At Portland Community College (PCC), service-learning is demonstrated in many different ways. An example is the new effort for integrating service-learning into the Automotive Technology Program (ATP).

Recently, the ATP s advanced electrical students got involved in service-learning for the first time. In the past, practical experience for students has been limited to work in auto shops throughout the PCC district. However, this time, instructor Leslie Macaulay, who has become quite interested in establishing a service-learning model in her program, decided to try something unique.

Leslie learned that a local senior center was sponsoring a day for electrical and general car inspections for their seniors. She was able to get all of her students to attend and diagnose the senior s cars. Both the seniors and the students thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The students either wrote a reflective paper or made an oral presentation on their experiences. All enjoyed actually getting to talk with the car owners (something that doesn’t happen much in this business as you know if you’ve ever had your car in for work—-seems you never get to speak to the technician who does the actual work!) And they hoped that they will be able to do more of this type of thing in some of their other automotive classes. Hopefully this is the start of a service-learning component for the ATP. It certainly will be if these students have anything to say about it.

Contact: Leslie Macaulay, lmaucala {at} pcc(.)edu