Service Learning Definition

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.

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 benefit of service learning for the student and community is again a better inform civic minded individual who may use his experience from service learning as a launching pad for career opportunities to better serve within that community. In an article published in the College Student Journal its author noted that with service learning “students gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility" (Strange,

1). How do you believe service learning (SL) is utilized as a tool for fostering civic engagement?

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

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.

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others” (Gandhi). Service learning becomes apart of people’s lives by connecting the students towards new methods that could possibly bring their environment to life. Service learning benefits not only the students future but also their future techniques. An example of service learning is in New Orleans, the students from 5-8th rebuild three bus benches to place near their school where the previous benches were destroyed by the hurricane, that sets up an example on service learning since they use reconstruction techniques which could possibly be used in the later future. Overall, service learning is a educational approach that connects learning objectives with community

In this essay, I am going to talk about my thoughts about service-learning. I will define what service-learning is, how it can be positive, and how it can be negative. I then will go into depth about my initial thoughts about it. I will also talk about the value of experiencing tutoring, what it can do and what I expect to gain from it. I will additionally talk about personal goals I have set for myself that include making a decision for what I will do with my career, what I hope to achieve for myself, as well as for those I tutor. I will conclude with sharing some challenges I expect to face and some ways to cope with them. My purpose for writing this is so I can look back at this essay at the end of the semester and see what I have learned

Service Learning is defined as a teaching and learning method that allows students to integrate with the community. It is an idea to learn, experience and improve oneself while interacting with other foreign students. Through this experience, we can acknowledge different perspectives, values and diversities between two countries. For my service learning, I engaged in international events held at KCC, such as International Game Week and International Fair. Through these experiences and obstacles that I encountered along the way, it impacted the way I associate with others, which includes my behaviors, my manner, and my attitudes. I will also pass on the great virtues of Confucius.

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).

The Society for Experiential Education defines service learning as, “any carefully monitored service experience in which a student has intentional learning goals and reflects actively on what he or she is learning throughout the experience” (Staton 1). Service learning is a great opportunity to get extra learning experiences while also experiencing the community around the universities campus. “Service learning allows students to apply what they are learning from their instructors, peers, and readings to genuine tasks that occur outside the four walls of the classroom while simultaneously helping others” (Staton 1). Universities are using service learning to expand beyond the classroom and provide students with experiences that will

Serving the common good has been one of the most influential classes I have taken since coming to Viterbo. It teaches us the importance of service learning and the impact it has on our community, which we are able to experience first-hand through our own service work. These hands-on experiences are what make this class so beneficial for the Viterbo Students. It gives us the opportunity to see how rewarding a life of serving can truly be. Throughout this paper, I contemplate my own service work, and reflect what service-learning means to me at a deeper level.

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

This work is very beneficial to the students, I teach how to improve their music and marching technique skills, while also helping raise money for their future endeavors. I also continually work with Feed My Starving Children, an organization whose mission is to provide children in need with high quality, filling meals. I go to the center often, to pack meals that get sent to various countries around the world. I thoroughly enjoy this work, it makes me feel like I am making a difference to kids who do not always have access to sustainable meals. Volunteering at these two organizations makes me feel like I am becoming more civically engaged in my community.