Service Learning and Community Outreach Office Blooms This Spring
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on March 21
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and UMass Boston Leaders Inducted into Golden Key Society
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Service
Learning and Community Outreach Office Blooms This Spring
University
Begins Garage Repair
UMass
Boston Statistical Portrait 2000
CEO
Appointed for UMass Online
By Anne-Marie Kent
The “Civic Education for Civic Responsibility” theme received much attention during Convocation and the events surrounding the fall presidential debate, but its practice has long been a reality at UMass Boston, particularly in the form of service learning. Active since 1995, the Service Learning Advisory Committee was formally recognized in 1998 when it was composed of Hubie Jones, special assistant to the chancellor, Professor Ann Withorn, and Jain Ruvidich-Higgins. Two years later, the Office for Service Learning and Community Outreach (OSLCO) was created with Ruvidich-Higgins as coordinator, under the guidance of Dean of Students Stephanie Janey, and Associate Provost Lisa Gonsalves.
Now, OSLCO has office space on the fourth floor of Wheatley Hall. Dwight Giles, a nationally-known figure in the field of service learning, serves as faculty cochair and Ruvidich-Higgins, with the continued assistance of Peachy Meyers, has established a solid resource base on campus. Her goal is to provide faculty, students, and community partners new opportunities for service learning and community outreach.
According to Ruvidich-Higgins, campus-wide service projects organized through OSLCO help raise awareness of community needs, involve members of the UMass Boston campus community, and reinforce the campus connection with local neighborhoods. Last fall, students, faculty, and staff participated in the Helping Hands event, and cleaned up a local park. During the holiday season, OSLCO organized a holiday gift drive with the Hyde Park Department of Social Services for a group of 40 foster children.
While she works to coordinate events like these and assists students involved in Golden Key, the Beacon Leadership Project, and the Project Jumpstart mentoring program, Ruvidich-Higgins also reaches out to faculty interested in incorporating service learning into their courses and to community groups looking for volunteers.
Isolated service events like Helping Hands are very different, says Ruvidich-Higgins, from service learning, which is designed to meet educational objectives as well as community needs. Service learning is a method by which students learn through active participation in thoughtfully organized service experiences that are integrated into the academic curriculum and extend students’ learning beyond the classroom.
It was such an experience that brought VISTA staff member Meyers to UMass Boston and her position in OSLCO. Not long ago, she was a new college student at Vanderbilt University who lamented “the impersonal rhetoric of books and lectures.” While at Vanderbilt, Meyers discovered service learning. She served as a tutor in inner city Detroit and in rural Appalachia, and describes those experiences as transformative and valuable. She explains, “My head works much better when my heart and hands are engaged.” Meyers and Ruvidich-Higgins work to bring this kind of experience to UMass Boston students.
Also formerly of Vanderbilt University, Giles joined the Graduate College of Education faculty this semester and recently coauthored the book, Where is the Learning in Service Learning? In it, he outlines best practices in service learning that lead to optimal outcomes; these include a sustained commitment, active reflection and analysis, and critical integration of the experience into the curriculum. Giles says, “I think service learning is a natural way to engage students in the urban mission of UMass Boston.”
OSLCO offers assistance to faculty interested in exploring service learning in their courses as well as information about volunteer opportunities. Upcoming community outreach events include a series of April mini-forums that continue the “Civic Education for Civic Responsibility” theme and a volunteer fair on April 25 in McCormack Hall. On April 27, OSLCO’s third annual Good Neighbor Day will involve students, staff, and faculty in community service at various sites. For more information, about these events or the resources of OSLCO, please contact the office at 7-7954.