The Importance Of A Service-Learning Project

The experience I encountered during the service learning project was great. Throughout the weeks allocated for the service learning project, I tutored grade two and three pupils from three different schools under two agencies. The names of the agencies are Lion Catcher and MLK Community Center. This project gave me the opportunity to work with little kids for a long time. This provided me with the privilege to help and work with people who are enthusiastic about learning. Through my colleagues and me, we were able to achieve the goal of the service learning project. One of the goals is to work with minorities who needs help. This goal does not benefit our clients only but us also, it helped us organize and improve the way we think about supporting our client and managed good clinical judgment.

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.

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 critical difference of service learning and the traditional learning style is that students are learning and addressing real needs in the community. Which connect students to the community through meaningful interactions with others, safety, and educational needs. This specific course includes readings, discussions, and activities to support

When I began my Civics class, thinking it potentially difficult and boring, I did not initially look forward to this project. However, as I did each activity, I found myself enjoying each and every one. From sitting in a board meeting to collecting trash, I discovered something new in all of the ways I volunteered. Not only did the people I volunteered for gain something through my service, but I feel that I gained a lot as well.

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,

My experience has been consistent with what we learned in class. This project brought light to the horrifying abuse that large number of children go through at a young age and this service learning project allowed me to better understand their suffering and their need for assistance. My service learning project made the course material relevant, because I could now better understand the necessity to provide support and comfort to children at a young age.

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

For the Service Learning Assignment, I decided to volunteer at Northwind Rehabilitation and Health Care Center. My current interest is working in the medical field that deals with babies. The service learning placement that best fit my schedule was Northwind Rehabilitation and Health Care Center. This organization works with mostly senior citizens that need special care at all times. There were times where individuals that were not senior citizens that came there because it is not strictly a nursing home. The residents are not able to care for themselves and need constant supervision to ensure their safety. Some of the resident may require physical therapy. My responsibilities was to interact with the different residents on each visit and complete

If I am a Service Learning project coordinator, I would pick taking care of elderly. When people willing to invest a lot of time in taking care of elderly, they receive unimaginable knowledge in return. For college students who participate, this project will help them developing patience, seeing things differently, and learning another's perspective. When I was taking care of my grandma, she taught me principles that I couldn't learn it myself. Because they lived longer and experienced things we never experience which take their whole life to learn, and saved me many time to learn so. The purpose of Service Learning is to combine learning with community service activities that get students involved and applying the experiences to their academic.

In “The Power of One: Using Service Learning to Promote Community Engagement”, Crystal Shannon explores the influence of service learning on first year nursing students. Most registered nurses work within their community and develop close relationships with their patients. The service learning curriculum allows nursing students to develop skills and relationships within their community. Service learning creates a better awareness among students while promoting learning in the medical field. It’s a more realistic application of the course material.

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

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

One concern of universities that are considering adding service learning is that not enough students will be interested in participating. There are several ways to get students interested in service learning. One way to get their attention is to give students who participate extra benefits. Some examples of extra benefits would be extra credit in their courses or even offering free credit hours. Another thing that would appeal to students is that the class would meet less often because one on the classes meeting times would be their service learning project. Another benefit of service learning is

As a student, I have become more aware of the needs of my community. I have always worked at being active in my community to help those in need. Most of my volunteer work revolved around collecting donations and lending a helping hand at shelters. My volunteer work did not usually involve an academic base. I was not concerned with the ins and outs of why homelessness was a problem or the difficulty women faced finding assistance to escape abusive relationships. I just knew the shelters were always in need of donations and that is where I found myself helping most. In this paper, I will describe a personal experience I have had with service learning. I will also select one service learning idea from the National Student Nurses’ Association planning guideline that interests me and describe how this type of experience will enhance my nursing student experience.