{"id":4457,"date":"2016-09-16T09:24:10","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T13:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/?p=4457"},"modified":"2016-09-16T09:29:32","modified_gmt":"2016-09-16T13:29:32","slug":"service-learning-students-putting-community-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/2016\/service-learning-students-putting-community-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Service learning for students – putting the community first!"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Stephen Hill<\/a>, Academic Co-lead, Student Pathways for Community Impact<\/a> Working Group<\/em><\/p>\n

\"AAs the last of summer dwindles away, university and college professors begin one of their busiest times of year: starting new courses, organizing assignments, labs, seminars and teaching materials, and getting to know students. It\u2019s a wonderful kind of busy, but busy it is.<\/p>\n

For the past six or seven years, I\u2019ve kick started my fall with a series of service learning opportunities for students in our first year environmental science and studies course. It\u2019s a large course – over 300 students – with the vast majority of students being from outside of Peterborough and not knowing much about the community. As part of the first assignment<\/a>, students have the opportunity to serve as volunteers for the Haliburton-Muskoka-Kawartha Children\u2019s Water Festival<\/a>, Transition Town Peterborough\u2019s Purple Onion Festival<\/a>, the Trent Market Garden<\/a>, or with bike survey organized by Peterborough GreenUp<\/a> and the City of Peterborough<\/a>. Students are asked to write a reflective and critical piece afterward.<\/p>\n

\"ANC

Peterborough GreenUp project participants hard at work processing data.\u00a0\u00a9Elizabeth Thipphawong<\/p><\/div>\n

The partnerships have emerged organically over the years with different partners gradually joining the mix. The upshot is that over 250 students now have the opportunity to learn about and work with the community in their first month of university. This is so important for building student engagement in the course and with the material. Most importantly from the CFICE perspective, the community partners absolutely depend on the students in their projects.<\/p>\n

\"CloseBut, here\u2019s the thing. Scratch a bit below the surface and what seems like a great venture is, in reality, a huge amount of work during the busiest time of year. I\u2019d be lying if I said there weren\u2019t days that I regret ever agreeing to \u201csee if some students would be interested in helping.\u201d Organizing the logistics of assigning students to volunteer opportunities, insurance waivers, health and safety training, transportation, dealing with colleagues whose classes the students miss to volunteer, trying to ensure our community partners have students that can help, and figuring out some academic rationale for this all is sometimes overwhelming. Added to this mix are the regular challenges that first year students are facing when transitioning to a new setting and the hundreds of emails that circulate in any large course. I feel less like a hard-working teacher and more like a sucker for punishment.<\/p>\n

But I do this work because I think it\u2019s important. I know it\u2019s crucially important for our community partners and I like to think it\u2019s important for the students. The partnerships aren\u2019t perfect and, to be honest, I\u2019ve always been flying by the seat of my pants with these projects. I didn\u2019t even know that \u201cservice learning\u201d was a thing until my friends at the Trent Community Research Centre<\/a> told me about it. There\u2019s certainly no master plan here.<\/p>\n

\"PortraitBut now, with the CFICE project, I hope that part of our work on the Student Pathways working group will be to better understand how this type of service learning might fit within a broader curriculum pathway. It might tell us how these students\u2019 service learning experiences prepare them for more complex community-campus engagement. Or maybe there are other more important things that we should be doing to set our students on a path to be successful partners in community-based research. Either way, I\u2019m excited to find out\u2026I guess I really do love September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Stephen Hill, Academic Co-lead, Student Pathways for Community Impact Working Group As the last of summer dwindles away, university and college professors begin one of their busiest times of year: starting new courses, organizing assignments, labs, seminars and teaching materials, and getting to know students. It\u2019s a wonderful kind of busy, but busy it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,605],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nService learning for students - putting the community first! - Community First<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With the CFICE project, I hope that our work on Student Pathways will help us understand how service learning might fit within a broader curriculum pathway.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/2016\/service-learning-students-putting-community-first\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"nicolebedford\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/2016\/service-learning-students-putting-community-first\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/2016\/service-learning-students-putting-community-first\/\",\"name\":\"Service learning for students - putting the community first! - Community First\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-09-16T13:24:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-16T13:29:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/#\/schema\/person\/85055666197bbcf792acfba9c5266ec5\"},\"description\":\"With the CFICE project, I hope that our work on Student Pathways will help us understand how service learning might fit within a broader curriculum pathway.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/2016\/service-learning-students-putting-community-first\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/2016\/service-learning-students-putting-community-first\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/2016\/service-learning-students-putting-community-first\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/category\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Service learning for students – putting the community first!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/\",\"name\":\"Community First\",\"description\":\"ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/#\/schema\/person\/85055666197bbcf792acfba9c5266ec5\",\"name\":\"nicolebedford\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b5888506b08959924d70a72c952dbde?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b5888506b08959924d70a72c952dbde?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"nicolebedford\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Service learning for students - putting the community first! - Community First","description":"With the CFICE project, I hope that our work on Student Pathways will help us understand how service learning might fit within a broader curriculum pathway.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/2016\/service-learning-students-putting-community-first\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"nicolebedford","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/2016\/service-learning-students-putting-community-first\/","url":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/2016\/service-learning-students-putting-community-first\/","name":"Service learning for students - putting the community first! - Community First","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-09-16T13:24:10+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-16T13:29:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/#\/schema\/person\/85055666197bbcf792acfba9c5266ec5"},"description":"With the CFICE project, I hope that our work on Student Pathways will help us understand how service learning might fit within a broader curriculum pathway.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/2016\/service-learning-students-putting-community-first\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/2016\/service-learning-students-putting-community-first\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/2016\/service-learning-students-putting-community-first\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/category\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Service learning for students – putting the community first!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/#website","url":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/","name":"Community First","description":"ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/#\/schema\/person\/85055666197bbcf792acfba9c5266ec5","name":"nicolebedford","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b5888506b08959924d70a72c952dbde?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b5888506b08959924d70a72c952dbde?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"nicolebedford"}}]}},"acf":{"Post Thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4457"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4473,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4457\/revisions\/4473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}