The Engaged Campus

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.” –Helen Keller

Last year I had the honor of serving as SLCC’s Service-Learning Faculty Mentor. My job was to inspire our faculty to explore teaching with service-learning, and to facilitate networking and offer support among those who already do. This year I’ve had a chance to focus more on service and learning in my personal life. It is my turn to be inspired. With permission from my former student, I wish to share the following story:

David was an excellent student in my Technical Writing course. What stood out to me most is that while caring for his father, whose diabetes required David to help with daily dialysis, accompany him to medical visits and hospital stays, deal with amputations, and retrofit his house for a wheelchair so his father could come home for Thanksgiving–while doing all this, David also chose service-learning. He designed fliers for the U.S. Dream Academy, and partnered with another student to translate those fliers into Spanish. Here is some of the feedback I received about him:

“I was very pleased working with him. David was always very professional and responded quickly. He had some personal issues and computer issues come up that delayed his progress. He was completely honest with me and apologetic. I was very pleased with the outcome. The flier he created for me was exactly want I wanted. I look forward to receiving the final product as it will immediately be mailed out to 200 parents. Thank you for this opportunity. I always welcome and enjoy working with SLCC students.” –Center Director, U.S. Dream Academy

Despite the stress and hardship of caring for his dad, working, going to school, and doing service-learning, David earned an A- in my class. About a week after the semester ended, I received an e-mail from David; his father had passed away. When I ran into him at the beginning of this semester, he said his stepmother had just been diagnosed with cancer. His challenges are far from over. I would like to see David have some good come into his life, and I believe he is the sort of person who excels no matter what. His efforts remind us that even in times of suffering, we can still create space for service.

I want to thank David for his permission to share this story, and for his service to his father and to his community. Students like David are the reason the work of civic engagement moves forward, and why this work matters so much to those of us who choose to teach with it.  David, you give me hope.

This month Raj Jayadev and Adrian Avila participated in The Engaged Campus Symposium, where they talked about their work at DeBug, a community action organization based in San Jose, California.  I was moved by their “soul work” as advocates for community groups, and I was impressed by how sincere and humble they both were.

One of the issues Raj and Adrian discussed was the importance of creating opportunities for people to speak for themselves.  This resonated with me, particularly because in my service-learning courses I ask students to construct documents about critical community issues or concerns, written about, for, or with their community partners.   Hearing Raj and Adrian talk about the value of unique personal experiences and creating a space for marginalized voices helped me think about the consequences of speaking for others and the potential for co-opting their voices.  I began to question how my assignments could be more geared towards encouraging people to speak for themselves–in their own voices–rather than encouraging students to speak for others.  Because if we’re always talking for others, even if we mean to advocate with the very best intentions, we may in fact be silencing certain voices.

Overall the range of activities at the symposium helped me think deeper about teaching, students, and how to serve the community in more meaningful ways.

My first thought about “Why blog?” is “Everybody’s doing it,” but that does me little good, because I hear the metaphorical mother’s voice in my head responding, “If everyone jumped off a cliff, would you?” Blogging, and electronic interactions in general, are the direction in which communication has taken us, whether we are eager or reluctant to embrace change. I remember ten years ago when I was hesitant to try service-learning. It seemed to be a long and uphill climb. There was no infrastructure at my institution to support this sort of thing; it was uncharted territory to me. Still, I felt compelled to do it, so I found my way, one phone call at a time, one community partner at a time, one volunteer training at a time, one conversation at a time, one inspired student at a time. Now, I can’t imagine my life without it. Service-learning is the way of the future in education, so it seems only natural to converse about service-learning in this futuristic, yet already entrenched medium. I am willing to give it a go.

Jennifer Courtney, Clint Gardner, and I are preparing for the official blog launch this Friday, 19 September. We will be hosting the Service-Learning Faculty Consulting Corps kick-off event and part of that kick-off is to debut The Engaged Campus blog.

In preparation, Clint has prepared a tutorial document that guides faculty through the process of blogging. Some people may be familiar with blogs, some may not, but this document will clarify they ways faculty can interact with The Engaged Campus. Clickety click here to see this how-to guide.

Stay tuned…

As a service-learning practitioner, I could be better at practicing what I preach.  I agree with Clint and Gail that reflection through writing gives us a chance to do the very thing we encourage our students to do: analyze, reflect, and share our work through writing.  Blogging is a great way to share best practices and build resources, and it’s also a way to share unsuccessful practices in order to guide one another through the pedagogy, especially because this is a relatively new pedagogy for many of us. 

I look forward to reading what many of you practitioners have to say!