While service-learning is growing across the country, the majority of faculty at most universities still have little or no experience with it. At many universities, the single largest obstacle to faculty involvement may not be that faculty are reluctant or resistant, but simply that they have not heard of the possibility. The first introduction, then, can be a critical moment to gain support from those faculty who are willing to be innovative and lead the way in service-learning on campus, often referred to as the first wave of change.

Operation Bridgeport was organized by Phyllis Macklett, the director of community service, at Sacred Heart University as a method of introducing faculty not only to service-learning, but also to the neighborhood. While Sacred Heart draws a considerable portion of its student body from the neighboring community of Bridgeport, few faculty members live in the area. As a result, faculty are largely unfamiliar with the neighborhood, which is in the most poverty-stricken district in the state. Through Operation Bridgeport, a small group of faculty spend a weekend in downtown Bridgeport at the St. Charles Urban Center to learn more about the lives of the people who live just outside the place where they teach.

The program begins with a guided bus tour, narrated by a Sacred Heart professor, that transports faculty from the richest parts of the city to the impoverished downtown area. After arriving downtown, faculty meet with the leaders of community organizations from the area, between doing service work in the neighborhood at Habitat for Humanity sites, food pantries, or youth centers.

Sunday morning brings a unique twist, when faculty members cook breakfast for Sacred Heart students who live in some of the most impoverished sections of Bridgeport. After the breakfast, students deliver a presentation to faculty on their experiences growing up and living in Bridgeport. According to Ms. Macklett, the presentations never fail to move faculty members, many of whom were previously unaware of the hardships faced by some of their students.

A faculty-administration brainstorming session that comes at the end of the weekend brings ideas from faculty excited about new possibilities. In the past, faculty have suggested new courses and new community activities for Sacred Heart. The outgrowth of one weekend was a free Grassroots Leadership Training Seminar Series for community leaders from Bridgeport. Faculty involved in the series gave seminars on grantwriting, communication skills, and group organizing.

Several faculty who attend the weekend have gone on to incorporate service-learning and community engagement into their classes. Dr. John DeGraffenried, one faculty member introduced to service-learning in the first Operation Bridgeport, now offers free after-school art classes as a community service in high schools in Bridgeport and neighboring towns. He ends each year with an art show. Bridgeport youth who once would have never come to Sacred Heart University s campus have their art on display there; Sacred Heart faculty who once would have never met these youth, see the work that the youth produced under the tutelage of a fellow faculty member.

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

For more information: http://www.sacredheart.edu/mission/service/lead-serv/OpBpt/