Running head: ELPS 430 CASE STUDY 2: Service-Learning Programs

ELPS 430 Case Study 2: Service-Learning Programs

Grace Montero

Loyola University Chicago

ELPS 430 CASE STUDY 2: Service-Learning Programs 2

Introduction

Due to an interest in exploring how different service-learning looks across college

campuses, I selected universities that vary in geographic location, undergraduate size, private or

public, research institutions, and even faith-based institutions. This analysis and reflection of five

service-learning programs. In part one, I will synthesize and summarize the five institutions I

analyzed based on the information gathering from their perspective websites. In part two, I will

explore the ways in which programs are similar and different, and highlight any trends or

patterns identified. In part three, I will pinpoint where I can locate elements of high-impact

learning given the scholarly readings that clearly outline different ways programs create good

practices for experiential service-learning. This analysis will conclude with my reflection on the

information missing that would have helped further assess how impactful programs are with

students.

Part 1

Seattle University is a Jesuit Catholic university located in the First Hill neighborhood of

Seattle, Washington. Seattle University's Global Engagement has three program directors

operating within, one from Education Abroad Office, the second is from International

Developmental Internship Program, and the third is from English Language Learning Center.

The Seattle University website highlights the Global Engagement initiatives that are described as

experiential learning. The three initiatives are the Africa Initiative, Asia Initiative, and Nicaragua

Initiative. These three sights each have a video that guides viewers through testimonials of the

work that is being done to improve the lives of people within the communities. Most of the

students belong to certain disciplines of engineering. I chose to focus on the experiential learning

described in the Africa Initiative. I had difficulty identifying specific learning outcomes for
ELPS 430 CASE STUDY 2: Service-Learning Programs 3

Global Engagement. However, the study abroad section within Global Engagement listed

specific goals. It promotes meaningful study abroad and global immersion experiences with

diverse cultures which: Foster intellectual and personal growth; develop life-long leadership

skills; advance your global perspectivea deep sense of the interconnectedness of people, ideas

and challenges; enhance your foreign language proficiency; support reflection on and exploration

of your relationships with humanity, nature and spirituality in the Jesuit-Catholic intellectual

tradition. Assuming that these goals apply to all areas within global engagement, The Africa

Initiative video highlighted a team of Seattle University students and faculty who built a Micro-

grid system for a Wind and Solar farm at Muhuru Bay in rural Kenya. This project provided

electricity generation together with portable batteries and lighting to the area for the first time.

Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university

also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region

and internationally. Theres 23,684 (Kent Campus, 2016); 34,260 (all campuses, 2016)

undergraduates attending KSU. Students have three ways to fulfill the Experiential Learning

Requirement: Designated Course, Non-course Activity, and Plus-1 Credit Course.

For the Plus-1 Credit Course, KSU requires students to fill out a proposal contract in order to get

one credit added to any course they are enrolling in, under the Experimental and Integrative

Studies Program. The proposal must be approved by the supervising faculty and the Office of

Experiential Education and Civic Engagement (OEECE). I will be focusing specifically on how

students take steps towards the Plus-1 Credit Option since the website has the most information

available on this option. The online proposal form asks students to devote a minimum of 45

hours of work during the semester in the contract. At least 30 of these hours must be on-site at

the agency/organization. The remainder can be devoted to reading, writing, or conference time
ELPS 430 CASE STUDY 2: Service-Learning Programs 4

which will result in a finished product. The finished product may be completed through a student

journal, portfolio, formal writing assignment, assigned readings, a class presentation, or a

combination of any of these. The work must be reviewed and assessed by the collaborating

faculty member for a letter grade (which is separate from the letter grade for the course to which

it is attached). The instructor has no obligation to agree to supervise this additional work beyond

the normal load for the course. The form asks students to determine which of three categories of

experiential learning their proposal would fit into; engaged learning service/action done on

behalf of other and taking place in various segments of community (e.g. volunteering,

community-based learning, practicums/internships), engaged service-learning course

instruction and reflection providing direct/indirect service to forward mission or goals of an

organization (e.g. project-based service-learning, student teaching, clinical, capstone), engaged

service scholarship community-based information gathering and critical analysis to address

local initiatives (e.g. undergraduate research, capstone research-based project, thesis). The KSU

website further provides an informative chart of all the course-based experiential learning

opportunities available, and outlines the name of over 150 different community partners, the

social justice issue involved, the mission, description/needs, and website information from the

partner. This Plus1 Credit Course opportunities list is next to another group of lists regarding

internships.

University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) is a public four-year college located in Sitka and

Ketchikan. UAS social science faculty continually develop additional opportunities for students

to match their interests. The opportunities are divided between long-term and short-term. The

long-term hands-on experiences come from the University of Alaska Legislative Internship

Program, now in its 30th year, enables qualified students from the University of Alaska
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Anchorage (UAA), the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), and the University of Alaska

Southeast (UAS), to obtain course credits while working in the Alaska Legislature. Alaska

legislative interns work full-time in the Alaska State Legislature in Juneau, placed in the office of

one State Senator or Representative. Students participate in an academic program that combines

classroom time and rigorous, guided research. The program is worth a total of twelve credits, and

provides students with a small stipend. The full-time Internship Program requiring students to

work in their Legislative Office each weekday means interns must be available to work in their

legislative office on a more or less full-time basis. This means that they cannot have a part-time

job during the day Monday - Friday. Students not working full-time in their legislative office or

not working five days per week will discontinue the Program. Students can have a part-time job

during the evenings or on weekends; though this is strongly discouraged. Students are limited to

taking three additional credits for the semester in addition to the 12 for the Internship Program.

However, students are discouraged from taking additional credits besides those for the Internship

Program, due to intensity of the full-time practical placement in the legislature and the

demanding academic requirements for a strong letter grade. The focus point for this experiential

learning will be the long-term, rather that the numerous short-term sites which have less specifics

displayed on the website.

Georgetown University (GU)is a private research university in Washington, D.C. which

houses the Office of Community Engagement. Within, there is a list of Community Partnerships,

Government and Civic Partnerships, Faculty& Staff Volunteer Programs, Georgetown

Community Partnerships, and Neighborhood Events & Resources. This case study will focus on

the examining the newest initiative introduced by the new Beeck Center for Social Impact and

Innovation. The GU website states that it is organized with experiential learning in building
ELPS 430 CASE STUDY 2: Service-Learning Programs 6

organizations to tackle real problems. The community-based learning opportunities connected to

the Center for Social Justice are another example. The goal would be more formal integration of

such experiences into many programs, tailored to the scholarly goals of the faculty. This

language suggests that GU is making a bigger effort to centralize and streamline how all the

different community partnerships are unifying towards the same goal. Currently, each general

subsection varies in terms of how students experience service-learning at the different sites.

There are no clear learning outcomes for any of the specific programs. However, GU does

collect data from the community partnership in order to produce annual reports it posts to their

website. In GUs 2015 Community Engagement Report, it states that approximately 1,200

students worked in the community each semester through the Center for Social Justice while 400

undergraduates took one of 16 community-based learning courses that included engaging with a

community organization. It also highlights community-based research, outreach, and education

on a range of critical social issues, such as reducing health disparities, early childhood

development, driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants, philanthropy, juvenile justice, and

climate change, just to name a few.

Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university in New Orleans,

Louisiana. It houses the Experiential Education and Leadership Institute, which engages civically

minded nonprofit, healthcare, governmental, school-based, business, neighborhood and faith-

based professionals (Institute Fellows) with scholars and researchers. This program intends to

increase the communitys capacity to address complex social problems through experiential

education partnerships. This program aligns with New Orleans greatest needs and Tulanes most

prominent partnership efforts. It is a sequence of day-long explorations where participants and

scholars will delve deep into complex social problems persisting in New Orleans. This form of
ELPS 430 CASE STUDY 2: Service-Learning Programs 7

experiential learning does go into greater detail when listing institute objectives such as: gain

knowledge on the topics covered during the institute, develop critical analytical skills to assess

and address todays complex social problems, promote collaboration amongst all participants,

strengthen civic engagement skills as a means to support communities, and deepen

understanding of issues to advance place-based civic leadership. The website proceeds to list the

student outcomes of fellows who will have the opportunity to: engage in a supportive learning

community in which personal and professional experiences are honored and challenging

questions are explored, meet with research, local government, business and non-profit leaders,

network and collaborate in a small group setting, support and engage with the New Orleans

community, envision and strategize how best to shape the future of our community, expand

leadership capacity for personal benefit and for the benefit of our community. They do not list

specific criteria used to establish community partnerships, and instead focus on describing the

application process to participate in this experience and the cost associated.

Part 2

One similarity between all five institutions is that they use similar sounding language of

experiential learning differently and often interchangeably. Of the five intuitions I examined,

whether private or public, religiously affiliated or not, and varying in geographic location, it was

only KSU that placed a lot of detailed information on their website about the three paths students

have to engage with their community through experiential. When closely examining the Plus1

Credit Course option, KSUs proposal form alone described the distinct differences between its

three different levels of engagement and it provides examples of all three. It explicitly names

service-learning as well, and organized these in a sequential way that gradually increased the

level of involvement based on the students expected skill set and ability to contribute. Because
ELPS 430 CASE STUDY 2: Service-Learning Programs 8

of the amount of intentional framing of the course and the experiential component, these appears

to be one of the more highly integrated structures of service-learning from what information I am

able to gather from the website.

Additionally, SU one of the majority of these institutions that made an effort to include

international experience for this kind of engaged learning. Their videos talk about the benefits to

interacting with people in other countries who are not afforded certain privileges like electricity

or clean drinking water. The students and faculty members work closely together to make a

meaningful experience, however, it is unclear where the integrated learning comes from faculty

are received by students. The outcomes are not listed on the websites for these forms of

experiential learning. They discuss being immersed in an experience, but do not talk about the

ways in which they learn from the community, and not just work to improve one long-standing

issue within the community.

One sharp contrast is that not all programs highlight their purposeful inclusion of writing

and reflective activities to produce high-impact learning. According to Jayne Brownell and Lynn

Swaner (2010), successful high impact learning practices include opportunities for structured

reflection which KSU named in their Plus1 Credit Course proposal form. They list several key

components of successful high-impact learning and only some of the institutions I reviewed held

certain specific elements. Aside from KSU, the other four institutions mention program oversight

from faculty, but leave out mentorship, which is another tool for high impact learning. Only SU

and UAS state that the program for this form of experiential learning was created collaboratively

between students and faculty. However, none of the institutions describe what the process was

like when creating these kinds of experiential learning programs. There is no way of knowing
ELPS 430 CASE STUDY 2: Service-Learning Programs 9

from the websites if these programs were first structured around learning goals, before finding a

site that would allow for this kind of cross collaboration.

All five institutions vary in their description of how they go about evaluating and

assessing that students experienced significant high-impact learning. If you look at GU, they

provide annual reports that help quantify how many students were involved, and it vaguely

describe the work that was accomplished. However, other institutions publish zero public reports

or projects that were achieved by students independently or collectively. Of all the institutions

KSU makes an effort to at least explain what some outcomes can be, and gives examples of

capstone project or undergraduate research experiences that serve as a way for students to work

towards a goal that encapsulates their experience. These examples of bi-products from

experiential learning help ensure that there are elements of high-impact learning achieved, while

also balancing a level of ambiguity to allow for service-learning impacts to vary.

Part 3

Kolb (1984) stated that, learning is the major process of human adaption (p.32). Across

all five institutions this is clear, because students are encouraged to immerse themselves in new

and most likely unfamiliar territory. However, the way institutions do this varies, but ultimately

students gain knowledge [that] is the result of the transaction between social knowledge and

personal knowledge (Kolb, p.36). Christine Cress (2005) would argue that it is critical that

service-learning courses implement some level of self-reflection. She believes learning through

reflecting on experience is at the center of service-learning courses (p.8). KSU and GU both

mention reflection in at least one area of their engaged learning. What is unclear is if and how

students might be measured for reflecting at GU, or through a project-based goal that students

worked towards either independently or collectively. KSU acknowledges that reflection is an

ELPS 430 CASE STUDY 2: Service-Learning Programs 10

example of how an institution can imbed this expectation in the Plus1 Credit Course, so that all

students are aware. Cress would also be pleased to see that most of the five institutions

understand the importance and value in hyphenating the term service-learning. Only Tulane

University is inconsistent throughout their website about how these two interdependent facets

can create this kind of enriching experience.

Andrew Furco (1996) stated, the typography of is helpful not only in establishing

criteria for distinguishing service-learning from other types of service programs but also in

providing a basis of for clarifying distinctions. Of the five programs analyzed, KSU mentions

service-learning and listed examples of it. Making this distinction demonstrates the high level of

thought that goes into planning these programs. It also highlights a clear different between how

KSU described service-learning, and how GU describes forms of volunteering at service-

learning. Although students engaging at either university are not being paid for their work, the

depth show in KSU indicates that simply volunteering without incorporating what was learned is

not how the university views service-learning. It shows a level of student engagement that

requires students to apply their new knowledge to whichever project they work on. It is a subtle

yet important distinction here.

Jeffrey Howard (1993) wrote Principles of Good Practice for Service-Learning

Pedagogy, which lists several components of ideal service-learning that create high-impact hands

on student engagement. It appears that Howard would be critical of KSU for offering academic

credit for the service-learning experience of students because it does not explain in depth how

KSU faculty grade exactly. Howard clearly states that there should be no academic credit granted

if the basis of the grade is determinant on assessing the quality of the work done by the student

for the intended community. Howard believes purposeful civic engagement would be best done
ELPS 430 CASE STUDY 2: Service-Learning Programs 11

with clear learning outcomes as well, which not all of the institutions did through their website. It

would have been helpful information to know if there would be more information available by

contacting a specific person.

Through this analysis, I was able to see how the institutions I selected are very different

from one another. Yet they all share at least one of the many core components of significant

learning that is encouraged in high impact service-learning experiences. Due to my involvement

in other classes, such as critical social theory, and organization and governance, I have been

evaluating the layout of each institution. Paying specific attention to what language is used, and

whether or not these service-learning experiences are centers or general programs offered if a

student shows interest. It has been most interesting to see how some universities like KSU may

even make some form of experiential learning a core requirement for undergraduates. Although

none of the five approaches to advertising their service learning trips has led to naming specific

pedagogies used as frames of reference, it was only the religiously-affiliated institutions that hint

at it on other more general ways, not directly on the web page of service learning. This made me

reflect on how critical race theory informs my understanding of institutional of whiteness, given

that these programs are not seen, or at least promoted online, from HBCUs or HSIs. It is possible

that service at these institutions still do exist, but they are promoted or expected to happen

without the intention of immersing students in diverse environments. This analysis showed me

that there may diff educational byproduct and outcomes from the experiential learning and

communities invested in service-learning across the country.

ELPS 430 CASE STUDY 2: Service-Learning Programs 12

References

Seattle University
https://www.seattleu.edu/global/

Kent State University

https://www.kent.edu/tags/office-experiential-education-and-civic-engagement

University of Alaska Southeast

http://www.uas.alaska.edu/arts_sciences/socsci/experiential.html

George Town University

https://communityengagement.georgetown.edu/community-partnerships

Tulane University
https://www2.tulane.edu/cps/community/experiential-education-and-leadership-institute.cfm