Dr. Bill Palmer, a professor of English at Alma College, incorporated service-learning into an Advanced Rhetoric course by providing writing workshops for inmates at a local prison. The course, offered during Alma s one-month spring term, started with an orientation at the prison, where students had the chance to first encounter inmates and decide if they would take part in the service-learning project. Students worked in pairs conducting writing workshops with 4-5 inmates each. At the end of the course, the prison sponsored an essay contest in which inmates got to put their writing skills to the test.
From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy
Contact: palmer {at} alma(.)edu
