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.
Serving others is a down deep way of learning more about yourself and helping others to see past themselves. Our Business and Professional Communication class participated in several service projects, which were interesting and exciting to be involved with helping others. As I am studying the major courses of Early Childhood/Special Education, our group project with the “Big Brothers Big Sister” program was very memorable to me. It was wonderful to have fun and participate in various activities with the kids. The environment was caring due to everyone helping each other accomplish different tasks. It was a great feeling to be able to share our time, talents, and hearts with the kids.
The service learning activity that has been the most meaningful to me is the Backpack Program. Over the past four years, I have been involved with the Beta Club which is a big contributor to the program. The reason this activity is so meaningful to me is because if affects the peers in my schools who are in need. Every year we are told a story about a student who was receiving items from the program. One afternoon while selecting items, he picked some bananas and stated "My little sister will be exited about these. We have not had fresh fruit at house in over a year." Every time I here that story, it motivates me to help out my fellow Chase High Students. Not only do I bring food, but I bring necessities that someone would need to maintain
My BU 101 community service project involved volunteering at the Owensboro animal shelter. Some of the tasks we were responsible for completing were spraying down and cleaning the litter pans, spraying out the dog cages, cleaning out the cat cages, filling the animals food and water bowls, bathing the animals, and walking the dogs. I believe this was a good community service project our class because most of us love animals and we were able to do some good. As a class were able to help the shelter care for the animals, giving them more time to do other things like completing paper work or washing and drying the towels. It helped install a sense of responsibility and accomplishment in me.
I highly recommend this course continue to require service learning as a component of Academic Foundations. It is never a bad idea to get the students involved on campus and get them familiar with the facilities we have located on campus. Getting involved with the community and individuals active is a positive aspect of this
As a service learning coordinator, I worked with faculty to implement service learning in the classroom by helping teachers develop and adapt current curriculum, lead and co-teach classroom lessons, educate and train faculty in the field of service-learning. In addition, my role was to serve as community liaison for the purpose of identifying sites for individual student’s service-learning placements and larger, multi-student project sites. I worked with local businesses and community leaders interested in exploring new ways to connect students with the community and bring the community into the public school
The meaning this service learning project provided me with was how important it is for us, the Hamline University, to build a meaningful relationship with Hamline Elementary. This was invoked because of the impact the students seemed to have due to us being there and working with them. The students were excited for a communal learning experience, and I think that is going to help encourage them to pursue a college career. Because I work at Hamline Elementary and have been doing so for the past 2 years, I have made strong connections with the students and faculty and think highly of them all. The experience was very similar to what I do at Hamline Elementary on a daily basis. Given this, I had a feeling that the content may have been a bit of
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
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.
For this service learning project, my group and I organized a goods drive. We placed donation boxes around Denton for art-therapy supplies. The group also held an event on November 6, 2017, at Texas Woman’s University to encourage students to make donations. All the donations went to the Child Advocacy Center in Denton; this organization provides assistance to children that have been victims of physical or sexual abuse. This service learning project relates to the theories and ideas in chapter 13 and chapter 14 of Women’s Lives: A Psychological Exploration. Chapter 13 relates to mental health, and it signifies the importance of social support during stressful
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.
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,
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
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
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.