Two for the price of one: combining learning with community service
A liberal arts education is not just about classroom learning; it also is about integrating academics with learning outside the classroom to develop the whole person and make better citizens. To make sure this happens, all 17 of the Minnesota Private College Council member campuses incorporate “service learning” activities into curricula combining academics with community service.
At Bethel University, as part of the Understanding Diversity course that all education majors take, students participate in the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) tutoring program in St. Paul Public Schools. AVID helps prepare students from the “academic middle” — many of whom are either from first-generation or underrepresented racial or ethnic families — for enrollment in four-year colleges.
For many of Bethel’s white students, this is their first direct experience working with people from other ethnic communities. They work with groups of high school students who plan to attend college — serving as their tutors, coaches and role models. "It's huge for students to have a place where people think of them as ‘college-bound,’” says Bethel junior Nathan Elliot. The Bethel students cover assigned material, but they are also responsible for getting the high school students to work together and see each other as resources. "It's a shared learning experience," says Bethel student Greta Johnson, "it's very collaborative and we both benefit."
Professor Robin Hasslen, who teaches Understanding Diversity, believes it is essential that future educators spend time in the field working with diverse classrooms. The one-to-one interaction offered by AVID is a great initial entry, according to Hasslen. “Our Bethel students form relationships with the AVID students, thereby engaging in the type of experiential education which changes lives, is reciprocal and beneficial for all participants, and cannot be acquired through college coursework or textbooks.”
Service learning is very much encouraged at Bethel for its experience-broadening benefits, say Elliott and Johnson. They credit their AVID experience with showing them how as teachers they can effect social change. "I've learned that it's not just what you teach, but how. We have to be a positive role model, build relationships with students and treat everyone like they have the same capacity [for learning and success]," says Johnson. Bethel participant Anna Jean Sullivan adds, "For the first time, we've had a proactive diversity education."
Macalester faculty participated in a faculty development seminar on community-based learning
At Macalester College, service to society is an integral part of the school’s mission. This focus is evident in its multifaceted Lake Street Global Borderland project with the Minnesota Historical Society and several partners from the Lake Street area in Minneapolis. During the past three semesters, 12 Macalester classes from a wide range of departments have participated in projects to document and tell the community’s history. The Lake Street corridor is one of the most racially, ethnically and economically diverse areas of the Twin Cities and includes many immigrant and refugee communities. The work will culminate in a major historical exhibition, “Lake Street Intersections,” which will open in fall 2007 at the Minnesota History Center.
Students have been involved in the project in many ways, depending on which course they took. Laura Zeccardi, as part of the course “Public History: Making History Matter Beyond the Academy,” is researching the story of the Sears Building site and its transformation into the Midtown Global Market. She interviewed former Sears employees and neighborhood residents to get a better sense of the impact of the site. “People have many memories around Sears and when I interviewed them, they realized that their stories and history fit in a larger context.” Zeccardi says that the positive focus of this project has meant a lot to residents who’ve so often seen the Lake Street area portrayed in negative terms. She also says that delving into pubic history for the first time has been a real learning experience. “Using the History Center for primary research, learning how to do oral history and putting together an exhibit has been really great.”
Zeccardi will graduate in the spring with a double major in history and music and is already applying for graduate school in public history. “I enjoy looking at history, not just from books, but by bringing in the people who were involved.”
Other Global Borderland projects have included:
- Each student in “Women and Politics” created a display on one woman’s life story; the displays were exhibited at the Blue Moon Coffee Café.
- Students in “Frames and Methods in Performance Studies” created and performed a dance and drama at Patrick’s Cabaret based on community stories they researched.
- Students in “Consumer Nation” researched and created displays about stores and businesses along Lake Street and “Latino Politics” students researched how the recent Latino immigration to Minneapolis has transformed the street. Work from both classes was on exhibit at the Resource Center of the Americas.
When a service learning experience works well, students gain new knowledge, develop practical skills and begin to understand civic responsibility — and the community reaps the benefits of access to and relationships with academic institutions.