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Giving back, enriching learning: JCC students complete service learning
Jackson Community College students completed 8,236 hours of service learning projects during the Fall '04 and Winter '05 semesters, involving 657 students.
Service learning connects an identified community need with an organized service activity and coursework. By linking service experiences with classroom learning, students can build citizenship skills and enhance their education. JCC students helped tutor younger students in the community, planned and coordinated special events, designed and distributed informational pamphlets, offered blood pressure screenings for adults and health screenings for preschoolers, prepared taxes for lower-income residents, completed community service in areas related to their fields of study, and more.
JCC received a grant to provide a full-time AmeriCorps*VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) worker to further develop a service learning program at the College in the 2004-05 academic year, and that grant has been renewed for the coming 2005-06 year. JCC's VISTA is Shannon Zoet, a Grand Rapids native who graduated from Grand Valley State University with a bachelor's degree in communications, and became interested in joining AmeriCorps shortly after graduation. She became JCC's VISTA for service learning in 2004, and will continue another year at the College.
"Service learning is a valuable method of teaching and learning because it offers a hands-on experience that students don't get in a classroom," Zoet said. "Not only do students enhance their learning about a certain topic, but they learn more about their community at the same time. It helps develop a sense of civic responsibility and strengthens the College's outreach to the community."
The JCC Center for Service Learning & Civic Engagement was formed to create an environment and infrastructure that facilitates and supports the integration of service learning methodology across the curriculum, leading to civically engaged students. The office works to incorporate service learning into courses, build community partnerships, seek financial support for service projects, and offer opportunities to become civically engaged.
"Service learning provides a valuable experience for students to involve their education in the real life, not just the classroom. They can put what they learn in the classroom to work in the community, or connect with someone and lend a helping hand," said College President Daniel J. Phelan, who serves on the Board of Directors for the Community College National Center for Community Engagement. "Service learning provides an expanded dimension to the educational experience in a learning college, which benefits both the student and community."
