The Service Learning Program, housed within the Institute for Urban Life, was created in the spring of 1994 to facilitate service learning in selected courses and departments throughout the University. Each semester,700-800 students from 50-55 courses across the curriculum are engaged with more than 100 agencies and schools in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area.
At Marquette, service learners participate in the community in several different ways. They may work alone, in pairs, in small groups, or with their entire class. The three models of service activities used most commonly here are the following:
Placement model: Students choose from among several placements that have been chosen for their courses and usually work at these sites for 2-3 hours per week throughout the semester. The service they provide is the conduit to their learning. They gain access to populations or issues related to their courses and, in return, provide needed assistance to the organizations and/or their clientele.
Presentation model: Students in certain courses (e.g. Physics 1 and Substance Abuse) take material they are learning in class and create presentations for audiences in the community, usually young people. The service learners work in small groups and choose from among several sites, which have been set up by the Service Learning office. Sometimes professors require students to do their presentations more than once (to give them a chance to evaluate and make adjustments); others have them present in class before going into the community.
Product model: In some courses, service learners–working alone or in groups–produce a tangible result for their agencies. In Virginia Chappell’s Writing for the Non-profit Agency, students create handbooks, annual reports, or other written materials. Michael Havice s Television Production students write, film, and edit videos for non-profit organizations. In Principles of Database Management, PC Reddy’s students develop or modify databases for their agency clients.
Project model: Working in groups, service learners collaborate with community members to devise and implement a project. In Fr. Tom Krettek’s Philosophy of Community class, service learners work with groups of middle and high school students to identify and work on issues of concern to them. Students from Chris Stockdale’s Classical and Modern Physics class work with young people in an after school program to create science projects and demonstrate them to their parents and to other students.
Program staff include an administrator, an assistant administrator, and 14 students. The student staff consists of two Staff Managers who serve on the adminstrative team, run the office, and train and guide the Student Coordinators, and twelve Student Coordinators, who facilitate the service learning process with three caseloads: 8-10 community agencies, the service learners who sign up for those agencies, and 3-4 faculty and their courses.
website: www.mu.edu/servicelearning
Contact: Bobbi Timberlake (414) 288-3261
Kim Jensen Bohat (414) 288-0250
