Agencies provided training and mentoring to interns to develop an understanding of the complexities of the organization as well as the issue of violence itself. The student-community partner relationship was entirely based upon principles of reciprocity: community partners received much-needed summer help and students gained insight and experience around a pressing social problem. The program allowed students who already had a passion for the issue to explore it in greater depth, and by implementing the program over the summer and paying students a salary, they were able to focus fully on the work without having to balance a full-time academic workload or other employment.

The program ensured that students kept their focus on their internship work by providing campus housing and a work stipend to each student intern. These provisions eliminated students’ concerns about costs and the need to earn wages, and allowed our partnering agencies to count the interns’ labor as volunteer help, which was helpful for their grant-seeking and making.

Campus housing served another purpose: to build community among the students and create a shared space for support and reflection. Each week, the interns came together to share a meal, to “unpack” experiences, and to reflect on the work. Throughout the 10 weeks, students shared their thoughts on daily triumphs and challenges, discussed the social and public systems that mitigate the perpetuation of violence, debated possible solutions, and formed their individual notions of how to affect change. Our community partners participated in these meetings as well – not just as experts who shed light on the causes of and responses to domestic and family violence – but as community members who understood the challenges of dealing with these issues in such a direct way. Our partners, as well as Southwestern’s Counseling Services Office, provided critical support for all participants in the program to ensure that they processed their experiences in the field in healthy ways.

The program was one of guided experience in the field and guided reflection at the University – an intentional, structured, experiential, and community-based learning opportunity that mutually benefited both students and community partners. It effectively raised their awareness about a key issue in our community that is often underestimated, misunderstood, or ignored, and each of them has committed to continuing to work on the issue not just as undergraduates, but as professionals and educated citizens.

As the summer portion of the program concluded, students were charged with educating and raising awareness about this issue among the campus and greater community throughout the current academic year. They are actualizing this commitment by serving as leaders in campus programs dealing with violence, developing community-based learning projects related to their summer experiences within their classes, and continuing to work as volunteers for the partnering agencies with which they were placed over the summer. Participating students who have since graduated from Southwestern have already used the experience as a catalyst that led them to a specific research area or social work focus in graduate school, to become Americorps*VISTAs, and to pursue work as child advocates.

By giving students the ability to become immersed in the work of our community partners, creating a consistent and safe place for reflection, requiring students to continue their work in a sustained, protracted way, and removing the financial barriers to participation in such meaningful exploration, we believe this is a model from which other higher education institutions and nonprofits dealing with myriad social justice issues can benefit, from which students can develop genuine understandings of social problems and their complexities, and from which others in the community-based learning movement can learn.

www.indstate.edu/focind/

Contact:
Nancy Brattain Rogers
Center for Public Service and Community Engagement
Indiana State University
Terre Haute, IN 47809
812-237-2334

The mission of the Atlanta Semester Program is to provide students with a means, through both theoretical and experience based education, for critical and engaged examination of leadership and social change from the perspective of women. Students enrolled in the Program complete an interdisciplinary seminar (4 semester credits) and a service-learning internship (4 semester credits) in a grassroots or non-profit organization with the option to complete an independent research project (4 semester credits). Students examine major social issues affecting communities: issues such as poverty, welfare reform and refugee resettlement. In addition to examining the role of individuals in society, students also examine the structural arrangements that foster systems of inequality such as gender, race and class.

The intent when establishing the Atlanta Semester was to create community partnerships fostering an innovate learning community by nurturing a learning environment in which participants differing views about women, leadership and social change could be made explicit, discussed and assessed while also encouraging re-evaluation of their ideas in light of engaged practice and academic research on the subject.

Students enrolled in the service-learning internship have contributed to the following initiatives:

? Legislative lobbying to raise Georgia’s minimum wage
? Domestic violence education
? Literacy programs for homeless children
? After-school programs for refugee children
? Teen pregnancy prevention efforts
? Reproductive health education
? Promotion of corporate volunteer programs
? Corporate community development programs
? Living wage lobbying programs

For more information, contact Dr. Isa Williams: iwilliams {at} agnesscott(.)edu or visit our web site: www.agnescott.edu.

Cal in Berkeley interns apply their academic experiences to specific projects in the community. Past internships have focused on safety survey analysis, information technology support, community mapping, and health insurance outreach.

Website: http://calcorps.berkeley.edu

In a healthy partnership, each participant brings a distinctive contribution to the service, so that the two working together are able to do more than either could do alone; the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The partnership that has formed between Gateway Community College and local air conditioning businesses in Phoenix, Arizona, serves as a good example.

In Phoenix, heat can cause health problems, especially for homebound elderly residents. Evaporative coolers do the job of cooling things down in most low-cost houses. However, when these coolers break, the fifty dollar repair bill is beyond the means of many low-income residents.

Enter: the partnership.

Gateway Community College offers HVAC (heating, ventilation, air-conditioning) certification among its associate degrees. Students training to get certification usually don t get experience working with evaporative cooling systems. They could get hands-on experience with these systems by providing repair services to residents whose air conditioning systems, and health, could be saved in the process. The college, however, has neither the material resources nor the transportation systems to provide these services. Local air conditioning businesses are inclined to develop strong relations with their customers, and help those in need. They have the materials and transportation needed to repair systems for paying customers. However, providing this service free of charge would be too time-consuming and costly, without the organizational services and support of the college students.

Six years ago, Professor Clyde Perry at Gateway put this set of needs and resources together: the need of elderly metro-Phoenix residents for functional air conditioners; the need of HVAC students at Gateway for hands-on experience working with evaporative cooling systems; and the resources of the college and the local businesses. Together, they formed the Evaporative Cooler Services Project, a day of service in March when air-conditioning technicians and students match up to provide services for residents throughout the area.

The project is now a staple in metro-Phoenix. Thirty-two HVAC students at Gateway participate in the specialized training that precedes the day of intense service. These 32 students are paired off with professional technicians. Using trucks and equipment donated by local businesses, each pair services up to four evaporative coolers in a single day, in homes of elderly residents who have requested the service.

Companies are able to build their customer relations through the program, and students receive essential practice in a skill they would not otherwise learn. Both have the opportunity to do so in an effort to better the community.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

1) the development of a Research Collection which documents the development of Los Angeles, particularly since 1900;
2) an Institute for Leadership Studies which coordinates student internships focused on public service;
3) a Lecture Series which brings to the campus Los Angeles leaders in politics, ethnic relations, real estate development, and education;
4) a Community Studies Program which conducts opinion polls on such issues as city charter reform, local ballot initiatives, public expenditure for sports, and neighborhood needs assessments.

Further information on the Center can be found online at http://www.lmu.edu/csla.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Contact: Teresa Taylor at (478) 445-5772 or ttaylor {at} gcsu(.)edu

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Web site: http://ccts2.cti.depaul.edu/whpdc/index.htm

Contact: William Howard, Executive Director, williamhoward {at} aol(.)com

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Contact: info {at} meca(.)edu

Contact person:Steve Braye, General Studies Program Director, brayes {at} elon(.)edu

General Studies web site: http://www.elon.edu/gst/

In high-quality service-learning activities, reflection is not something that occurs at one isolated point in time. Rather, reflection permeates the service experience, and helps every participant to learn and be open to learning at every stage in the process.

Reflection, then, starts even before the service effort starts, when a teacher or facilitator decides how the service experience will be defined. Is service seen as a way for students to gain experience in a particular field or area of expertise? Is it described as a way to meet diverse populations and build community? Is it framed in terms of relationships? of religious principles? of democratic values?

In the Education by Design program at Antioch New England Graduate School, the service experience is framed as a challenge in finding solutions. Known as Problem-Based Service Learning (PBSL), this approach puts the student in the role of problem solver.

Once the service project has been framed within a particular model, students need a strong foundation to build upon. PBSL students engage in a series of experiential loops. These are small-scale exercises in which students practice the steps of identifying and addressing a problem. Students work in teams and engage in interviews as a form of capacity building. This helps students hone their decision-making, collaboration, and critical thinking skills.

Framed around problem-solving, and given a strong foundation, the structure of the service project grows from there. In PBSL, the effort starts with finding out what the problem is. Although many forms of service-learning offer students community problems that have long since been identified, this would undermine the reflection component of Problem-Based Service Learning. PBSL students meet with people in the community and talk to them to find out what problems they feel need fixing. Rather than looking at these people as service recipients, in PBSL they are appropriately described as clients, people who have enlisted the services of others to help solve problems that they cannot solve alone.

In the course of identifying problems, PBSL students build communication skills, and inevitably reflect upon the issues that they are discussing. This way of looking at things continues to inform students service activities as they engage in other stages of Problem-Based Service Learning, focused on such areas as: problem statement, project management, and assessment/exhibition of learning.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

For more information: http://www.edbydesign.org/pbsl/pbsl.html

Website: http://www.raritanval.edu/departments/HealthScience/index.htm#teaching

The program combines a year-long internship of twenty hours a week in a public or non-profit agency with two seminars on issues important to the future of New York City. Special events such as tours, guest lectures, and career workshops enhance the program.

Over the year, Scholars gain:

Firsthand experience of the institutional, economic and political forces that shape public policy.
An opportunity to work directly with public servants on issues that confront them daily.
A generous stipend.
Eighteen credits in Urban Studies.
A mentor from the Hunter College Alumni Association who has similar career and/or personal interests.
A competitive edge in seeking public service careers or admission to graduate school. With the program director, scholars review job descriptions provided by agencies, selecting several at which to interview. Internships are matched as closely as possible with students’ interests and skills.
Scholars take on specific projects, conduct research and analysis, attend staff meetings, and become involved in the functions of their agencies.
Public Service Scholars also participate in two weekly seminars each semester:
– An in-Service Seminar which encompasses the work in the internship and provides an introduction to skills that promote a successful internship.
– Seminar on the City which focuses on the problems of New York City and possible solutions.
Internship placements are available in over 200 public and non-profit agencies and offices of elected officials.

For more information, contact the Hunter College Department of Urban Affairs and Planning, urban {at} hunter.cuny(.)edu

“”Values, Ethics, and Social Action”" (VESA) will make the primacy of education for citizenship more explicit for students, faculty, and community partners. With support from the Demmler Fellowship, which funds faculty initiatives in academic program enhancement, six VESA faculty engaged in course development. Rather than scattered, unconnected efforts in service-learning and social justice, VESA offers a coherent course of progressive study that connects the disciplines as it encourages students to explore citizenship and values. Students must complete six courses, including interdisciplinary introduction and Capstone seminars (all of which include a substantial service-learning component). Other courses explore issues of wealth, poverty, politics, ethics, community, behavior, environmental justice, moral theology, gender, and diversity. Students enrolled in the minor must complete experiential learning components to accompany classroom learning: a service-related internship and 84 hours of community service. Students will be placed in various agencies addressing issues of poverty, education, welfare, and teen pregnancy with at-risk children and youth, the elderly, and adults. The joint aspects of this theoretical and practical learning will attempt to move students from talking about justice to promoting it, from debating about good citizenship to living it, and from community service to social action.

Engagement in our community and significant reflection in the classroom helps students understand what it means to value citizenship in a democratic community. VESA enhances students abilities to think critically about social systems, with the community service component acting as a laboratory in which they are led to confront their assumptions and learn problem-solving skills in the context of socially meaningful work that addresses real community concerns. In a time of increasing social problems and scarce resources for social programs, students can supply much needed ideas, skills, and time to meet community challenges. Likewise, by working in partnership with local non-profit agencies, we can offer our students opportunities for learning about and contributing to our shared community in a way that is grounded in realism as well as academically rich. VESA demonstrates to our community that Allegheny’s commitment to the common good is linked in vital ways to our educational mission and that we are proud to engage in mutually beneficial partnerships with our neighbors.

Contact person: Elizabeth Weiss Ozorak, Associate Professor of Psychology and VESA Coordinator, eozorak {at} allegheny(.)edu
On the web: http://webpub.allegheny.edu/group/interdis/VESA.html

For the six participating non-profits (The Rhode Island Community Food Bank, Amos House, Travelers Aid Society of Rhode Island, McAuley House, St. Charles’ Soup Kitchen, Urban League of Rhode Island), the benefits go beyond meals prepared and served. The JWU Management Development Program Education Coordinators, graduate students with both culinary and education backgrounds, supervise the Practicum students and help educate them about each agency’s mission and challenges. They also often provide culinary demonstrations for economically disadvantaged clients and help agency personnel learn good management practices, current sanitation procedures and more efficient food preparation techniques.

Web site (Feinstein Community Service Center): http://www.jwu.edu/artnsci/fein/

Courses: Many courses in a wide variety of disciplines require students to perform service in order to develop greater understanding of the subjects and their professional application. Some courses in which students provide service are: Marketing Research, Computerizing the Organization, and Advanced Nursing Theory and Practice.

Ethic of Service: Service is stressed in a variety of ways at Alverno. For example, service is one criterion used to identity students who graduate with honors. Also, student organizations and clubs are encouraged to include community service as part of their regular activities.
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