Students collect credits, contribute to area communities
by Diana DeLeon, reporter

    (Part one in a three-part series on service learning)

   The community college experience is unique in that the students truly have a closer connection to the community because they live, work and attend school right in their own back yard.

   Service learning is a program that connects students to the community through active volunteer work that enhances the classroom instruction.

   Students practice and develop skills learned in the classroom and apply these skills to real-world situations.

   Service Learning on SE and NE campuses is on different levels.

   “There are great opportunities out there,” Joan Sullivan, service learning director on SE Campus, said.

   But what is service learning, and how does it help the student?

   The Alliance for Service Learning in Education Reform (ASLER) defines service learning as a method by which young people learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service experiences that meet actual community needs and are coordinated in collaboration with the school and community.

   The definition says that the experience should be integrated into the student’s academic curriculum and provide structured time for the student to think, talk and write about what he or she saw and did during the actual service activity.

   The service learning experience should provide students the opportunities to use newly acquired academic skills and knowledge in real-life situations in their own communities and enhance what is taught in the school by extending student learning beyond the classroom.

   A service learning experience should foster the development of a sense of caring for others.

   “Service learning is campus to the community,” Sullivan said.

   Service learning is volunteer work that gives the student extra credit and real-world experience.

   The student service work is designed around the classroom course work, which makes service learning different from community service or just volunteer work.

   The first federal legislation which supported service learning, passed in 1990, created a federal commission to award grants to service learning programs.

   The National Community Service Trust Act of 1993 expanded the federal role and provided funds for every state to incorporate service learning into schools.

   The SE Campus received its grant more than a year ago and employs a director and a staff to handle all paperwork involved in the program.

   NE Campus has the paperwork necessary to apply for the grant and has implemented the program, relying on the instructors involved to handle the paperwork.

   Students must complete registration forms, and instructors must keep track of actual student hours worked.

   NE Campus has a committee working to bring the program to the campus in a more structured way, Larry Darlage, NE president and committee chairman, said.

   “One of the committee’s goals is to pull it all together and get coordinated,” he said.

   The committee has gotten advice from other colleges, including Brookhaven and Richland, both of which already have great service learning programs, Darlage said.

   “I have had an interest in service learning for many years,” he said. “That is why I am so involved.”

   The NE Campus is looking to the American Association of Community Colleges for small grants to be used for start-up costs.

   Right now the costs are picked up by the individual departments.

   For example, if an instructor of sociology gives his students a service learning option, the cost of the paperwork involved would be paid by that department, and the department head must approve it.

   Only at certain times are applications for grants awarded.

   “We have a window of time to get all paperwork involved together,” he said.

   Eventually other larger grants will be applied for, and they will become part of the regular operating budget, Darlage said.

   Lori Jowell, assistant professor of sociology and service learning committee member said NE does not have the funds or a person to run it now.

   “We would like to have a service learning office and facilitator so any instructor interested but without the time to manage it can just send his student to the office and know that everything will be handled.

   Jowell said the group plans a database of agencies that faculty likes to work with.

   “The goal is to have a service learning curriculum and everyone connected,” she said.

   After NE gets a grant and a person to run the service learning program, every department will have a service learning component, Jowell said.

   SE Campus offers orientations at the beginning of the semester.

   Sullivan stresses the student’s responsibility when out in the community.

   “Students are a reflection on this campus, on Tarrant County College,” she said.

   Career and employment services has books with hundreds of listings of non-profit organizations are available to help students choose their service carefully.

   Many organizations need short-term help throughout the year while others require a long-term commitment. Some organizations require their own orientation or training, Sullivan said.

   “Students should choose their organizations wisely,” she said. “You cannot wait until the last minute.”

   In order to get the most out of the service learning experience, a student must give some thought to what he or she would like to do to enhance his or her classroom work.

   When students report to their chosen organization, they do not want to be assigned to sweep the floors or unload trucks because that does not help them academically.

   The NE Campus has no formal orientations in place now. Each instructor handles the details and paperwork involved.

   Instructors on both campuses involved in the program determine the hours required from students and the structure.

   Hours range from 10 to 50 over the course of the semester, and reflection on the experience can be an oral presentation or a written paper on what the student saw and did.

   Each instructor also determines the credit students receive for the service learning experience. This varies from extra credit on the final semester grade to credit where needed to make a better grade.

   "A goal is to have the service learning credit show up on a student’s transcript,” Jowell said. “It might give that student an edge when applying to four-year colleges.”

  Students on the SE Campus who are interested in the service learning program can contact Sullivan in career and employment services at 817-515-3592.

  NE students can ask their instructors if they are involved in the service learning program.

  Instructors on both campuses handle the service learning program differently; some allow students to choose the organization while other instructors choose the non-profit themselves.