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.
