Reflection On 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.

Catonsville emergency food ministries (CEFM), which provides food, and household supplies to the homeless and needy population, is where I did three hours of my service hours. All though this was not my first choice, as I thought I could not learn anything from it, and it would be boring and not engaging. I was wrong; I didn’t know the work and knowledge that went into planning, for the day to day operation of a food bank. The building itself was small, and lack adequate space for storage, and working. The week prior they lost all of their meat supplies due to a freezer malfunction, which left a slight death smell in the building. The volunteers were very nice and helpful in showing me around, and answering question. I was actually surprised that one of the volunteers was 16, and was doing it just to get out of the house.

Service Learning is learning through experience to gain sociological observation, concepts, and theories so I decide to do my service learning hours in one of the two high schools that is part of the Oceanside Unified School District. The name of the school is called El Camino High School. El Camino High School is a high school that is located at 400 Rancho Del Oro Drive in Oceanside, California. It has over 3,000 students currently attending. The school’s mascot is the “Wildcat” and their colors are gold and red. El Camino High School is a public school that is part of a system of free public education that is maintained at a public expense for the education of students who are part of that community or district. El Camino High School is a place is a public school where students are coming out of middle school and are

The day of my service learning orientation, I got lost. And I felt not so much ashamed, as much as I felt as if my pride has been pricked. But, I was lost so I found myself scuttling down the hall on wooden paneled flooring has been buffed smooth from age and use. I had been corresponding with Carlos, the volunteer coordinator, expressing my excitement in a most professional way as to represent the University of Washington (the Carlson Center’s words, not mine), so I slide to that room and rapidly open the door because I’m late and the service learning guide said explicitly to treat the volunteer site like, “going

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 had the opportunity to volunteer for the All Major Career Fair. I have volunteered many times before, but never had the opportunity to do a career fair. I have found through the experience that I need to volunteer more often. Before I volunteered for this career fair, I have not volunteered in a while. Whenever the Kennesaw State has another career fair I will definitely take the time out to volunteer on my own.

For my service learning hours, I decided to assistant coach at Four Corners Charter Upper School. When I took on this task, being tremendously excited to work with the girls there and give back to this school. My role consisted of being the assistant coach to my sister Amanda Ramirez, helping her to guide and train the girls to learn the sport of lacrosse. Having experience in coaching high school girl’s lacrosse, I came in with drills and strategies to be the most effective assistant coach. The girls that decided to come out for the team haven’t ever heard of the sport, which became a good thing for coaching, giving us the upper hand for coaching and teaching the sport to the girls.

For my Community Service Learning placement, I am volunteering for PAAL, which is a program for children and youth with physical and intellectual impairments. Their vision is to offer individuals who otherwise may not get the chance, an opportunity to participate in a wide variety of physical activities.

I had a little trouble getting assigned an individual to work with for service learning, but after communicating with the coordinator of service learning, I was able to be paired with someone. I have sat and talked a lot with the resident I am working with. We have talked about personal life experiences and her everyday life. As the resident began to open up to me she had mentioned that just prior to moving into The Hope House in January, she had gotten out of a marriage. She stated “I was unhappy the whole time I was in this marriage.” She didn’t go into much more detail. I began to be curious as to why she was so unhappy in the marriage and I felt sad for her. We continued talking and she said “I didn’t know it at the time, but I was really depressed while I was in that marriage.” The resident explained to me that she didn’t know she was actually in a depressive state until she had been coming out of it, here at The Hope

According to Kathleen Flecky and Lynn Gitlow, service-learning is defined as, “learning that occurs in experiences, reflection, and civic engagement” (Flecky & Gitlow, 2011). In recent years more universities are implementing service learning into their curriculum. A key concept of service learning is civic responsibility. Civic responsibility can simply be defined as your responsibilities as a citizen. As will be shown later in this paper, service learning can have many benefits not only to a student, but also to the community members

Service learning is a way of combining learning objectives with community service to enhance their skills throughout an organization or community. However, I admired myself as I took on the position in the registration office as a student worker. Many would say filing papers, running errands, and assisting others is a basic job for a young man, but honestly, it was the one of the best experiences I have ever had. As the days traveled along, I never knew what to expect next or what I might learn. Perhaps having an adventurous mind and harmonious heart, growing out of the comfort zone was manifest. Working in the registration office was a way to accomplish great opportunities, seek learning experiences, and improve academic skills.

Initially I thought my service learning time in the campus gardens would be working on one task, such as weeding, the whole time. While my first few minutes of service learning were occupied with weeding, I was pleasantly surprised to be working on different tasks. The time spent in the campus gardens has been time of learning and building community. With each new task I learn why I am doing it and how it helps the garden continue to flourish or give back to the surrounding community. When I harvested butternut squash, I learned first how to know when it was ready to be picked. That squash I harvested is for the Farm-to-Table event on campus. Knowing that the campus garden grew butternut squash, I chose to try it later when it was an option

It has been about five weeks since I started my journey to become a great teacher. Before entering the doors of the service learning classroom. I was full of nervousness, uncertainty, and motivation. Although I felt butterflies in my stomach it never hid my goal; I aimed to make a difference. On the first week of my service learning, I was bombarded with questions of uncertainty ranging from math problems to essay structures. As I have mentioned in my previous reflections it was definitely a process trying to get into the rhythm of things. The new environment was definitely something I had to get used to. However, now, not only do I feel more comfortable in the in the classroom but I genuinely feel like I’m actually contributing to the students process of improvement! Of course, by no means did I make them little Einstein’s but the fact that I