Millikin University s 1994 strategic plan included as one of four priority initiatives the goal of building external “”bridges,”" especially to the local Decatur and Central Illinois communities. In the past five years, a range of mutually beneficial partnerships have been developed to supplement the University s long established role as a cultural and fine arts center and the traditional leadership efforts by the President, local trustees, and faculty and staff. In addition to establishing Millikin as a civic leader, these varied partnerships have frequently provided valuable opportunities for students to learn, practice, and reflect on the responsibilities of citizenship.
Launched in 1995 with initial funding from the Council of Independent Colleges, the Center for Service Learning is staffed by two full-time staff and the sixteen service scholars, students selected both for their high school service record and their four-year commitment to leadership at Millikin. Under the new Millikin Program of Student Learning, all incoming students and their faculty and student mentors participate in the Annual Day of Caring out in the community as part of orientation. Over 600 students spend the day at such places as the Children s Museum, the Zoo, the County Health Department, the United Way, the Decatur Memorial Hospital, the shelter for battered women and their children, and the Easter Seals pathways to independence facility. Some students continue their service commitment during the year by returning to the facility/agency they visited during First Week.
While many students develop their own personal service project as a result of their initial experience, all sections of the two University Seminars taught in the freshman and senior years incorporate a service project and related reflection components appropriate to the seminar s topic. Elementary school mentoring and literacy projects are especially popular. Many departments include service projects in courses required for their majors. Co-curricular activities such as the increasingly popular Alternative Break Program provide opportunities for sustained or intensive work in a community, whether in the Dominican Republic, areas of need in the United States, or local community organizations. Because of Millikin s century-long, mission-based commitment to experiential education and the integration of theory and practice, many service projects involve the application of discipline-based knowledge and skills. (Choir students and faculty, for example, have both sung and taught in schools and communities in Santo Domingo and the countryside.)
At their best, service-learning experiences at Millikin are beneficial for both the community and for the students. For many local community organizations, students augment service delivery, meet crucial human needs that might otherwise go unmet, and provide a basis for future citizen support. For students, community service affords an opportunity to enrich and apply classroom knowledge, explore one s vocational direction, develop civic and cultural literacy, improve citizenship, develop one s own style of learning, establish job links, and foster a concern for social problems, which leads to a sense of social responsibility.
Contact person: Michel Wakeland, Director, Center for Service Learning
Web site: http://www.millikin.edu/servicelearning/
