{"id":61938,"date":"2012-03-16T17:09:56","date_gmt":"2012-03-16T17:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/community\/?p=2409"},"modified":"2012-03-16T17:09:56","modified_gmt":"2012-03-16T17:09:56","slug":"connecting-classroom-and-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2012\/03\/16\/connecting-classroom-and-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecting Classroom and Community"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tara Purvis<\/p><\/div>\n

At Wright State University, faculty and students are joining forces in innovative curricula that improve teaching effectiveness by providing hands-on learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cService-learning engages students, faculty, and community members in a partnership to achieve academic learning objectives, meet community needs, and promote civic responsibility for all parties involved,\u201d explained Cathy Sayer, director of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement at Wright State.<\/p>\n

One of the faculty leaders in service-learning courses is Hunt Brown, director of sustainability and senior lecturer in Earth and Environmental Sciences. The devastation left after Hurricane Katrina provided the backdrop for his first service-learning course, titled \u201cWorking Toward Sustainability.\u201d The 2007 Honors intersession course dealt with sustainability issues as they related to post-Katrina cleanup in New Orleans and culminated with a trip to the ravaged area. Brown and his students put attic insulation into homes\u00a0that survived Katrina in the hard-hit Lower Ninth Ward. The experience was life changing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe service-learning activities in New Orleans had a major impact on everyone, the faculty member and students alike,\u201d Brown said. He shared these student reflections:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have, as an academic and spiritual exercise, imagined ourselves in their shoes, imagined what they must be feeling through all of this, tried to understand what our help might mean to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Holy Cross neighborhood was the epitome of courage and strength in hard times. I can honestly say that this trip was a trip that I will remember for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

This spring break, a group of Honors students and freshmen will travel to New Orleans as part of a course titled \u201cRebuilding New Orleans\/Campus Community Connections.\u201d The class, taught by Brittany Boyne, Dayton projects coordinator for Ohio\u2019s STEM Ability Alliance in the College of Science and Mathematics, and Galen Crawford, student activities graduate assistant for programming and community service, examines the Hurricane Katrina tragedy as highlighted in the 2011\u201312 Wright State Common Text, Zeitoun<\/em>. The social justice studies will give students a hands-on experience of helping to physically and emotionally rebuild a city.<\/p>\n

Brown also has incorporated a trip to Appalachia into a service-learning course that he co-teaches with Sarah Twill, Ph.D., associate professor of social work. Since 2010, students in the Honors course \u201cEnvironmental and Social Sustainability in Appalachia\u201d have spent their spring breaks participating in service projects in rural Appalachian communities near Athens, Ohio.<\/p>\n

The course introduces students to the environmental, social, and economic challenges affecting the people of Appalachia. They partnered with Good Works, a social service organization in Athens, which helped coordinate the group\u2019s activities with other community partners.<\/p>\n

Students assisted low- and fixed-income seniors and people with disabilities with home improvement and repairs. While visiting with the homeowners, students learned their personal stories and family histories. Another activity involved working with the Monday Creek Restoration Project, an organization seeking to reduce the impacts of acid mine drainage on area waterways.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trip was interesting because it had us interacting with a variety of people, helping out with various needs, and just immersing us into the Appalachian way of life,\u201d remembered Christian Cone-Lombarte, a senior Mechanical Engineering major who went on the 2011 trip.<\/p>\n

Twill and Brown believe that integration of classroom work and service-learning, using a multidisciplinary approach, leads to a deeper understanding of complex issues. \u201cWe rotate the students so that they have both environmental and social service experiences,\u201d Twill explained. Brown added, \u201cWe want them to truly experience the interdisciplinary nature of the problems they are addressing.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Brown, developing an affinity for the Appalachian people was one of the greatest benefits of the trips. \u201cWe want our students to understand the people in Appalachia the best they can in the short period that they are down there,\u201d he said. Through service-learning, he noted, \u201cYou learn their stories, and the social, economic, and environmental challenges they face.\u201d Both he and Twill believe that this familiarity breaks down stereotypes, builds empathy and trust, and inspires students to become more involved citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re teaching with service-learning, the students bring what they\u2019re experiencing into the classroom,\u201d Sayer pointed out. \u201cThey tell you their stories. They tell you what they are learning from it right then.\u201d Understanding the social issues surrounding the problems that community partners are trying to solve enhances these experiences.<\/p>\n

Service-learning experiences help students develop important skills, such as problem solving, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration, Sayer added. It often helps them decide what major is right for them. Community members tell Sayer that they value the energy and vitality that service-learners bring to their organizations. \u201cWe have to get students out there in the community and let them see the assets, problems, and issues for themselves,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

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Jonathan Blaza. Photo by Christian Cone-Lombarte<\/p><\/div>\n

Tara Purvis, Wright State\u2019s first student to earn the Citizen Scholar Certificate, was just such a student. \u201cThe most impactful aspect of my education at Wright State was the service-learning opportunity at Westwood School,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re one on one with a student, you truly see their needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her capstone project, Purvis focused on troubled youth, evaluating a gardening project at Miami Valley Juvenile Rehabilitation Center. After graduating with a bachelor\u2019s in social work, she was hired as the service-learning and civic engagement coordinator for youth and literacy programs at the university. Today she is the liaison with Westwood PreK\u20138 School in Dayton, where over 200 Wright State students tutor and volunteer annually.<\/p>\n

Service-learning projects across campus are helping to solve problems. A public relations class provided research for Energize Clinton County after DHL, the area\u2019s major employer closed, eliminating 8,000 jobs. While working on her Master of Public Administration degree, Lindsey Jarvis interned with East End Community Services. Her service-learning capstone project was instrumental in getting a grant that helped create Dayton Works Plus, a deconstruction and job training program. She is now a program coordinator with East End Community Services.<\/p>\n

\u201cService-learning really addresses all aspects of Wright State\u2019s mission statement to transform the lives of our students and the communities we serve,\u201d Sayer concluded. \u201cWe are truly changing lives through our innovative instruction, our research, and our community service.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Wright State University, faculty and students are joining forces in innovative curricula that improve teaching effectiveness by providing hands-on learning. \u201cService-learning engages students, faculty, and community members in a partnership to achieve academic learning objectives, meet community needs, and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":60150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4827,715],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}