You are asked to
undertake a Service Learning Project and to write an ten-entry report about your
efforts. Any type of volunteer work is acceptable for this project, so long as
it is serving the needs of the larger community in some way.Examples of places to volunteer
would be homeless shelters, nursing homes, hospitals, Habitat for Humanity, the
Boy and Girl Scouts, churches, mosques, temples, and so on. This Service
Learning Project can be a continuation of volunteering you’ve done in the past,
butall of the volunteering that you
write about in your journal must have been done during the current
term.
Instructor Approval:
Before
commencing your Service Learning Project, you must have it approved by your
instructor (by e-mail). This must be done no later than Week 3 of the
course.
Number of Hours Required To Volunteer:
You
are expected to volunteer 21 hours between Weeks 4 and 10. This is on an honors
system. No proof of your volunteering is required. However, it will not be
possible to write a quality Project Report as described below if one does not
complete this volunteering.
Are you too busy to do a Service Learning
Project?
All students,
both residential and online, lead busy lives—full of work and family
obligations. The Service Learning Project has been required in the Signature
Series since the year 2000. Previous students have found it a focal point of the
course and one of the most significant things they did the whole term. The Service Learning Project is the major
requirement for one of the three courses in the Signature Series, LA 420 Freedom
and Responsibility, and the accomplishing of the project and writing about it
seem a fair requirement for the earning of nearly three hours of course
credit. The Service Learning Project is, ultimately, an assignment in the
course. If this assignment did not exist, another assignment, equally tasking in
terms of time and energy, would.
The Ten Entries of the Service Learning
Project Report:
Note:These entries will be combined in a single
document and turned in during Week 12.None will be turned in
before.
Entry 1: Write an entry of 400 words
minimum on why you chose your project. Discuss the life or work experiences that
may have influenced your selection, including whether these experiences were
positive or negative. Consider how issues of community, government or individual
responsibility, leadership, productivity, problem solving, work ethic, and/or
ambition might have affected your project selection. Most importantly, explain why your project is
important to you, as well as to the larger community. Label this entry
“Selection of the Service Learning Project.”
Entry 2: Write an entry of 400 words
minimum explaining how your project relates to two of the course objectives,
Objective 12 and one or two others between 1 and 11 (do not choose objective
13). See the list of course objectives in the Introduction Above. Be sure to
explain why you think these objectives are important. Label this entry “Service
Learning Project Objective.”
Note: The purpose of this entry is not to tell what you think the
objective of your Service Learning Project was; rather, it is, as stated above,
to relate your project to specified course objectives.
Entries 3-9: Narrate your experiences
on the project each week for seven weeks—unless you combine entries, which is
allowed, as long as they meet the minimum word count requirement. Integrate brief references wherever possible
to the six values studied in Week 1. Be sure to relate your project experiences
briefly to specific ideas in each of the Week 12 readings. Ideally, you
will synthesize ideas from these readings in entries 3-7; however, you may also
do so in entries 1, 2, and 8. You may also briefly reference ideas from earlier
weeks in the course, as well as up to four additional sources you have found in
your own research.
A minimum of 500
words must be written each week.
Entries should
simply be labeled with the appropriate entry number(s), for example, Entry 3,
Entry 4, Entries 5-6, Entries 5-8, and so on.
Entry 10: For the concluding entry of
400 words, labeled ”Conclusions,” summarize your project, its relation to the
course themes and readings, and your feelings about your project
experiences.
