Service-learning activity usually falls into two categories
Type 1: Teaching/tutoring/sharing knowledge from the class.
Example: Sociology students at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia took part in a service-learning project at a local high school in which they focused “on a specific problem i.e. what to do about preventing teen pregnancies in the schools.” They identified “programs that could most effectively reduce pregnancies in the schools and…designed an optimal strategy for working with the schools in this intervention.” “A by-product of this experience was that students recognized how privileged they are. This made them also feel less ‘entitled’ and more ‘analytical,’ [more inclined] to give something in return.” Regarding the university students’ relationship with the high school students, “It did not necessarily create a sense of hopefulness, but neither did it make them disengage because they experienced the difference that they made by being in the situation.” 2
Type 2: Using information from the class to do something with/for a community organization.
Example: Students in a Community and Modern Metropolis course at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota, “gathered baseline data needed by a neighborhood community development corporation (CDC).” The data and student reports are “being used by the neighborhood developer to assess and monitor the changes that have taken place in two high-rise apartments built by for-profit developers but recently converted to nonprofit, affordable housing under the management of the CDC.” There has been a 20-year relationship between the university and the CDC so it is clear that there is a synergy for both involved. 3
Please contact cce@sonoma.edu for more information.
Elaine Wellin - elaine.wellin@sonoma.edu and Peter Phillips - peter.phillips@sonoma.edu have instructed several service-learning classes and may be willing and able to share advice.
1 Marullo, Sam. "Sociology's Essential Role: Promoting Critical Analysis in Service-Learning." Cultivating Sociological Imagination: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Sociology Eds. James Ostrow, Garry Hesser, and Sandra Enos. Washington D.C.: AAHE, 1999. 11-27. Print.
2 Enos, S. “Service-Research Projects in the Urban School: A Dialogue with Frank Furstenberg, Jr., of the University of Pennsylvania.” Cultivating Sociological Imagination: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Sociology Eds. James Ostrow, Garry Hesser, and Sandra Enos. Washington D.C.: AAHE, 1999. 73-81. Print.
3 Hesser, G. “Examining Communities and Urban Change: Service-Learning as Collaborative Research.” Cultivating the Sociological Imagination: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Sociology. Eds. James Ostrow, Garry Hesser, and Sandra Enos. Washington D.C.: AAHE, 1999. 135-149. Print.