador was that they were a Spanish speaking country. However, knowing that a country is a Spanish speaking country doesn’t tell me anything about the country itself. So I began to research online pictures of Ecuador and began to actually view different stereotypes about the country. After trying to develop my first opinion about Ecuadorians I came to believe all Ecuadorians are well dressed and are good looking. From the pictures of Ecuador my initial response was that Ecuador has really nice landscape but because of the layout of the Ecuador I came to believe Ecuador is over populated. Places that are overpopulated usually live in poverty because they have a hard time keeping up economically and this leads to further issues. As it turns out, my initial thought of Ecuador are along the same lines of truth that Ecuadorians actually experience these problems on a daily basis.

In the constitution and criminal justice system in the united states the death penalty is us used only for the most heinous of crimes. Some of these crimes include treason,espionage, murder, large scale drug trafficking a rape. The constitution states that it is a reasonable punishment and it is also necessary and justified in punishment of crime and the justice system. And truth be told america needs the death penalty. Here are the reasons why capital punishment are good it can save money in the prison system, it deters crime and repeat offences and it also brings a feeling of relief to the victims and the family of the victims.

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).