Learning Through Serving

The following information has been provided by Yalem Teshome, Prof. Practice, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources during CTT's Spring 2020 Teaching Learning Symposium.

Overview:

In this course, we will collaborate with a local non-profit organization. This organization is well known in the community for serving a large number of low-income individuals, including refugee families, elderly, single parents, people with disabilities, etc. The organization offers various forms of assistance for all age groups (e.g., food, clothing, toys, language-training for refugees, etc.). As a result, the management of the organization would like to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of its services. It wishes to partner with our course to undertake this evaluation. The class will help update and improve a previous survey used by the organization.   

The course uses multilayer forms of engagement; and, it is centered on learning through serving and meeting community needs. First, students will participate as volunteers (for a couple of weeks) during food distribution hours. Second, with assistance from a survey specialist, students will participate in the process of developing and conducting a survey. Specifically, students will be involved in pre-testing; focus groups; administering the questionnaire; as well as analyzing and presenting the findings. While the first presentation will be to the agency, students will give a similar presentation in class to a few invited guests including people from the agency.

There are several objectives for this course. These include: 

  1. Enhance students’ learning through problem-solving. 
  2. Develop skills in gathering data, analyzing, and evaluating the community problems drawing knowledge from concepts and theories presented in class. 
  3. Increase students’ cultural awareness and attitude by working with diverse groups off-campus. 
  4. Develop professional and personal growth through interaction with peers and off-campus community members. 
  5. Cultivate reflection on preconceived ideas about people in poverty. 
  6. Develop confidence through a feeling (or belief)  of making a difference. 

Implementation:

  1. Envision the course you want to offer. 
  2. Define the scope and your limitations (time and money are big factors). 
  3. Identify the organizations you want to collaborate with. 
  4. Contact the organizations and request a meeting. 
  5. The project determination must be identified with and by the organization. 
  6. Now, you are ready to plan your service-learning syllabus. 
  7. You might want to identify collaborators on campus (e.g., survey experts or other skills). 
  8. More meetings are necessary with the community organization. 
  9. All your plans in the course need to be discussed with the organization.   
  10. A consent form should be part of building trust with the agency. 

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