Students as Colleagues Developing Student Leadership and Building
Students as Colleagues: Developing Student Leadership and Building Capacity for Service-Learning Nicholas Longo & Erin Bowley April 29, 2008
Arriving Where We Began… We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. - T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets
Why “Students as Colleagues” Historical: Cycle of Service-Learning New generation: the Millennials Instrumental: Students as enablers Inspirational: Student voice as foundation for Democratic engagement Better epistemology Good pedagogy
A Brief History of Student Role 1980 s: response to “me” generation and creation of COOL and Campus Compact 1990 s: institutional resources and academic service-learning Creation of Corporation for National and Community Service and growth of Campus Compact Focus on disciplines: Zlotkowski, E. , (Series Editor) 1997 -2004, Service-Learning in the Disciplines, 20 monograph series 2000 s: Engaged university and return to promise of student leadership 2001: Wingspread Conference on Student Civic Engagement leading to New Student Politics 2002: Raise Your Voice campaign launched 2007: Millennials Talk Politics (CIRCLE) See especially, Goodwin Liu (1996), Origins, evolutions, and progress: Reflections on a movement. Metropolitan Universities: An International Forum 7(1), 25 -38.
New Generation Millennials (born after 1985): more civically engaged, with interest in deliberation and experience doing community service See especially Longo, N. and Meyer, R. , College Students and Politics: A Literature Review (CIRCLE Working Paper, 2006) www. civicyouth. org/Pop. Ups/Working. Papers/WP 46 Longo Meyer. pdf Millennials Talk Politics (CIRCLE Report, 2007) www. civicyouth. org/? page_id=250
Instrumental: Students as enablers Taking service-learning to next level on campuses requires new resources and infrastructure, which are unlikely to come in the form of new staff Connecting academic and student affairs: development of “whole person”
Inspirational: Democracy, Epistemology, & Pedagogy Student Voice As Core Component of Civic Engagement “We declare that it is our responsibility to become an engaged generation with the support of our political leaders, education institutions, and society…The mission of our state higher education institutions should be to educate future citizens about their civic as well as professional duties. We urge our institutions to prioritize and implement civic education in the classroom, in research, and in services to the community. ” - Oklahoma Students’ Civic Engagement Resolution, 2003 www. actionforchange. org/getinformed/student_ink. OK. html Student Voice Leads To New Ways of Knowing and Learning
Promising Practices l Identifying Student Leaders: Scholarship Programs l Training Students l Students As Staff l Student / Faculty Partnerships l Students As Academic Entrepreneurs
Identifying Students Service Scholarship programs: offering scholarship funds to bring students with service experience to campus and then making them key components of servicelearning infrastructure l De. Paul University’s Steans Center l Bentley’s Service-Learning Scholarship Program l IUPUI’s Sam H. Jones Community Service Scholarship Program
Training Students Preparation for campus and community work using cascading leadership Monterey Bay’s Student Leadership in Service Learning program– course and then 4 week summer training
Students as Staff Resource: Federal Work-Study l Created in 1964 as part-time employment for low-income students l Purpose: work for the institution or “work in the public interest” with an academic connection l “Community service” is broadly defined l As of 2000, 7% must be spent on community service positions l National average is 15% (2006)
Federal Work-Study continued l In 2006, FWS supported 128, 000 students engaged in service on 3, 300 campuses l Students provide direct service (e. g. tutoring, various roles at non-profits) l Students provide coordination (e. g. site liaisons, service-learning assistants, “issue area” coordinators)
FWS Principles of Best Practice 1. Integrate CSWS into the institution’s overall civic engagement mission and programs. 4. Offer a range of community service positions that are challenging, developmentally appropriate, and contribute to the common good. 6. Ensure students receive a thorough orientation, are properly trained for their positions, and have opportunities for reflection and connections to academic study. www. compact. org/fws
Students as Staff Lessons from Josh Young, Center for Community Involvement, Miami Dade College Student Ambassador program www. mdc. edu/cci
Questions Time for Questions
Student-Faculty Partnerships Lessons from Angela Van. Horn, Miami University Wilks Scholar www. muohio. edu/wilks Acting Locally “think tank” in American Studies, 2 years of courses with 23 students and 6 faculty partnering on community engagement projects in SW Ohio
Students as Entrepreneurs: Campus and Community-Based Students teaching courses, doing engaged research, and creating community partnerships Lessons from Danyel Addes, former student in University of Massachusetts. Amherst’s UMass Alliance for Community Transformation (UACT) program
Entrepreneurial Use of Work-Study Students choosing community sites (institution then creates a contract with the site) Students developing community projects (based on their interest and community partner’s input)
Making Choices
Challenges l Need to be deliberate about trade-offs— Example: challenge of sustainability with autonomous student model l Unequal power relations: “it is disingenuous to pretend we are all equal” l Faculty ownership of the curriculum l Time it takes for student voice with students’ changing schedules and conflicting demands
Beyond Tactical Service-Learning: Recommendations l Regional student/faculty-staff teams developing the practices l Service Scholarship programs—like sports scholarships l Ongoing training and mentoring l Part of an engaged university
Parker Palmer Quote The education of the new professional will offer students realtime chances to translate feelings into knowledge and action by questioning and helping to develop the program they are in. I am not imagining a student uprising but rather an academic culture that invites students to find their voices about the program itself, gives them forums for speaking up, rewards rather than penalizes them for doing so, and encourages faculty and administrative responsiveness to student concerns. - Parker Palmer, 2007
Resources Students as Colleagues: Expanding the Circle of Service-Learning Leadership www. compact. org/publications/detail/students_as_colleagues Earn, Learn, and Serve: Getting the Most from Community Service Federal Work-Study www. compact. org/fws Contacts: Erin Bowley, Erin Bowley & Assoc. LLC, erin@erinb. org Kevin Michael Days, Corporation for National & Community Service, kdays@cns. gov Nicholas V. Longo, Miami University, longonv@muohio. edu Julie Plaut, Campus Compact, jplaut@compact. org
- Slides: 23
