Learning the Liberal Arts through Service

Sheila Cordner

Service Project Goals

1 - To gain a new perspective of your study of literature.

2 - To bring literature in some way to a group of people in our city outside of Boston University.

3 - To become more engaged students of literature.

4 - To relate what you are learning as college students to important issues in our contemporary society.

Outline of Discussion

1 - Why service learning and what is it?

2 – Sample service projects

3 – Service learning in your courses?

Service Learning

“a form of experiential learning where students and faculty collaborate with communities to address problems and issues, simultaneously gaining knowledge and skills and advancing personal development”

-- UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute

Service Learning

“a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.”

From: http://www.servicelearning.org/what-service-learning

Why Service Learning in the Liberal Arts?

“While service-learning may have been taken up originally (and enthusiastically) by faculty in occupational fields such as business and education and social science fields such as sociology and political science, we believe that community service learning certainly can play an equal role, and may even play a larger one, in humanistic disciplines such as philosophy. In order to thrive, these fields need to demonstrate their relevance to a new generation of young adults, and community service learning represents an important vehicle for doing so.” --Scott Seider & Jason Taylor

Why Service Learning at Boston University?

“We remain dedicated to our founding principles: that higher education should be accessible to all and that research, scholarship, artistic creation, and professional practice should be conducted in the service of the wider community—local and international.”

--Boston University Mission Statement

B.U.’s FYSOP Program“First-Year Student Outreach Project”

• Approximately 1,000 students participated in 2012

• 11 issue areas (elders, the environment, homelessness and housing)

Community Service at B.U....is thriving

http://www.bu.edu/csc/news/

Community Service

VS.

Service Learning?

Reflection component ofService Learning

• Written reflection relates service to course material

Sample Service-Learning Projects

Service Learning inEnglish and Humanities courses

• EN 142 “Literary Types: Poetry” (Fall 2009)

• EN 121 “World Literature” (Fall 2010)• EN 220 “Seminar in Literature”

(Spring 2011)• HU 101 “Breaks with Tradition”

(Spring 2012)

One-time service project

Build up to the service project

• Introduce the idea early in the semester

 

Service learning in the Dental school: specific application of course material

vs.

Service projects in my courses relate to course themes, key course questions

EN 220: SEMINAR IN LITERATURE

Seminar theme of EDUCATION

Course texts included:

• Langston Hughes, “Theme for English B”

• William Wordsworth, “The Tables Turned” and “Expostulation and Reply”

• Ama Ata Aidoo, Changes: A Love Story

• Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure

• Margaret Edson, Wit 

 

EN 220 SERVICE PROJECTS

Students participated in 4 educational projects in Boston:

– Prison Book Program

– Writing workshop for youth at 826 Boston

– Sudanese Education Fund

– Book Club at Hale House, a senior center and nursing home

Project Requirements

 1) Sign up for a one-time project

2) Participate with a group in one of the service projects

 3) Report back to the class 4) Write a reflection relating the experience to

course texts and class discussions

Assessment Tools

PROJECT GRADE:• Participation in project

• Reflection PaperFirst Part - Open-ended reflectionSecond Part- Make specific connections

to course texts, themes, and questions

Student Feedback

“…Seniors need to expand their minds the same way students do. I point this out to prove that seniors and students may seem very different, but at the core, we are all humans and need to fulfill the same basic need for education.”

-- Seminar in Literature Student (Computer Science Major; Hale House Book Club participant)

HU 102: Breaks with TraditionSpring 2012

• 80 Freshmen in the College of General Studies (CGS)

• Humanities course integrating literature, art history, and film

• Part of the core liberal arts curriculum at CGS

Service project related to overarching course question:

• What roles do literature, art, and film play in society?

Sample HU 102 Projects

Discussions of:• “The Searchers” (course film) with a

group of elders at a Hearth house for homeless senior citizens

• War literature with veterans.

• Dickens’s Hard Times (course text) at Hale House nursing home

Service Projects in Your Courses?

Step 1: Brainstorm

• Goals?

• Applicable Knowledge and Skills?

• Incorporate service project into syllabus

Step 2: Build Partnerships

• Target projects accessible by public transportation

• Identify organizations that already partner with colleges and corporations

• Boston Cares – bostoncares.org

• B.U. Community Service Center

Building Partnerships (cont’d)

• State clearly what your students can do for the organization (time commitment, # of students, etc.)

• Find out the organization’s expectations:– Volunteer orientation/training?– Student preparation?– Time commitment?– Number of students?

Step 3: Schedule Projects

• Outline agreement in writing (# of students, dates, etc.)

• Scheduling students – Doodle– Contracts

Scheduling (cont’d)

• Prepare an alternative research project for students with scheduling conflicts

Keep it simple!

Food for thought…

Brainstorming Service Projects in Upper-level Courses

– Students choose placements and submit proposals

– Specialized projects

– Incorporate a research component

Brainstorming Service Projects in Different Disciplines

Possible ideas… 

• Foreign Languages – partner with elderly immigrants who want to converse in their native language

• Sciences – participate in a project with Science Club for Girls

• Film – screen a film and lead a discussion at a homeless shelter

Further Resources

Campus Compact

www.compact.org

Purdue Service-Learning Center

http://www.purdue.edu/servicelearning/index.html

~

“Personal experience truly gives meaning to education because it connects you to the subject that seems so far away in the books or on the chalkboards.”

– Seminar in Literature Student(English Major; Hale House Book Club Participant)

~

Thank you and feel free to contact me: scordner@bu.edu

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