Campus Compact » Program Models Service-Learning In International Projects

French language and civilization combined with community service

tdomf_26a6d — Thu, 04 Dec 2003 00:00:00 +0000

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The San Diego Dialogue

tdomf_26a6d — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

It started with a community that wanted to know more about itself, a roundtable discussion, and a class of sociology students, standing on the border between San Diego and Tijuana, tapping on the windows of cars to ask the drivers four questions:

What is your nation of residence? Why are you crossing the border? How frequently do you cross in a month? For what purposes do you cross the border?

The research that the students compiled dispelled a number of common misconceptions about border crossings here, at the most traversed transnational border in the world. Contrary to popular belief, nine out of ten crossings were not by tourists or smugglers, but by commuters who were going back and forth as part of their daily routine.

Faced with this new information, community leaders on both sides of the border suddenly realized that the economies and lives of their two cities were intertwined. Policy makers came together to discuss how they could make border crossing easier for these every day commuters. By the time discussion was through, their efforts had been profiled by papers from The San Diego Tribune to The New York Times, and the United States Congress had passed a bill authorizing expansion of the border to make crossing easier.

This small study with large implications provides important insight into democracy. Democracy, ideally, is a system where people come together to engage in civil discourse a process of participating in informed discussion of how their community looks today, and how they envision it looking tomorrow. Unfortunately, community members often don t have access to the information they need to make informed decisions about their community, and there are typically few places in a town or city where people can come together for such discussion.

The San Diego Dialogue, an initiative of the University of California that was the springboard for this cross-border research project, seeks to rectify both of these situations. The Dialogue is the name given to a center based at the university founded to provide the information, public education, and forum for effective civil discourse in the San Diego-Tijuana region.

The Dialogue is led by a group of one hundred regional leaders of industry, government, the media, academic institutions and nonprofit organizations in Mexico and the United States. The group identifies issues of regional significance in three issue areas: regional integration; equity, diversity, and urban development; and globalization. For any particular issue, the progress of promoting civil discourse follows five steps. First, a plenary session is held providing public education and introducing the issue. Second, working groups are formed that include community members interested in the issue. Third, faculty and research fellows from the university provide applied research on the topic to give the working groups information they need to make informed decisions. The fourth key step in the development of civil discourse is the holding of community forums. The Dialogue regularly convenes workshops, roundtables, and community discussions that focus on research findings and regional issues. The group also sponsors a regular forum for discussion of cross-border policy issues that attracts participation from nearly 500 business, government, and academic leaders; and a regular breakfast forum series in which 200-300 business executives and public officials discuss economic issues and trends.

Once discussion of an issue is complete, the last step in the process is the publication of results. These may be published as separate articles available to the community, or as part of the San Diego Dialogue Report, the group s monthly newsletter.

By the time proceedings are published, community members have become involved in the process of sharing ideas that makes democratic communities come to life. Starting with a sociology class that got people talking all over the nation, the University of California, San Diego, has developed a project that has gotten people talking in a much more important venue: their own communities.

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

For more information: http://www.sddialogue.org/

World Hunger course: service in Nicaragua

tdomf_26a6d — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dave Harmon, a faculty member at Colorado Mountain College, teaches a course on World Hunger. To help students understand the myriad issues that affect international populations, he takes a group of students to Nicaragua twice a year. Students pay their own way for the trip, and raise money to support those who cannot afford to pay. In the past, the groups have helped build a school, raised money to staff the school, equipped the school with laboratory equipment, developed a safe water system and worked with farmers to develop new agricultural methods.

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

Website: http://www.coloradomtn.edu/distlearn/syllabi/soc270whsp02i.pdf

Student Leadership Institute

tdomf_26a6d — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Student Leadership Institute serves as an important component to the holistic educational experience DePaul University seeks to provide. Components of DePaul’s competency-based leadership program include:

Website: http://studentaffairs.depaul.edu/sli/

Graduate program in physical therapy with a service-learning component

tdomf_26a6d — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Chatham College supports good citizenship through wide-ranging community service and service-learning programs that result in approximately 12,000 hours of community service each year. The single largest campus contribution is through the service-learning component of the graduate program in physical therapy, which was developed by faculty member Pamela Reynolds. Chatham s physical therapy students complete a 2-4 week service experience during their final clinical training period. Students are required to report on their service activities in writing and in an oral presentation.

This service experience focuses on contributions individuals make beyond their professional role. It will enable students to begin to internalize their roles as service-oriented citizens and health care professionals. Service experiences will include, but not be limited to working with a disadvantaged, under-served or cross-cultural population. Students will demonstrate social responsibility, citizenship, and advocacy, including participation in community and human service organizations and activities. Students will expand their perception and understanding of health and illness and the variety of meanings these terms carry for members of differing groups.

In the past four years, students have served 63 sites in 12 states and 4 countries. Sites have ranged from the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Deschapelles, Haiti to the Ecumenical Women Solidarity Fund in Zagreb, Croatia, to the Center for Creative Play in Pittsburgh.

Online at http://www.chatham.edu/academic/pt/physther1.htm

Longstanding relationship with an international community organization

tdomf_26a6d — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

For ten years, students at St. Joseph s University have returned to a community in Tijuana, Mexico, to pitch in with building projects there. On each trip, students are accompanied by one faculty leader and one leader from the campus ministry who help integrate students international service experience into their educational and spiritual lives back at home. The college conducts its service activities through a longstanding relationship with Los Ni

Mutual education

tdomf_26a6d — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The combination of coursework and international service can make the phenomenon of culture shock a formal learning experience. Last year, sixteen students from the University of Pittsburgh participated in an education class that took them to Carocoyo, Bolivia, where they worked with a local community to help build the region s first secondary schoolhouse. Among other forms of reflection, students wrote anticipation papers before their trip and developed an interactive internet web-site upon their return. As part of the reflection incorporated into the course, students who went on the trip explained the experience in discussions with students who remained at home.

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

Contact:
University of Pittsburgh School of Education
Student Service Center
5N Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Phone: (412) 648-2230