Departmental goals of Service Learning at Waynesburg College:
The goal of Service Learning is to provide a laboratory in which learning experiences address human and community needs and provides the necessary time for reflection on those experiences. Service opportunities are structured to promote student learning and development. Desired learning outcomes include: acquiring a sense of civic and social responsibility, gaining exposure to cultural and socioeconomic differences, applying classroom learning and learning new skills. No more than four credits of service learning will be applied toward the baccalaureate degree.

Service-Learning II

Catalogue course description:
Students will complete the requirements for SLR 105 in this course. In addition, they will perform an additional 30 hours of community service, for a total of sixty hours, and they will compose an additional research paper that investigates a problem encountered at the service site. This problem may relate to issues of providing service, agency structure and/or finding, individual psychological, sociological and/or public policy causes of the needs that the agency intends to meet, etc.

Course requirements:
Students must:

1. Attend the Service Fair and the Orientation Session to SLR105-305.
2. Submit the Student/Service Site Agreement and Student Orientation Guidelines prior to the beginning of the service experience proper (forms attached). These documents are due to the mentor two weeks after the service fair. If they are not turned in by that date, the student will need to withdraw fromthe course immediately or will be at risk of failing the course.
3. Attend five small group mentoring sessions: one absence is permitted, and the absence will be compensated by the student’s writing an additional seminar paper #3 (attached).
4. Document the completion of sixty hours of community service for a non-profit agency.
5. Write a minimum of four reflection papers. Reflections must include both (a) personal growth reflections that focus on individual development and (b) academic reflections that connect classroom learning with the service performed. These are worth 40% of the final grade
6. Write four seminar papers to be submitted by the student on the days when they are discussed in small group (assignments attached). These are worth 20% of the final grade.
7. Compile a photo essay/pictorial representation/record with written reflections to accompany the pictures and compile other products of the experience (brochures, letters, advertisements, etc.) into a portfolio. All other written materials for the course may be included in the portfolio. This is worth 10% of the final grade.
8. In lieu of the SLR 105 paper, compose a research paper of at least 2,500 words that investigates a problem encountered at the service site. This problem may relate to issues of providing service, agency structure and/or funding, or the individual psychological, sociological and/or public policy causes of the needs that the agency intends to meet, etc. The format of this paper will be negotiated between the student and the mentor. This is worth 30% of the final grade.
9. Students will receive a traditional grade for the course.

Course calendar: to be negotiated between mentors and students.

Syllabus
SLR 305: Service Learning III

Departmental goals of Service Learning at Waynesburg College:
The goal of Service Learning is to provide a laboratory in which learning experiences address human and community needs and provides the necessary time for reflection on those experiences. Service opportunities are structured to promote student learning and development. Desired learning outcomes include: acquiring a sense of civic and social responsibility, gaining exposure to cultural and socioeconomic differences, applying classroom learning and learning new skills. No more than four credits of service learning will be applied toward the baccalaureate degree.

Catalogue course description:
Students will complete the requirements for SLR 205 in this course. In addition, they will perform an additional 30 hours of community service, for a total of ninety hours, and they will compose an additional research paper that identifies possible short-term and long-term solutions to the problems identified in the SLR 205 research paper. Students will also make a public, oral presentation of the findings of the research.

Course requirements:
Students must:

1. Attend the Service Fair and the Orientation Session to SLR 105-305.
2. Submit the Student/Service Site Agreement and Student Orientation Guidelines prior to the beginning of the service experience proper (forms attached). These documents are due to the mentor two weeks after the service fair. If they are not turned in by that date, the student will need to withdraw from the course immediately or will be at risk of failing the course.
3. Attend five small group-mentoring sessions: one absence is permitted, and the absence will be compensated by the student’s writing an additional seminar paper #3 (attached).
4. Document the completion of ninety hours of community service for a non-profit agency.
5. Write a minimum of four reflection papers. Reflections must include both (a) personal growth reflections that focus on individual development and (b) academic reflections that connect classroom learning with the service performed. These are worth 40%of the final grade.
6. Write four seminar papers to be submitted by the student on the days when they are discussed in small group (assignments attached). These are worth 20% of the final grade.
7. Compile a photo portfolio of the service performed (assignment attached). This is worth 10% of the final grade.
8. In lieu of the SLR 105 paper, compose a research paper of at least 3,750 words that identifies possible short-term and long-term solutions to the problems identified in the SLR 205 research paper. The student and the mentor will negotiate the format of this paper. This is worth 30% of the final grade.
9. Give a public oral presentation of the findings of the research.
10, Students will receive a traditional grade for the course.

Course calendar: to be negotiated between mentors and students

Service Learning Pedagogy

Service Learning Defined:

Service Learning (SL) involves students in real-life settings where they apply academic knowledge and previous experience to meet real community needs.

SL builds on the effective use of experience as an integral part of education in order to empower learners. Students should view the service as a “‘lab” experience for the integration of learning from past and present classroom experiences.

SL makes a critical link between student’s service “practice” with classroom-based ‘theory’ by drawing clear connections between knowledge based in an academic discipline and the lessons and challenges presented by students’ SL experiences

SL develops key leadership competencies-communication, Critical thinking, values clarification, imagination, discern social and individual differences. Students come to understand the needs of others, appreciate the difficulty of social change, and better understand their own competencies. SL provides the context for students’ personal transformation –

SL links service to academic learning; it puts students in the context to perform service that makes a genuine contribution to the community.

SL, community service and volunteerism. are not synonymous. Community service and volunteerism become SL when there is a deliberate connection between service and learning opportunities, and when that integration is accompanied by thoughtfully designed occasions to reflect on the service experience.

The college gives academic credit for SL on the basis of the learning that students demonstrate, not merely for the service performed, though that same service has intrinsic moral/Christian value consistent with the mission of the College.

The Institutional and Community Impact of Service Learning:

SL helps the College to fulfill its civic mission by creating community-college partnerships that educate students in the essentials of an informed, engaged, democratic public.

Through SL the College prepares an educated citizenry for service to society, but also makes a deliberate contribution to helping solve significant social problems. SL provides the occasion for the dedication of the College’s resources to meet the pressing civic, social, and economic needs of the region.

The campus moves beyond a “volunteer-provider” relationship with communities into collaborative, longer-term relationships that involve direct service and other forms of public participation (e.g. community and economic development, neighborhood organizing, or public policy development).

The Four Basic Elements of Service Learning.

Preparation
This is the linking of SL to specific learning outcomes and preparing students to perform the activities.
Students are provided with a clear sense of what is to be accomplished and what is to be learned during each SL activity. They learn how to do the work, who will be served, the social contexts related to the service, information about the service site, and what problems that may arise. They understand how sites are selected, how coordination and supervision will be achieved, the agency’s and the College’s understanding of each other’s expectations and responsibilities, and how students are placed, trained, supervised, evaluated, and provided with opportunities for reflection.

Service
The experience should be challenging, engaging, and meaningful to students. Service performed should address a real need so that students perceive the activity and their participation as relevant and important.

Such service falls into three general categories:
direct service: one to one, individual, personal contact;
indirect service: the channeling of resources to solve problems; the student does not provide direct contact, but becomes part of a larger community effort, a kind of service that is often “high energy’ and creates enthusiasm for those who serve; and
civic action: active participation in democratic citizenship; informing the public about problems to be addressed and working toward solving problems; the format for civic action can be either individual or group.

Reflection
This is the means by which students come to understand the meaning and impact of their efforts. They link what they have learned about themselves and the academic disciplines to what they have done in service to others. Reflection is the active, persistent, and careful consideration of the service activity. Students ask, What am I doing and why? What am I learning?” Reflection leads to self-assessment; hence, students become more independent learners. Areas of possible academic reflection are: morality, theology, race, class, gender, ability/disability, economics, public policy, civic responsibility, psychology, and sociology. Possible personal reflections include: What am I feeling? Why did I react the way I did? How might I react differently next time? What am I discovering about myself that I didn’t know before? Can I make a change at this site? Without reflection, students simply go through the motions of service remain cognitively unaffected by the experience, and left with their personal ignorance and biases reinforced or unexamined.

Celebration
This is the sharing across systems, organizations and among individuals involved in SL. Included is the ritualization of the learning, achievement acquisition and application of knowledge gained during the semester. This final step also involves the recognition and evaluation of the partnerships between the College and community agencies. Community change is named and celebrated at transitional moments.

Examples of Reflection Papers.

An academic reflection (two of your reflections must be academic)

I answered phones today, because the kids I usually work with couldn’t make it to the agency. I talked to a woman who needed food for her baby, and I talked to an elderly woman who needed a handicap accessible ramp at her house. She had fallen and broke her hip and needed a way into her house. I also helped some women pick out paint for the exteriors of their homes.

As I was helping these people, I wondered why these phone calls were necessary. Why weren’t their families helping? This phenomenon illustrates an issue we discussed in sociology. Before the emergence of industrial societies, family members took care of and depended on one another. If an older member of the family needed something, they could look to their children to provide. That kind of value placed on family is rare today. There are people leaving their parents in hospital ERs and nursing homes today so they don’t have to take care of them. They don’t leave them for a few hours and come back but they abandon them there. You also have many single parent families. If that single parent isn’t dedicated, or doesn’t have a helpful family, they’ll have trouble giving their children the attention they deserve. The agency at which I am serving is trying to provide the solution for this decrease in family value. Perhaps they are taking the place of family for many of the clients of this agency.

It’s very interesting to see the concepts that I’ve learned in the classroom actually exist in the real world. It is also very sad. I think that we need to make “FAMILY” a more important part of American society today. People who live in our industrial society must make changes to that family members will get the care and support that they need.

A personal reflection (two of your reflections must be personal)

Most of my work at the soup kitchen is pretty routine: preparing food (chopping vegetables, making cookies, etc), serving the food and bussing tables. After ten hours at my site, I can practically do these tasks without thinking about them.

But my personal exchanges with the clients are anything but routine. I have discovered that the people I serve are really quite amazing. By spending time with them, serving them food and bussing their tables, I have had a chance to hear some of their stories. My encounters with them have “blown away’ my prejudices about the poor. I thought that all those “Hoopies” who sit on the wall in front of the Greene County Courthouse were lazy people, taking advantage of the welfare system. But I have discovered that they have “sad songs that they sing” to others who lend them an ear, “songs” about how they have been victims in life. Now I realize that these folks can be manipulative and that these “songs” they sing can be disabling. But by listening to their stories, I have discovered that I have more in common with the recipients of my service than I ever imagined! I am more like them than different from them! I have my “songs” too, I realize. But I also realize that my previous explanations for poverty, unemployment and welfare are simplistic and disconnected from the real experiences of people.

Having discovered that, I have a new attitude toward the poor in this area. I can listen to them and see them with more compassion. I now get angry with others who voice the prejudices I used to hold about the people who I now consider my friends … even sisters and brothers. My service has changed me and I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity.

Seminar Paper Assignments

Seminar Paper # 1
What is service?

Take some time to think about an instance when you were the recipient of service-a time when someone offered you help. In a paragraph of 100-150 words, describe the situation that required the service of the other person, who assisted you, and how they provided service. Remember how you felt when you were in need and how your feelings changed once you were served.

Now, write a second paragraph of similar length, write of another experience in which you provided a service for another person.

Then, reflecting on both circumstances, give your definition of service.

Seminar Paper #2
You and your service site

In a paragraph of 200-250 words, describe your service site and write of some of your initial experiences. Describe your service activities in some detail. Is there a particular early experience that has made an emotional or cognitive impact on you? Describe that experience and reflect on your feelings or thoughts about it. Do you think that you are making a difference at the site and in the lives of the people you serve?

Seminar Paper #3
Current issues related to service

Locate an article in a journal, magazine or newspaper did reflects on an issue encountered at your service site. (This probably will not be an article about your agency per se, unless the piece investigates in a critical way a particular problem at your site.) In your seminar paper, describe the relationship between the content of the article and what you have learned first hand at your service site. Think and write critically about the article: Does the information in the article accurately depict the situation at your service site? Your seminar paper should be 250-300 words. (EBSCOHost is a great way to locate such articles. When you use this Internet site, you can use as key words your type of service site or you may think of a problem that you have encountered at your service site.)

Seminar Paper #4
Learning through service

Spend some tune reflecting on your overall experience at your service site. Identify what you have learned about yourself (especially if you are “strange” to this kind of site or to the kinds of individuals you are serving), what you have learned about your agency, and what you have learned about the clients you have served. Identify any of the skills or knowledge you have gained in previous or current classroom experiences and applied at your service site. This seminar paper should be 250-300 words long. You should write a sentence or two to reflect on each of the kinds of learning you have gained this semester about yourself your agency, and your clients, as well as the skills and knowledge you have applied.

SLR 105 Final Paper Question

The assignment is intend to provide students with the opportunity to think and write critically about their service learning experience and how that experience intersects with some of the larger issues in American society. There currently exist two dominant schools of thought regarding meeting human need in American society. One view espouses that federal, state and local government should allocate and spend tax dollars to fund professional social agencies that would, in turn, meet the needs of their communities. The other position states that the burden for social agencies would be placed on individual citizens and agencies that choose to serve those in need by giving of personal time, money and skills.

With at least 1,250 words, and utilizing at least two print resources:

Discuss the pros and cons of each position.
How does your service learning experience support and/or challenge each position? Cite specific examples from your experience.
How would your agency you have served be affected by each position?
Given that both positions “cost” something of individual citizens, which position do you support and why?
How does the position you now claim compare with your definition of service you stated at the beginning of the semester? Has your definition of service changed? Identify specific experiences that have contributed to the change in you.