Final Reflection Paper Choosing a project to pursue at the beginning of this course was not as difficult as I expected it would be. Each and every project presented by the various organizations deserved to be chosen, but there was something that stuck out to me when I heard the Bigs in Blue presentation. This project would benefit law enforcement as well as children – both of which I personally find important in community life. Our hope in pursuing this project, later modified to Bigs with Badges to include all departments, was to match first responders with children waiting to be matched with a lifelong mentor through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ellis County. With the negativity directed towards police officers and other first …show more content…
Jenny and the other girls at Big Brothers have given us many compliments and are very appreciative about everything we have done. Even though it wasn’t as much as we had hoped, we did more than they expected from us and are very grateful for our help. Service-learning is the act of serving using acquired knowledge and/or skills in order to better one’s community or organization. This teaching method brings together serving one’s community while also using the skills and knowledge accumulated previously. Sitting in a classroom can only teach an individual so much on a subject. Lectures tend to be tuned out and exams don’t measure knowledge or skill level, just who can memorize information better than others. In service-learning, individuals gain experience through getting their hands dirty and using those skills and concepts they learned in a classroom setting in a more real life setting. For all of these reasons, I do believe that service-learning is in fact an important teaching method. I have always thought of myself as a follower, so the concept of followership is one that I find interesting and helpful in many ways. In doing this project, I learned how to become a courageous follower. Our team assumed the responsibility bestowed on us, challenging ourselves to meet our potential in bringing value to the organization. We were not afraid to work hard, even though we knew from the beginning it was going to be difficult. The four of
In the assigned article entitled “Why Service Learning” by Bruce W. Speck, it provides great insight as to why we need to engage in service learning. This article focused on the questions that were like the reasoning behind service learning and how does it benefit the student. One definition in the article that stood out to me was service learning being defined as a pedagogy that fosters the development of skills and knowledge needed for participation in public life. This was prevalent because it allows the student to network with others outside of the community while giving back. Service learning was created to get away from the traditional way of learning while implementing a new learning system.
Community service is intended to help others at any given reason, service learning is intentional and is meant to have educational structure and purpose behind it. Community service takes a less structured place to volunteer and can be focused anywhere. Service learning is a little more tedious and has a stronger focus on working with and learning about the targeted focal group of the intended group or community. According to the article of “The effectiveness of service learning: It’s not always what you think” “Service-learning is also a teaching strategy that offers students opportunities to learn both in the classroom and in the wider
Service-learning involves students in community service activities and applies the experience to personal and academic development. It provides students with opportunities to develop civic engagement skills by working with community members. Then, volunteering is any activities that involve spending time, unpaid, doing something that aims to benefits the environment, individual or groups other than. Volunteering must be a choice freely made by each individual. Community Service is voluntary work intended to help people in the community or its institutions. I have found through the experience that I really appreciate volunteering, so in the future, I will volunteer on my own rather than doing it for a class.
Service Learning is an educational strategy set in place to enlighten students with instruction and experience, in addition to improve learning , teach responsibility, and support the community. Service learning is vital to the development of the student, given that it intertwines academic and personal development together. It is aimed to enhance a student’s learning in all aspects of life.
To begin, I believe that Service-Learning helps one develop and hone their leadership skills. This world does and will always need leaders, and the young generation is next in line as the head of our society. These people need to be prepared to grab the baton from the previous generation and help fix and prevent many of the problems that previous generations have produced. If planned and executed properly, Service-Learning can
We spent many hours a week planning events and creating ways for young people's voices could be heard. Some of these issues include poverty within our own communities and across the world. We also raise awareness and fight against segregation and exclusion in schools and in the workplace in order to create a positive environment. Being a part of this group has helped me improve my skills in the areas of organization, planning and interacting with people to achieve one common goal that will help me in the workplace. It was my way of making a difference in our school and community and be a part something bigger than just
The benefit of service learning for the student and community is again a better inform civic minded individual who may use his experience from service learning as a launching pad for career opportunities to better serve within that community. In an article published in the College Student Journal its author noted that with service learning “students gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility" (Strange,
The company operates as a provider of software services to different customers, including both public institutions as well as private agents. The company attracts projects and delivers final products and services, such as data management software, project management software and so on. It employs a total of 100 staff members, out of which 70 are software developers, and the remaining 30 are administrative staffs (executive, office managers and assistants, sales staffs and so on).
In this paper, I discuss the experience I have gained from my service learning, along
One of the most interesting aspects of this project was being able to apply our individual strengths towards the team goal. Each one of us was able to deliver a unique skill set to our combined team efforts and allowed us to reach our goal. Some of our team members were able to see the big picture and helped our team visualize the long-term
I personally believe that service learning is a great thing for many reasons. One of the biggest reasons is that service learning can give you great exposure to having face to face interaction which I think millennials try to avoid. Another reason that service learning is a great thing is that it can teach some people about how to be more compassionate as well as helping students understand their civic responsibilities as young adults. As stated by Flecky & Gitlow (2011), “a unique aspect of service-learning is that it incorporates structured opportunities for students, faculty and community partners to reflect on their interactions and activities in light of both educational and community objectives.” (p. 1-2). My interpretation of this quote is that the authors view service learning in a positive light. My understanding is that the authors believe by students reflecting on their interactions with the community, it can help further their
It is also a “boundary spanning” activity in that it requires active involvement from people both within and outside of the classroom context, often resulting in participant contributors who represent a variety of generations, ethnicities, social groups, and experience levels (Billig and Furco, 2002, p.vii). Service-learning is designed to reduce the boundaries between an institutional campus environment and the community around it. It is designed to connect learning to real experience through service and reflection (Ball and Schilling, 2006; Becker, 2000). As a baseline to facilitate this development, service-learning is distinct from other types of community service and civic engagement experiences in that the service-learning experience must not only have a service and reflective component but also be clearly tied to the curriculum through learning objectives and theoretical underpinnings (Bloomquist, 2015; Pritchard, 2001). As Barbara Holland, former Director of the U.S. National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, shared, “Service-learning is all in the hyphen. It is the enrichment of specific learning goals through structured community service opportunities that respond to community-identified needs and opportunities.” (Kenworthy-U’Ren, Taylor, and Petri, 2006: 121).
The Society for Experiential Education defines service learning as, “any carefully monitored service experience in which a student has intentional learning goals and reflects actively on what he or she is learning throughout the experience” (Staton 1). Service learning is a great opportunity to get extra learning experiences while also experiencing the community around the universities campus. “Service learning allows students to apply what they are learning from their instructors, peers, and readings to genuine tasks that occur outside the four walls of the classroom while simultaneously helping others” (Staton 1). Universities are using service learning to expand beyond the classroom and provide students with experiences that will
I learned that if you do something you are passionate about, it makes it seem less like hard work and more enjoyable. When we were presented with the Big Brothers Big Sisters project to bring kids and first responders closer through the matching process, I immediately knew this was the project for me. Seeing how negatively law enforcement is looked at lately, it made me want to do anything I could do to help. Bringing that passion I had to this project has made it a more enjoyable experience for me personally. This whole time, I have not viewed this as just an assignment, but rather a fun way I can give back to my
The term ‘‘service-learning’’ means a method (A) under which students or participants learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service that (i) is conducted in and meets the needs of a community; (ii) is coordinated with an elementary school, secondary school, institution of higher education, or community service program, and with the community; and (iii) helps foster civic responsibility; and (B) that (i) is integrated into and enhances the academic curriculum of the students, or the educational components of the community service program in which the