Service Learning Projects and Papers
Learning Community IV
LC IV began the service learning course during the Fall semester when we took field trips into the local community. From these field trips students were expected to observe the community, its needs, issues, and inhabitants. In addition, their observations were connected with the Fall semester's topics of study in the classroom: population, water, food sources, and Florida's environmental balance. Bruce and I connected the first and second semester with a camping trip to Riverwoods, the Kissimee River Reclamation Project, and an Eco-farming experiment. After the camping trip, we modeled a class presentation and reflective writings on the activity using the Web.
At the beginning of the Spring Semester, Susan and I invited USF's Volunteer Coordinator Tracey Dace to speak during class. He made the connection between the University and the community easier by providing several suggestions of ways and places students could volunteer in response to the issues they had identified. Students then made their own volunteer service arrangements in the area of their choice. Each student presented his or her ideas for service to the class members to judge the appropriateness of the service. The class eliminated projects for which workers would receive financial compensation and those which served a private industry. This list of finished projects exemplifies the diversity and success of the Service Learning effort in LC IV.
Carin worked with Parent to Parent, Eldernet, and Camp Challenge. She also collected data on the Riverwoods Camping Trip for the Kissimee Reclamation Project. The most important lesson Carin says she learned was that some people were not comfortable accepting the help she offered, in spite of her good intentions.
Sam Emoto (coming soon)
Sam became involved with Children and Families in Brooksville, Florida, supervising visits of parents and the children who had been separated from them by the courts. He says, "While it is such a cliche to speak about how crucial it is to 'save the children,' I believe it is worth saying as many times as I can . . . that may not mean much to some people, but at least they will have to recognize how much it matters to the people involved."
Sean is an athlete with the USF track team who volunteered to at local Road Races, served on a community service organizational commitee for athletes (SAAC), and became a role model for young athletes in the USF community. He says, "I found that through all the community service projects that I participated in, I was able to grow as a person through each and everyone of them. It was a great learning experience and I am very glad that I registered for the community service course. I know that through just doing this for a semester, some of the connections that I have made, like my Bulls SAAC committee, will carry through until I graduate."
Alex Fitos (coming soon)
Alexandra, whose major is International Studies, worked with the Model United Nations at USF and represented the Bahamas at the Model UN conference in New York City. She was appointed the Under Secretary of General Research and Information of the Model UN. She says, "I learned that things that appear easy in the beginning often end up being the most work. . . . I can now better understand how the world's largest international organization operates and why it takes so long for anything to ever get resolved."
Kim Hanly (coming soon)
Kimberly mentored several young girls through the USF mentoring program. She and Courtenay, who worked together, became quite popular with their young charges, who brought friends and cousins along until Kim and Courtenay were mentoring a small class of six students in the library on Monday afternoons. Kim and Courtenay also delivered Meals on Wheels two times weekly. She says, "People today do not realize how so little can do so much for someone else. The relationships I created through all my hours have left such a mark on me. My thoughts have changed and maybe even my major."
Cornelius, also a member of the USF Track and Field Team, volunteered at local road races to support amateur athletes. He says, "You can see the agony and hurt in a person's eyes when they are tired. When that person has someone on the sidelines that understands the pain the runner is going through, that person encourages the runner to continue with vocal support by cheering; it shows that they care. Cooperation is essential in the success of the road race because one person could never pull it off."
Each week Jon rode a bus across town where he met with a fifth grade student at a local library and mentored him. They "talked things over" a lot. Jon has these insights: "The problem with these programs is that they help the kids that already behave. The kids that need guidance and tutoring and inspiration are left on the streets. Your parents got to get you in the program, and if your parents get you in the program, that means they care for you, so you really don’t even need to be in the program. The kids that don’t have parents who care, should be in the program, but how could they even get in if their parents never bother to enroll them? These programs, all of them that exist, only help those that already are in good hands. Its like leaving the starving hungry, and providing extra food for those who already ate."
Delsherae volunteered hours with the USF Learning Community Assessment Team in developing the participatory method of assessment. The A Team monitors the faculty and students in all USF learning communities, collecting data through observation, surveys, interviews, and writing samples. To culminate her involvement, Delsherae is speaking at the National Conference on Assessment in Higher Education in Denver during June. She observes, "Because of my involvement with the Assessment Team, I have learned to develop my scholarly voice. Being the only student on the Assessment Team, I felt obligated to learn how to develop my articulation and organizational skills. I realized that students play a major role in how the communities are constructed. By being "behind the scenes" of the organizational part of the learning communities I was able to give the student perspective (something that was missing up until this year). I also learned how to be an evaluator and about the evaluation processes. I especially realized that how a question is asked is just as important as the question being asked."
Chris worked on his family farm to implement procedures that positively affected the environment while still making it possible to produce an ample crop: he was maintaining the carrying capacity of the land without destroying its ecological balance. He had to deal with some opposition as he enacted some of his environmental procedures, but he learned and implemented skills of persuasion and cross-cultural discourse. Chris is a man of few words, but he learned to make his words count.
Chris' journal describes his projects in detail.
Matt Stringfellow (coming soon)
Matt worked with some very active children and adolescents at the Boys & Girls Club of Dover, Florida. Matt learned to appreciate the people who make a career out of working with these young people. He reflects, "What I learned was not book smarts, but more of an understanding. I feel that what I learned about people and needs is greater than what one can learn in books. I feel proud that I provided a service. Service for a community is making a difference; taking this course has shown me what that difference is."
Courtenay Tiede (coming soon)
Courtenay worked with Kim to complete sixty hours of volunteer work mentoring and delivering meals-on-wheels. She and Kim became friends with Betty and Lee, two homebound women who looked forward to the meals and company Courtenay and Kim provided. Courtenay says, "I can now see my privileges and how lucky I am just to be mobile and even get up and cook my own dinner, let alone drive whenever and wherever I want. Also, I enjoyed talking to the [older people]. . . . [The advice] was very respectful and I will keep it with me for the rest of my life. I see it as an experienced person caring enough to pass on their life's lessons to me so I will not make the same mistakes, and for that I am grateful."
Carolyn continued dedicating her Friday nights to volunteer service with Mainstream adults who are Mentally and Socially Handicapped (M.A.S.H.) through the YMCA. While the service was not new to her, reflecting on its impact was: "I have never really sat down to write exactly what I get out of participating in this program, until now. I have learned a lot over the past three years that I have [been] doing this. In the past few years that I have participated in these Friday nights I have been complimented on my efforts more than once. My job in this group makes me feel really appreciated, it allows me to take part in something that is a lot of fun and help others in the mean time. I have also learned time management, responsibility, and how to work as a team."
Sterling Wingo (coming soon)
Sterling mentored younger students through the USF Mentoring Program. "It was real interesting just talking to them and getting to know them or their interests. It was almost like reliving my elementary years. It made me happy to see the little kids giggling and gossiping, observing their innocence and different personalities. I would always wonder how their futures would turn out, what they would be doing ten or fifteen years from now. Those kinds of thoughts run through my head because of my personal life experiences I've had these past few years. I've realized what reality and real life is all about . . . But people seem to have a strong minded ideal of this thing called hope."
prepared by Charla Bauer 23 May 1999