newsletter |spring 2010

welcome to education in actionIt is difficult to sum up a year in the life of the Service-Learning Program at Dominican because our program is intertwined with and inseparable from so many other lives. I am filled with awe at the learning in which I have participated with my students, other faculty, our community partners, and that collective and teeming life which emerges from all the individual experi-ences and the “thinking

together” that we do to reflect on and

better understand these experiences. I am moved, as Adrienne Rich expresses so aptly, by those who continue, day by day, to

“reconstitute” the world and by the expansion that occurs in each one of us who participates in this

educational endeavor that chal-lenges us to see difficult societal

issues. Yes, at times, the suffering and inequities certainly fill us with a

sense of futility, yet certainly we have to

be able to see clearly in order to transform these realities. Service-learning provides all of us the opportunity to see more clearly and then to learn from and act with those who have the strength and commitment to do this work day in and day out. For me, the learning from service-learning comes in all

forms, from being exposed to and immersed in a com-munity different than our own, to the lessons that are taught by those we never expected to be our teach-ers: the four year olds with whom we water the garden, the fourth-graders we are doing art with, the clients at Marin AIDS Project, the high school students whom we are trying to convince that algebra mat-

ters when we aren’t sure ourselves. The list goes on and on as do the many connections, the ah-ha moments, and the subtle shifts in which change happens. The following pages offer glimpses into our dynamic commu-nity partnerships and the transformative learning and relationships that continue to emerge and flourish.

“Service-Learning is about

compassion and love, but not as an

extrapolation based on your own

vulnerability and pain as it measures

up to those around us. No. Service-

Learning is much more complex,

much more primal. It is something

that grows in the gut and takes flight

through the windows of the heart.”

--Lauro Vazquez, Humanities ‘10

“My heart is moved by all I cannot save:so much has been destroyed I have to cast my lot

with those who age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.”

–– poet/activist, Adrienne Rich

2009-2010:

1813

+25285

4,449

Service-Learning Faculty

Service-Learning Designated Courses

Community Partners

Service-Learning Students

Service-Learning hours with community partners

Service-learning is a course-based, credit-bearing

educational experience in which students (a) participate

in an organized and sustained service activity that

meets identified community issues and interests and (b)

reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain

further understanding of academic content, a broader

appreciation of the public application of the discipline as

well as the root causes and larger context of the service,

and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility.

--Adapted from Bringle and Hatcher,

A Service-Learning Curriculum for Faculty

What is Service-Learning?

1

Julia van der Ryn, Director of Service-Learning, visiting with a youth theatre group in Salvador, Brazil.

Maureen was introduced to Phoenix when she began tutoring at MCCS to fulfill the service-learning component of an ethics course. In her senior year, she decided to do her thesis project with Phoenix Academy, a therapeutic high school that shares the campus with MCCS and specifically addresses the issue of addiction. She attracted to becoming even more involved with these students and to explore her desire to pursue a Masters Degree.

This internship has solidified my decision to pursue my Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling. I feel that I will be tremendously more prepared because of my exposure to Phoenix. My time has been challenging and rewarding, it has exposed me to issues of addiction, many of the behaviors that are associated with it, and the challenges that are not only faced by the affected person, but also the professionals that support them. I have had to learn to be flexible in my thinking, and to find ways to be comfortable, even when I have felt outside of my element. I was afraid on many levels when I first arrived at Phoenix; would I know how to relate to the kids, did I know enough about addiction to be of help, did I know how to act in this environment, the list of my worries was endless. I soon realized that the students and I had much to learn from each other, and from the daily experiences that we would share. No two days

were alike, but as long as I showed up ready to serve and to learn, things would be okay. I have been forever changed by my experience at Phoenix, and I am thankful that it stretched me in ways that I never anticipated.

I will graduate in May, but I will continue at Phoenix until June when the students’ school year ends. I will leave with a heavy heart, and know that they will be in my thoughts for a longtime to come. The students and the staff were kind enough to let me be part of their community and have taught me so much. I will forever be grateful. I will leave Phoenix, however, I will continue to feel responsible for impacting change. Because of my exposure to the students I can no longer live without them, we are interconnected, and as humans depended on one another. I now experience the world through their eyes, in addition to my own, and will be forever compelled to impact their future in a positive way. My time with them will prepare me for many of the challenges that I will face in pursuing my maters degree. Yes, I learned about treating addiction and the different methodologies used, but more importantly, I got to experience what it takes to work in such an environment, and the passion one must have to be successful.

A Sobering, Yet Wonderful Experience: A Year of Service with Phoenix Academy by Maureen Rodriguez, Pathways Humanities ‘10

The Dominican

Service-Learning Tutoring Program and MCCS, an

alternative high-school that offers a small, highly supportive, and closely supervised educational environment to at-risk teenagers, have collaborated on the development of a structured tutoring

and mentoring program aimed at providing academic enrichment while raising self-esteem and confidence. This partnership also benefits

the Dominican students by enriching course content, broadening their world view,

breaking down stereotypes, and understanding core

social issues.

2

In one of my earliest and most memorable interactions at MCCS, a stu-dent responded to my plea that he do his schoolwork because I cared about him and wanted to see him succeed by saying, “Yeah right. You’re only here because your teacher is making you.” I was embarrassed, because part of me knew he was right. While my service at MCCS may have originated as a sort of selfishness disguised as kindness, it provid-ed an opening for a deeper, more genuine kindness to evolve. As I let go of my judgments and expectations and I allowed myself to be a part of the experience, I be-gan to see a bigger picture and I began to learn as much as I taught. That same week, I was again having a hard time with one of the students refusing to do his work. This had been a problem for the past two or three weeks. I had continually met his resistance with increased prodding and criticism, which only exacerbated the situation. I decided this time not to become defensive, but rather try and understand what was going on with him and why he wasn’t able to focus. We started to talk a little and I offered him half of my bagel and strawberries that I had packed for lunch. He seemed genuinely shocked at the offer. He took the food and ate it as if he were starving. As it turned out he was starving. He explained to me that he had spent the night in juvenile hall and hadn’t eaten since earlier in the previous day. I remember thinking that it was completely unrealistic and irrational to think this student

could function in an academic setting when he had basic survival needs that weren’t being met.

This was one of the most profound experiences I had during my service at MCCS. The combination of the reading and this experience showed me that even in service we can still be selfish. I was placing unfair expectations and pressure on the students, because I was concerned about how their performance reflected upon me. When the students failed to meet the expectations I had imposed upon them, I initially gave in to my urge to rationalize it by blaming the students and making judgments about them. Being able to rec-ognize this was a very powerful and important learning experience for myself and it also allowed me to change my pessimistic stance, which allowed me to empathize with the students and ultimately form more meaningful connections with them.

The dissipation of my own expectations and judgments created space for new experiences and insights. Whereas I was reflexively defending myself by placing the blame and judgment on the students, I began to see deeper roots to the problems that were showing up in the classroom. This is a critical point, because it is this open space, this freedom from judgment and preconceived notions, that allows for the possibility of solutions, rather than rationalizations for the continuing of the problems.

Over the past 3 years, we have built a vital partnership between our schools, MCCS, Phoenix Academy and Dominican University of California. The relationship is strengthened through consistency, regular reassessment, and seeking to meet the needs and interests of the recipients and the providers this approach creates a really rich program for all involved.Each year new Dominican students join us with trepidation and then find a niche they didn’t know existed for them. Our students discover someone who is almost a peer, but not, someone new to explore their identity, focus with, or try to connect with at some level. For teachers ,the gift of capable tutors translates to a possibility of more success, which is imperative for a student population that struggles for a positive role in our society.

––Teresa Ashby, Program Coordinator MCCS

A Little Space to Grow by Nick Merlo, Psychology ‘10

“It was cool, it was a good experience. One-on-one with a

tutor was good. Hopefully others enjoyed it. The tutors were taking time from their schedule and all. It was a real inspiration to learn. They’re laughing with you and

talking with you, but still on track doing your work.”

MCCS Student--Senior, Age 17

Marin County Community School (MCCS)&Phoenix Academy

MCCS

Emily wrote this paper as part of the course work for Self, Community and Service: Modern Identity and Meaning in fall ‘09

During this past semester, I completed service-learning work by tutoring at Marin County Community School. With each step I took, I learned something new. And isn’t this the aim of service-learning anyway? I am an instrument of teaching, but I am also expected to learn. As Paolo Freire wrote in Pedagogy of Freedom: “Whoever teaches learns in the act of teaching, and whoever learns teaches in the act of learning.” Ms. G was the teacher that I worked with more than any other. I assisted her class, Media Literacy, in a variety of ways—but before I worked solely with her, I also served as a tutor during Mr. T’s science class. My first noteworthy experience was here.

Mr. T was having a bad day—there’s really no other way to put it—and one particular student was giving him trouble. Mr. T asked me to help the student revise essays that he had written—practice essays to help prepare him for the high school exit exam. Another Dominican tu-tor had just finished doing this very same thing, but I noticed that there were still many spell-ing and grammar mistakes in the essay that she said they were finished with. I pointed out the spelling mistakes, and he corrected them. I then proceeded to correct the most obvious grammar error in the piece—this student did not know the difference between the words there, their, and they’re.

I explained the difference by using things and people around us. Then I quizzed him. We had to repeat these steps several times, but by the end of the hour the student comprehended that,

“There are some kids. Their shirts are green. They’re going to in-house.” I had him correct the errors in the essay himself. I felt truly triumphant when he mumbled, “No one has ever explained that in a way that I could understand it before.” But not all of my moments at Marin County Community School were so overtly significant.

Perhaps the most crucial revelation that I had came weeks later, and it was in no way apparent at first. It came to me while I was rehashing Cheshire Calhoun’s, “Standing for Something.” In the text, Calhoun argues that integrity is not only a personal virtue, but a social virtue as well. She writes,

“integrity may be a master virtue, that is, less a virtue

in its own right than a pressing into service a host of other virtues—self- knowledge, strength of will, courage, honesty, loyalty, humility, civility, respect, and self-respect.”

In Ms. G’s Media Literacy class, I seldom had the option of working with students one-o-one. For quite some time, I didn’t get the opportunity to relive the sense of accomplishment I had felt helping that student rewrite

his essay. I felt rather lacking in efficacy. But simply this notion of moving from integrity as something that is merely self-serving to something that is both self-protective and constructive in everyday life helped me to see something greater.

I realized that I was focusing on personal virtues alone, on what I was getting out of the experience. It was all about me, me, me. I didn’t stop to see that I was helping—by fulfilling mundane, yet time-consuming, tasks like re-arranging folders and setting up the projector, I was assuaging Ms. G’s immense burden. This relates well to Charles Taylor’s The Ethics of Authenticity. Taylor writes about individualism, first calling it “what many people consider the finest achieve- ment of modern civilization,” but going on to state that “the dark side of individualism is a centering on the self, which both flattens and narrows our

lives, makes them poorer in meaning, and less concerned with others or society.” By thinking only of myself, I was making my duty poorer in meaning by having little consideration of others.

I was entirely devoid of integrity, of humility, and of Freire’s “right-thinking.”

I failed at my first service-learning attempt two years ago, and perhaps this was part of the reason. I had trouble with doing. Freire writes:

… right thinking belongs intimately to right doing. In this sense, to teach right thinking is not something that is simply spoken of or an experience that is merely described. But something that is done and lived while it is being spoken of, as if the doing and living of it constituted a kind of irrefutable witness of its truth.

Ironically, the text that I enjoyed more than any other during my first service-learning endeavor was Jacob Needleman’s, Why Can’t We Be Good? Something Needleman wrote has haunted me ever since, and maybe this was the catalyst for my second attempt: “Ideas, therefore, are necessary. But they are not enough” (106). Action is a crucial part of service-learning—perhaps the most crucial. Attitude is crucial, ideas and thoughts are crucial—but none of these things matter if we don’t put them into practice. We must think, but we must also act.

Action, though, was still a challenge for me this semester. Ms. G. pushed me to overcome my shy-ness, to speak up more, to be more proactive. While I feel that I eventually accomplished this, it was difficult. It seems ridiculous, but I was afraid of looking stupid. It took realizing, again, that what I was doing wasn’t about me. I had to risk failing to truly offer something of value. And when I stepped out of myself, of my own egoism, I received ten-fold. Service-learning, like the human experience in general, is full of contradictions and irony. Self-satisfaction comes from walking away from “that centering on the self.” Self-satisfaction comes

from giving. And once you give, you can receive honestly. But is this really enough? Is right thought and right action sufficient? I don’t think so. By far my favorite text this semester, and the first book we read, was Herman Hesse’s

Siddhartha. The passage that meant the most to me is also applicable to service-learning (as is, perhaps, the whole volume), and in a very important way. In this excerpt, Govinda has just asked Siddhartha whether existence as we perceive it is real, whether things as we know them are mere facades, whether everything we experience is a part of maya. Siddhartha answers:Whether things are semblances or not, I too am a semblance, after all, and so they are

always my peers. That is what makes them so dear to me and venerable: they are my

peers. That is why I can love them. And now this is a teaching that

you will laugh at: Love, O Govinda, seems paramount to me. Seeing through the world, explaining it, despising it may be crucial to great thinkers. But all I care about is to be able to love the world, not to

despise it, not to hate it or myself, to be able to view it

and myself and all beings with love and admiration and awe.

This brings to light the importance of feeling. If we tolerate the other, there is

no room for true appreciation. We must move past toleration to a love of all. Bryan S. Turner writes in “Cosmopolitan Virtue, Globalization and Patriotism” that “most accounts of moral relativism would imply that the contemporary cultural world is made up of a collection of tribes that have almost nothing in common. We need arguments that flesh out the commonalities of the human, especially social, experience” (56). If, instead of viewing humanity as “tribes that have almost nothing in common,” we adopt Siddhartha’s outlook and view all beings as peers, I think we’d become better human beings.

This seems rather paradoxical, but I find comfort in the contradictions. Throughout the course of this semester, we have studied the words of many great thinkers. What I propose is not to throw all of that out, but rather to add tenderness and feeling to our thoughts and actions. Actions and thoughts that are not charged with love seem hollow. Service without feeling is nothing.

Right Thought, Right Action, Right Feeling by Emily Holguin, Humanities ‘10

“This experience of-ten seemed less like a responsibility and more like a journey.”

“What is thinking and doing without

a love that permeates every

action?”

“Emily came alive at some point

in the class. She started sharing,

giving kids food for thought. She was

open, and bright, and now, after reading

her essay, I’m learning, very reflective.”

--Sheridan Gold

Teacher at MCCS

3

MCCS

When Maggie DePond first began tutoring at Marin County Community School (MCCS) in the fall of 2007, she laughingly admits to having been terrified. As a Dominican University sophomore, she was only a few years older than some of these high schoolers. Maggie’s family background and educational experience were distinctly different from these students, the County’s least likely to graduate from secondary school.

“Every Friday morning for almost 16 weeks, I sat down with students …My job, that first semester there, was to tutor an individual for about an hour, going over whatever they needed, whether it was math or English, it didn’t matter, because it was always remedial.” She recalls that a big part of her service was just showing up, so students knew they weren’t forgotten.

Though it was hard to measure progress, she realized she was making a small impact when the students

started sharing their stories. “As that initial fear washed away, I

only wanted to help…I go back to MCCS every

week now and am honored to be one of those people whose face they can trust and whose opinions they have faith in.”

Maggie did

not leave when the semester requirement was complete, but continued to tutor on a regular basis for the next two and a half years. In addition, she became a Service-Learning Student Leader, assisting other Dominican students in the program. And, in the spring of 2008, as an advocate for

service-learning, she presented a paper at the National Col-legiate Honors Conference in San Antonio.

Maggie is not the only Domini-can student involved in service-learning at MCCS. For the past two years, Marin County School Volunteers, Dominican University, and Marin County Community School have part- nered to provide individual instruction to the students at

MCCS. Marin County School Volunteers supports these service-learners by providing required screening and follow up. Since 2008, 68 Dominican students have contributed more than 1,000 hours to over 200 MCCS students.

Teresa Ashby, Program Coordinator for Bay Area Community Resources at MCCS, assists with the service-learning orientation and supervision. She notes that, “the relationship between the Dominican tutors and our students has been a great blend. Dominican’s service-learning tutors discover their biases and their assumptions, as do the County Community and Phoenix students. One-on-one learning can help a student gain skills that would be harder for them in the classroom setting. It’s really been a great gift. The relationship feels like

it’s become a part of the campus culture, rather than a short term commitment for a few students.”

Responses from the Marin County Community School students are also positive. Over 90% responded that they liked having a tutor in class, that the tutors helped with their homework, and that the program should continue. As one student wrote, “It was cool, it was a good experience…the tutors were taking time from their schedule and all. It was a real inspiration to learn. They’re laughing with you and talking with you, but still on track doing the work.”

Julia van der Ryn, Ethics professor and Director of the Service-Learning Program at Dominican, is equally committed to her students’ participa-tion at MCCS. “I can’t imagine ‘teaching’ ethics without service-learning because we are connect-ing ideas/theories/thinking to action and practice. So often my students scratch their heads at some of our reading and then they have the ‘ah-ha’ when they bridge that idea to the experience they are

having as tutors. They are putting flesh on the abstract and usually it is their experience that deepens their understanding of the intel-lectual content of the course.”

Maggie DePond is now a senior, ready to graduate and explore the next phase of her life. Reflecting on her experience at MCCS she states, “It is the only way a girl

like me, someone who has never wanted for any-thing, who just by being born, got the lucky life, the good life, can positively interact with students in my own community who want for everything…Certainly my ethics education is not complete, and I learn more and more every day I am at MCCS.”

Maggie has had a huge role in the success

of this partnership. Her high energy, commitment,

adaptability, and creative presence will be sorely missed.

A flowerpot: a best an innocuous decorative object that sits on someone’s porch or in their back-yard, but at worst a potentially lethal weapon when smashed atop someone’s head, like what happened to one of the students at Marin County Community School (MCCS) during a gang related altercation. The incident didn’t make the newspapers or the eleven o’clock news. It is even doubtful that the police were involved. The only way I heard about the incident was when Mr. Hal Thomas, English teacher at MCCS, discarded his lesson plan in favor of a more poignant speech decrying gang violence and asking, why? Why risk jail time? Why risk pain and even death? Why risk a future?

And there I was, sitting in the back of the classroom, not tutoring, as I normally would be doing, but engrossed nonetheless. For me the conversation was unusual, never in my high school career did the day stop like that. In my time at MCCS, there were many days like that one, where the classroom stopped because of a fight, or a drug search, or a

lock down, or a conversation about drugs, gangs, or poverty. Though it is certainly a school, academics almost came second to the more pressing problems in these students’ difficult lives. It’s why every teacher I personally worked with wanted me to talk to their students about college, about my life, and their lives.

Yet, I suppose, these are not new revelations. I learned the importance of Dominican tutors’ pres-ence while taking my ethics service-learning class during my sophomore year: how the examples and dedication of one or two Dominican students can bolster the learning and lives of many more MCCS students. I learned that academics and service go hand and hand regardless of where some-one serves, but serving at MCCS and taking on a leadership role in the program posed more questions than I ever answered during my semester in ethics. How do you teach someone ambition while simultaneously teaching selflessness and compassion? How do you tell someone to rise above their hardships and move forward when they still face those hardships daily? How do I reconcile my relatively easy movements through life with the poverty or abuse of thirteen through eighteen year olds? I still don’t know how to answer any of those questions.

What I do know is that as I move forward, as I take what I saw and what I learned at MCCS into my own future, that is wasn’t my specific presence that was needed at the school. It was the development and the presence of a partnership between service-learning at Dominican and MCCS, a partnership that needs to continue to shuffle university tutors into MCCS as more and more students filter in and out of MCCS’s classrooms and programs. As long as this partnership exists, the next time Mr. T. stops class to talk about an incident there will be another Dominican student in the back of the classroom learning their own lessons and willing to open themselves to this experience and to find ways to connect with and make an impact on the lives of these students. Hopefully that student will be as moved by their experience at MCCS as I continue to be.

If I am to have a “legacy” that’s what it should be. It should be about the questions asked but not able to be an-swered, about the experience of being in a classroom and knowing you can

help but not knowing how, and the fact that after I leave there will always be someone to take my place. Always.

Dominican and Marin County School Volunteers a Partnership for Learning by Jan Sugar

Flower Power by Maggie DePond, History ‘10, Service-Learning Student Leader with MCCS, ‘07-’10

Reprinted and adapted with permission from Marin County School Volunteers Newsletter, spring 2010, p. 2, 6

“My very first student was enthralled

at the prospect of graduating from

high school, and fulfilling his dream of

becoming a professional actor, he just

needed help with reading comprehension

in order to pass the high school exit

exam. This year I met another student

who refused to read, ever, and after

coming back day after day, suddenly she

volunteered. I tried not to look happy.”

“By teaching others simple

subjects, I learned more

about myself, what I want

to do, what I can do, and

the kind of person I want to

become, than I could by lis-

tening to the most complex

of lectures”

How do I tell students at MCCS

that they can overcome when I

have never experienced a

fraction of what they have?

4

Dominican and Marin County School Volunteers a Partnership for Learning by Jan Sugar

Marissa served with YMM as this spring when she was enrolled in an service-learning Ethics in Healthcare course. Teresa Ashby of MCCS runs this group on her own time.

Education endows us with the privilege and responsibility to actively engage as informed citizens in our communities. My service-learning project with Young Moms Marin (YMM) enabled me to experience health-care ethics in action and to contribute to my community. Young Moms Marin is a teen pregnancy support group that meets at the Marin Health and Wellness Center in San Rafael’s Canal District. Teresa Ashby, a special programs coordinator at Marin County Community School, leads this group of Filipina, Latina and white women, ages 15-21, and their young children. The group meets once a week to discuss their life changes, successes and challenges, and receive support and suggestions about where to turn for assistance. Together they learn about child rearing and healthy lifestyle practices. Especially important, they seek to build meaningful relationships through connecting over common experiences. The group also organizes outings, such as trips to the Discovery Museum or picnics in the park.

YMM seemed like a case study on Patricia Benner’s discussion of compassion and relationship building. Benner advocates an ethical framework of caring practices that involve establishing meaningful relationships based on trust, compassion, and empathy. She writes, “Effective care giving requires more than intent or sentiment. It requires skill and knowledge and being in relation with others in ways that foster mutuality, empowerment, and growth” (The Crisis of Care: Affirming and Restoring Caring Practices in the Helping Professions, 45).This description was evidenced during my introductory meet-ing with Mrs. Ashby. Instead of immediately discussing the logistics of the service-learning site or her expectations for my contribution, she began by spending an hour simply sharing about the young moms in the group. Ms. Ashby elaborated on the intricacies of each woman’s story—Julia’s struggle to rent an apartment as a minor, Maria’s comfort in finding childcare, Jessica’s battle to stay in school while pregnant, Naomi’s excitement at her boy’s improved potty training (pseudonyms used for confidentiality purposes).

This emphasis on providing holistic care was also a priority for Ms. Ashby. She sought to support the young moms in their financial, educational, family, health, relational, and other needs. In one particular meeting, she led a time of “check-in” where the girls updated each other on life issues and then discussed the high sugar content of soda and cautioned about letting children drink too much. She provided healthy snacks as an example of positive eating options and distributed donated children’s clothes and toys. She also worked individually with each girl to encourage them with their schoolwork, check-in about their home-life, and assist them in the process of applying for and receiving necessary aid, such as food tamps, Cal Works, and healthcare. Ms. Ashby’s efforts helped me to experience in Technicolor what Benner had discussed in ink.

These young women show courage as they share about their exceedingly difficult life circumstances in a way that is honest and vulnerable to the group. They have used imagination to develop a program called “Baby Talk,” in which these women go on speaking events to schools and other groups to share about their life experiences as teen mothers. In doing so, they develop confidence by learning public speaking and reflect on their own experiences through sharing with others.

Unfortunately, they often face these challenges without direct community support. According to Ms. Ashby, the County of Marin does not currently allocate financial or comm- unity resources specifically toward helping struggling teen mothers. She says that this lack of support is due to the abiding mentality that providing support for people in need is the same as enabling and condoning the need. Or in this case, that expending resources to help teen moms will result in an increase in teen pregnancy.

The lack of community assistance and collective compassion in Marin County is due in part to an overall ignorance of teen pregnancy and misunderstanding about the socio- economic issues facing teenage women and their children. Prior to YMM, I was completely ignorant of the prevalence of teen pregnancy in Marin County.. I envisioned these teens as misdirected, or hopeless, or unable to care for themselves.

I was wrong on all counts. Teen pregnancy is a significant problem in Marin County, and is an issue that knows no bounds of skin color or ethnicity. However, it seems to be most common among teenagers who are from families of low socio-economic means, and where relational, health, or financial problems are shared over generations. While poor choices may have been made, they were not made in isolation—external social, economic, and family background issues all contribute to why YMM women are both teenagers and pregnant. Despite challenging circumstances, I was humbled to see the dedication, perseverance, and hope that YMM women had for their lives and for their children.

by Marissa Parrinello Page, Humanities &Cultural Studies ‘12

Partnering with such a creative

force as Dominican’s Service-Learning Program has given our

campus unexpected possibilities and resources. “Collaboration” feels real, and

not just a token description. Dominican staff have sought grants to enlist students

in video projects, leadership ideas, support for our teen mom populations. It’s these

enhancements to academics that help our students stay positive and feel valued.

When strong programs unite amazing

things can come of it!

--Teresa Ashby,

Program Coordinator, MCCS

In the fall of 2008 I took HONO 3500 Self, Community, and Service: Ethical Theory and Practice, a service- learning course at Dominican University of California. Wanting to complete the 25 hours of service-learning in a way that had a lot of personal meaning for me, I received permission from my instructor to serve with Giant Steps.

In the final paper for the course, I wrote: Almost every Friday afternoon from October to mid-December 2008 I found myself at Giant Steps Therapeutic Riding Center on the outskirts of Petaluma, CA. It is a bustling place with horses, workers and arenas everywhere. Off in one corner are Giants Steps’ facilities, a couple trainers, an outdoor arena and a shipping container for a tack room. The facilities are by no means romantic, but they serve their purpose. Giants Steps touches the lives of almost 50 students every week and an even greater number of volunteers.

Giant Steps is a local non-profit that serves students with mental, emotional and physical handicaps. The principle behind therapeutic riding is that by teach-ing people to interact with horses they can better learn how to interact with the world. For many of the students at Giant Steps the world has always been the easiest thing to interact with. Through my interactions with the students, horses, instructors and volunteers at Giant Steps I took more away than I could possibly have given back.

Little did I know at the time that those first 25 hours I spent at Giant Steps would pave the way for hundreds more hours. I ended up interning there over last summer and continue to gain so much knowledge about horses (a topic I already knew a lot about), people (a topic I felt I knew little about) and myself (a topic I thought I knew a lot about).

Encouraged by the head instructor to participate when Giant Steps offered its first ever in-house train-ing, in October 2009 I was certified as a NARHA Registered Level Therapeutic Riding Instructor. I now work for Giant Steps as an instructor.

In addition, last January 2010, I was surprised by being selected as Youth Volunteer of the Year. I was presented with my award at the Volunteer Appreciation Dinner and Party at the Elk’s Lodge in Petaluma and later I was the first featured alumnus in my high school newsletter because of my work at Giant Steps. I really could never have im- agined how much would emerge from this one class.

by Tracy Krinard, Biology ‘11

5

Young Moms of Marin

Giant Steps

Kaitlyn served with MAP this spring when she was enrolled in a service-learning Ethics in Healthcare course.

It takes a lot of courage to work with people who are affected by a major disease as well as different mental conditions. At MAP, the employees look beyond any disease or disability to help their clients. My supervisor, Andy Fyne, said that each person presents unique needs, which require improvisa-tion based on how their needs should be met. MAP operates on a shoe-string budget which they have adapted with resilience. They provide the best care possible with the money they have.

When I chose to spend my time serving at the Marin AIDS Project, I started fearing challenges I would have to face. For example, I was worried that I would make a mistake and provide a client with wrong information. I was also worried that I would not be able to remember the numerous rules and procedures I needed to follow as the receptionist and that I would be all alone at the front desk.

I did make mistakes, but I was able to learn from them and improve on my work. It did take me a few days to remember the receptionist procedures, but once I did, I felt comfortable at the front desk. My expectations of the staff being friendly and open were exceeded. They made me feel very welcome and

I knew I could go to any of them if I had any questions or concerns. I did meet a variety of people and got to hear interesting stories about their lives.

After spending over twenty hours at the Marin AIDs Project, I began to grasp the magnitude of what they do for the community. They open their doors to anyone in need- no questions asked. I understood why their presence in Marin County is so important and they continued efforts are worthwhile. They have already helped so many individuals who are affected by HIV/AIDs/Hepatitis C and will proceed to aid anyone in need.

At first, I was skeptical of gaining any kind of experience from service-learning. By the end of my twenty hours as the receptionist, I began to realize the impact this kind of work can have on students. Spending time at Marin AIDs Project put my life into perspective; I began to really appreciate the supportive people in my life and my health. Although service-learning may not have changed my lifestyle, it changed my outlook on life to a more positive view. As cliché as it may sound, I also realized that no matter what someone has gone through, they are still a human being who deserves love and respect. The biggest les-son I learned was to judge slowly-- my first impression of someone could negatively impact a potential friendship.

Francesca served with the Point Program, a Marin AIDS Project harm reduction initiative when enrolled in an Ethics class in fall 2009 and has continued her involvement to this day.

When I worked the Tuesday night needle exchange not many people took advantage of the services. This was both a relief and a frustration for me. I was reluctant to place needles into the hands of suffering people, yet I wanted them to be protected. This internal conflict made me think about all the people that either are unaware of these services or are using any needle they can get their hands on. Either situation puts them in jeopardy. I had difficulty coming to a resting place in my thoughts on this subject. However, as Paolo Freire says,

“Right thinking is right doing.”( Pedagogy of Freedom, .39) It is one thing to think all these great things, but thinking does not make the change. It’s about putting the thoughts into action. So I finally decided that the needle exchange was “right doing.”

One night, while I was working the exchange, a young man around my age

came in. As I placed a ten pack of needles in his hands, I saw the emptiness in his eyes. I saw the sweat trickling down his face. I saw myself when I was out there using. My next thought was one that scared me. What if the needle that I had just given him was the last one he ever used? What if the needle I had just given him was the one that killed him. Then I remembered. This is life. Anyone can die at any moment. At least this young man still had enough respect for himself and others to use clean needles. He was also responsive to getting some information on treatment centers.

The second needle exchange I participated in a women came who was trying to help her friend. She had a conversation with John, the man I work with in needle exchange. She told him that it was because of him that she learned about safety and was now trying to carry the message to her friends. She had already contracted Hepatitis C, but she said whenever she thought about us-ing or saw her friends sharing needles she always thought of John and tried to pass the message of safety on. It was a beautiful moment. In small steps, what certain aspects of MAP target really work.

MAP: A View of the World from the Reception Desk at Marin AIDS Project by Kaitlyn Rouse, Health Science ‘12

We are One by Francesca DiLello, ‘12

6

Marin AIDS Project (MAP) certainly derives benefit from all its volunteers. Indeed, our front desk volunteers have been filing an important role since our inception. A variety of volunteers bring a variety of skills and points of view into our agency. But when I discussed service-learning opportunities with Dominican staff, I wondered if sitting in our lobby and answering phones would provide the student with a rich learning experience. I had a hunch it would, but only practice could prove it.

Fortunately for everyone, the view into the “real world” from behind our front desk has opened the eyes of many, if not most, of the dozen or so students we have had the pleasure of working with. I can forget that others, especially young people, have not come in contact with people challenged by poverty, illness and substance use. Having to suspend judgments and hold our clients in a positive regard takes training, talent and practice for everyone. Seeing these students make their best attempts to serve without prejudice is heartening for me, a sometimes jaded professional. Seeing them succeed at mine and their own expectations is rewarding beyond measure. So, over the years, I have come to rely on the time and talents of my service-learners. To be sure, they provide service for our clients. What remains to be seen is if the learning they receive will be employed to better serve a world that can often be complex and daunting. I have a strong hunch that it will be.

––Andy Fyne, Marin Life & Community

Relations, MAP

Marin AIDS Project(MAP)

Canal Alliance

This was a blog post for an SL ethics course, Gustavo responded to a prompt asking him to make a connection between text and service

Being a business major was the reason I decided to help out at MarinLink. I was curious of learning what an organization like MarinLink did and what a green business really was. I have heard people speak of sustainable business and how sustainable practices were ben- eficial but I was never a believer. To the contrary, I dismissed the statements firmly believing the traditional practices of business should continue to be instituted if something worked why change it? But something unexpected happened while working with MarinLink, I began to see things in a different perspective and began to think differently about everything I once knew, especially about business.

A quote that stuck out to me from our class text, Judith Butler’s Precarious Life, was: “perhaps mourning has to do with agreeing to undergo a transformation . . . the full result of which one cannot know in advance . . . one can try to chose it,

but it may be that this experience of transforma-tion deconstitutes choice at some level” (21). My mindset when deciding to serve at MarinLink was to learn more about sustainable business and see whether or not I would choose to implement these practices in the near future. Although I was not “in mourning,” my experience at MarinLink

led me to a type of transforma-tion, a transformation of who I was as a person. Not only did I get to help with the business forum but with Project Home-less Connect and the Northgate Promenade Celebration. These experiences helped me learn new things about myself. The quote rings true for me because I

underwent a transformation without knowing the result in advance and without having total control of the outcome. My mind was opened to learn new things and to respect the ideas of others and I believe this is what lead to my transformation as a person because I was opened to the idea of changing my views. A transformation is good in all types of situations because one changes as a person and begins to see things differently in life.

Connecting with MarinLink and Gaining a New World Perspective by Gustavo Ubaldo-Peralta, Business ‘12

“We cannot express what a privilege it has been to work with service-learning students from Dominican University! In the past 5 years-going on 6!-we have had several fabulous experiences that have resulted in lasting friendships. Some of the projects that immediately come to mind are: creating a powerpoint of one of our transportation projects, fundraising letters, generating lists and phone calls, assistance with mailings and participation in events from The Marin Women’s Hall of Fame, Marin Green Business Forum, Project Homeless Connect and Warm Wishes. In addition, we have had administrative support, financial support, fabulous ideas and input, and general positive attitude and spirit.

Dominican’s Service-Learning Program has enriched our organization and our lives. We would not be the effective organization we are without your support. We have deep gratitude for the Dominican students we work with every semester who continually meet and exceed our expectations.”

“I have really began to question everything about myself and the future plans I once had because

this class and MarinLink has really caused me to begin questioning things while

involving myself in a more indepth thinking about things.”

The Canal, a Local Neighborhood that Teaches Us about the Immigrant Experience by Mirel Rivera, Biology ‘10

Mirel served for 2 years as the Service-Learning Student Leader at Canal Alliance. At gradua-tion she received the Student of the Year award, an honor she greatly deserves, not only for her academic achievements, but for her kindness, passion, and empathy that she brought to others

through her service in and out of the classroom. Her bright spirit will be missed in the Service-Learning Program but it will continue to shine through to the larger community, of this we are sure….

“I found myself on the first day of service at Canal Alliance trying to teach middle school students to read in English, I hit my limit. I had no patience and no strategy for teaching. I was becoming aware of how limited I was. I could read, sure. But could I teach someone else to read? My frustration got the best of me and I found myself feeling useless. I was not able to help the students read that day. But the follow-ing week, equipped with some skills from my mother about how to teach without getting impatient, one of the students and I were able to read an en-tire page in English. If not for the struggle I encountered while teaching him how to read, it would not have been a successful ses-sion. He was able to read, and I was able to help him. Therefore, we succeeded, as one. What binds

us morally has to do with how we are addressed by others in ways that we cannot avert or avoid” ( Ju-dith Butler, Precarious Life, 130). I found myself

“bound” by the students’ perception of me as a role model. I was suddenly faced with demands that I was “not free to refuse” (Butler, 131). If I were to refuse this task, I would fail not only the students, but also myself..”

––Excerpt from Mirel’s paper “Learning About Myself by Teaching Others”

As a student in an honors ethics course in spring 2008, I chose to complete my service-learning at Canal Alliance because of its mission to work with and for immigrant families in the Canal area. At the end of the course, I was offered the position of Service-Learning Student Leader. This opportunity has allowed me to serve the organization in different ways. I was able to promote Canal Alliance by visiting ser-vice-learning courses and speaking to students about the organization and its mission. I also planned trainings, advised the tutors, and led reflection with DUC students during their time at Canal Alliance. Working

with Dominican students who served at Canal Alliance allowed me to pass on my passion and enthusiasm for this organization and for social issues in general. Serving as liaison between Canal Alliance and Dominican gave me the opportunity to express my opinion

about possible improvements to the programs and be more involved in planning events.

The entire experience fueled my interest in non-profit organizations that work with immigrant families and strive for social justice. It allowed me to see many possible careers in this sector, even influencing my future plans. As a pre-med major, I always aspired to attend medical school. However, because of my exposure and increased passion for these issues, I have decided to pursue a career in education and social justice after graduation. I have applied to Teach for America and Americorps VISTA positions which will allow me to be more engaged in education and continue to promote service-learning.

“When a society claims to be the provider of a

free life, yet fails to allow everyone to pursue this freedom, no one is free.

We all carry the burden...”

Having Dominican students

work with the students in our program at

Canal Alliance has been a great experience.

The most distinguishing characteristic about

the Dominican students who serve with us is their

ability to be proactive and persistent in approaching

our students. This has led to the creation of great

relationships where our students have come to look up

to the Dominican students as role models. This is crucial

not only academically, where students have become

motivated to seek help with their homework, but

also in the context of creating an environment

where our students want to go to college.

--Canal Alliance

MAP: A View of the World from the Reception Desk at Marin AIDS Project by Kaitlyn Rouse, Health Science ‘12

We are One by Francesca DiLello, ‘12

7

MarinLink

––Mary O’Mara and Nancy Boyce, Executive Director, and President, MarinLink

“The beginning watercolor class was my first experience with service-learning. Initially I was hesitant to change anything about how watercolor was taught because it seemed students enjoyed it ‘as is.’ After watching them interact with the Bahia Vista students and reading their reflections, I was convinced the course became that much more of a richer experience. The Dominican students not only reinforced their skills through teaching, but also were inspired by the creative freedom and “gusto” from which the third grade students worked. Since art has been cut in the Bahia Vista program, experiences like these were the few times students had to create art and use visual expression. In this exchange, it was clear the two groups of students greatly appreciated what was being offered.

Another positive and less anticipated outcome of the course was the clarity and confidence the Dominican students gained in their ability to mentor younger

students. Going forward, I see more potential for mentorship as a point of departure for community outreach. In addition to making art together, students can explore significant issues, such as environmental sustainabil-ity, as content for their painting and drawing. The Beginning Watercolor service-learning course can have a central theme of landscape and environment, with a simple intention: look more closely, learn more, and develop a deeper connection to your everyday environment and yourselves. This positive shift in perspective can enable students to notice more visually – aesthetically, and hopefully create a greater connection to and caring for their everyday environments.”

––Lynn Sondag, Chair of DUC Art Department and Instructor of Beginning Watercolor and Art Fundamentals for Educators, both SL designated courses.

DUC Student Quotes: “When my student began mixing colors and somehow created purple and then mixed in white to create a

beautiful lavender shade, it made me realize that fearlessness and

curiosity can lead to a flourishing form of creativity.”

“I think making art is connected to self-expression and self-identity. The

reason being that art is what one makes it. No one else’s perspective is

just like it. Artwork reveals something about the artist that the artist may have

never known before. It is a window into who that person is.”

Bahia Vista Student Quotes:Bahia Vista students reflect on their Dominican service-learners:Q. What did you like best about working with your Dominican teacher/partner?A. It was fun. Taught me how to draw cool stuff. The trees. Mixing Colors.Q. How many days a week would you like to make art?A. 7 days a week. 100:7. 10 days a week. Until I die – every day. 20 days a week.Q. Bahia Vista students respond to “I really liked it when you….”A. Were nice and you helped me. Showed me how to do a star. Helped me with the art.

“I am glad to

see students are ex-posed to experience people

from different economic levels and different nationalities. This ex-perience will help them to prepare to interact with different families and situations that Marin is cur-

rently living.” -Bahia Vista Even Start

What Dominican Students Learned...

· -There is no limit to imagination. · -They taught me patience. · -I found out I’m good at teaching! · -I learned it takes time to connect with people. · -It has given me a new perspective of those who have little to no art in their school days. · -Taught me to be open about what others can teach me. · -I learned to be flexible and not to take myself too personally. · -They were teaching us how to be good teachers.

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Safe Neighborhoods After-School Program (SNAP) at Bahia Vista Elementary School

The Dominican University service-learning ex-perience reinforced my beliefs in the importance of parental and educational roles in developing the whole child. I came away from the project with a deep respect for the time, creativity and dedication needed to provide children with enrich-ing, life changing experiences. Upon reflection, I saw the positive changes we can make in our society when we support our schools and I also saw how much would be lost if we continue to slash education budgets.

For my Nutrition class, I did my service-learning at The Garden of Eatin’ in Novato, CA. The garden is an interactive program for children from infancy through fifth grade. It is much more than a traditional day care center. The children’s classroom has been replaced by an organic garden. They help plant and pick a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. They engage in food tastings, cooking projects, stories and physical activities. The fundamental goal of the garden is to instill in the children a lifelong appreciation for fresh fruits, vegetables and healthy lifestyles.

In nutrition class we learned that proper nutrition can play a significant role in the prevention of heart disease, cancers, strokes and diabetes. Today more than 16% of American children are obese, triple the number since 1980. As a consequence, childhood diabetes has increased tenfold in the past 20 years and 1 in 3 children will develop diabetes during their lifetime. For the first time in our history, the current generation of children will have a lower life expectancy than their parents. As a result of soaring obesity among young children we will inevitably face an enormous unhealthy adult population.

One of the recurring themes in our class is the importance of teaching healthy eating habits at a very young age. The major factor that predicts future nutrition habits is how well parents eat themselves. Children are very impressionable. The habits of early childhood become their comfort and security zone. From personal experiences and academic instruction, I know that my health and dietary habits were developed in early childhood and were reinforced through school and peer group influence. I believe the solution to the current obesity epidemic rests in early childhood modeling, instruction and exposure.

At the Garden of Eatin’ the children come pre-dominantly from working class families In Novato, CA. Paradoxically, the highest rates of obesity are among groups with the least income and least education. Despite their obesity many are technically malnourished. They can suffer from nutrient deficiencies, nutrient imbalances or nutrient

excesses. Often their parents don’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables and resort to low quality fast foods, choosing the most calories for their buck. Fast foods tend to be too high in saturated fats, sodium, refined grains and sugar. Unfortunately, often both parents work and don’t have much time to spend with their children during the week. Hopefully, this program will substitute for a portion of the parental roles and influence the children’s future behavior. It would be very interesting to follow up the children 5, 10, 15 years after exposure to The Garden of Eatin’ and document the long term positive impact.

Culture and one’s immediate environment can greatly affect dietary choices. I realized that in order to solve the obesity crisis in America we need to make a fundamental change in our culture surrounding food. The Garden of Eatin’ is a microcosm of the possible changes we can make. The garden has changed the definition of what is normal for a young child. What is normal in America today is eating at McDonald’s with friends. What is normal is being rewarded with junk food for a job well done. What is normal is drinking soda and playing video games for hours. The Garden of Eatin’ shatters this culture. The patterns of healthy choices are rein-forced until they become the norm. At one visit the children heard a fun short story about healthy eating. They danced and then, to my astonishment, gleefully ate beets and radishes while listening to Michael Jackson’s song, Beat It; the lyrics were changed to Eat It. What is normal at the Garden of Eatin’ is enjoying healthy food.

While the children’s activities at the Garden of Eatin’ were light hearted and fun, I also observed the enormous amount of work that needed to be done behind the scenes. Picking a few fennel seeds as part of an assignment took me a long time. Then I saw an enormous bin filled with 10 pounds of previously collected seeds and looked at the entire garden. It dawned on me just how much work is done outside of actual instruction! People rarely appreciate the hours needed to both prepare and evaluate a class. I was truly amazed at how much the small staff at the Garden of Eatin’ accomplishes. I was also impressed by the flexibility

of the staff and their embrace of criticism. It was obvious that the children have very short attention spans and a great deal of creativity was required to keep their focus and interest. The instruction was hands on and interactive. I felt the children were exploring rather than being taught, a highly effective approach. I always thought that teaching young children was very easy, but now I have a new found respect for preschool and kindergarten teachers.

Finally, what are the future problems facing the children of The Garden of Eatin’? I wonder what will happen after the fifth grade. The children’s parents lack access to fresh foods as well as the skills and time needed for food preparation. Even though these children may enjoy healthy food and think it is the norm, they may not have access to it in their homes when they leave the garden. Budget cuts have eliminated many physical education and home economics classes from public school curricula. What subliminal messages do we send to our children when the first programs cut for

budgetary reasons are often health, nutrition, and physical education? Are we are telling our children that the most fundamental aspect of life, our health, is an afterthought, something we can focus on only if we have the time and the money? If these programs were continued through high school, the children’s healthy habits could be cemented into a lifelong pattern they could pass on to their children. At the garden

I saw the groundwork laid for a healthier society. While I learned that programs like the Garden of Eatin’ are the best way to foster future healthy adults, if we abandon our children as early as the fifth grade what have we accomplished? We all need to lend our support to programs that en-rich our children’s lives and protest loudly when the value of these programs is minimized.

The Dominican University Service-Learning Program can open our minds to the opportunities available for meaningful social and cultural change. As Dominican students enter the workforce what they have learned about the needs of others will go with them and many will have the opportunity to make a difference.

by Michael Stofan, Nursing ‘12

At North Bay Children Center’s Garden of Eatin’ Project we teach our pre-school aged children that good health starts with eating fresh sweet tasting fruits and vegetables and getting plenty of exercise. Our program recognizes that child care programs play a major role in creating a child’s habits. At North Bay Children Center we want to make sure that those habits are healthy habits. We were delighted this past year to be the community partner for Lynne LoPresto’s Nutrition Education classes. Our little ones were very impressed with Lynne’s group of aspiring nurses. And it seemed that Lynne’s students were just as impressed by our garden and our little ones’ knowledge, appetite and love for eating fruits and vegetables. “Whoa, these little kids know more about eating healthy than I do!” was a common comment from our Dominican students. What made it special for me, as the long-serving obesity prevention program manager, was how quickly the Dominican students recognized the significance of developing healthy eating habits early in life. For them, obesity and Type-Two Diabetes are no longer abstract things that happen to other people – they are now an everyday reality for young adults and their families. I know that our Dominican students now “get it” – they understand that good health is not something you find at a hospital but it actually grows from the Earth– sometimes it literally grows on trees. A big thank you to the spring service-learning Nutrition coures for the help they provided in planting our children’s spring garden.

––David Haskell, Garden Master, Garden of Eatin’ Project 9

Garden of Eatin’

Don’t Call us Volunteers: Learning about Liberation Theology through Academics &Praxis by Charlie Merritt, International Studies ‘13

Charlie was enrolled in Cynthia Taylor’s fall ’09 course, Passion for Justice: Liberation Theologies and Social Justice when she wrote this piece. The partnership with St. Vincent de Paul is carried on by Sr. Carla’s spring course, Catholic Social Teachings, and has just completed its second full year with over 60 students participating.

“Service-learning was a way to broaden my teaching, and make my topic more accessible to students, because liberation theology, by definition, is the tension between reflection and action,” said liberation theology professor Cynthia Taylor. She further commented that the switch from traditional teaching to service-learning was “a necessity” for her course, because the structure of strictly text books and tests didn’t work for the subject.

The focus of Cynthia Taylor’s class is on liberation theology. We spend the first half of our weekly class discussing our reading assignments, which are drawn from a collection of different liberation theology texts. Some—such as A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bartolomè de las Casas and Liberation Theology by Robert MacA-fee Brown—cover liberation in Latin America. Others—namely A Black Theology of Liberation by James H. Cone—focus on the historical liberation of African-Americans. We will also be studying feminist liberation later in the semester.

The second half of each class meeting focuses on service with our community partner.

Our community partner is the society of St. Vincent de Paul, a Catholic-based national organization— a local chapter of which runs a free dining room and a homeless help desk downtown. As of last year, Dominican University is actually considered its own St. Vincent de Paul council. This means that we are recognized nationally as an independent chapter, and we have our own bank account. It also requires that we meet on a regular basis as a council. The second half of class is therefore better called a council meeting. To fill our 25 hour service requirement this semester we can work at the help desk or accompany one of the “St. Vinnie’s” volun-teers on a home visit.

Home visits are a unique chance to interact with people in need here in San Rafael. Typically, one or two students accompany one or two volunteers from St. Vincent’s to the home of an individual or family that has contacted the organization for help. The purpose of a home visit is to get more information about the situation, and decide if our council can provide monetary assistance. The approach is unique in that we are meeting people in need “on their own turf” so to speak, which hope-fully makes them feel more comfortable and in

control. Most home visits are successful in that the council decides that the client’s case is worthwhile and that they are deserving of funds from our account. Home visits are summarized and discussed at the council meeting, students reflect on their feel-ings during the visit and the class brainstorms ways that these experiences can be linked to our readings. St. Vincent’s of San Rafael has become nationally known in the last year. The unique approach of creating a separate council at Dominican University has been so successful that we are being used as a guide for other universities wishing to become involved.

In my own experience service-learning is an effective way to apply the four Dominican ideals— community, reflection, study and service—to daily life. We are involved with the needs of the comm- unity, reflecting on those experiences, studying the ideal of liberation theology, and serving those in need. One of the points that Julia van der Ryn stressed at the service-learning orientation was that with service- learning both the student-participant and the recipient benefit equally. In the same spirit, on the first day of class with Cynthia Taylor, the representatives from the St. Vincent de Paul Society stressed that, contrary to popular belief, we are not volunteers. We are students who are learning by service.

Mock Election 2010 by Laurel Druke, Politics ‘12As a student in the course Catholic

Social Teaching, I learned about the vital part of church doctrine

that focuses on the prom- otion and practice of justice and peace. Through insights gleaned from work in the community, individual and communal reflection exper- iences, I gained a first- hand experience of these important teachings.

For the service-learning section of this class, I rep-

resented the St. Vincent de Paul initiative, Voice of the Poor,

attending the Election Advisory Committee meetings for the County of

Marin. One thing led to another and next thing I knew, I was working with Michael

Smith, the county treasurer, to put on a mock election for the third and fourth grade students of Marin City elementary school. A mock election is a tool to educate students on the process and importance of voting. Our mock election was held on April 30, 2010. A group of over thirty students all had the opportunity to vote in real booths with real-looking ballots (donated by Marin County Registrar of Voters), and feel like real voters. This creative activity turned out to be an empowering and inspiring experience for me. I feel that my service with the mock election has touched the lives of the students involved and I hope that they will pass their enthusiasm and knowledge to others within their community.

My service project reflects Catholic social teachings because my purpose was both to educate and to empower the children to use their own voices to effect change. As a political science student, I believe one voice can really stand out and if you feel strong enough you can truly make a difference in lives around you. Why not start with voting? Use the voice given to you as a right, not a privilege.

Reprinted and adapted with permission from The Angel, Dominican Honor’s Department Newsletter, 18.1 Oct. 2009, p 3.

Editors: Julia van der Ryn Jenny Bray

Design: Sierra Morse

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“Laurel and her fellow students did an outstanding job in conducting a Mock Election for the 3rd &4th grade classes at the Sausalito Marin City School. Laurel started by attending our Election Advisory Committee meetings which lead to the mock election. In advance of the election we met with the schools superintendent. I know the younger students came away with an understanding of elections, candidates, political parties and on how to vote that will carry on into their adult lives. For me, it was a wonderful experience to support Laurel.”

––Michael Smith, Project Mentor, Marin County Treasurer and Tax Collector

Saint Vincent de Paul Society

“Our deepest gratitude and thanks to contributing students, community partners, and faculty. And, to all those service-

learning students, faculty, and community partners who we could not include here, thank you for your countless hours of time and

energy you have given to create this amazing vehicle for learning, relationship, and community development.”