Maureen Murphy-Smolka

My experience has been that the creation of service learning projects is best done through collaborating with faculty.  This helps to assure faculty ownership of the project leading to a stronger involvement by their students.  This enhances the curriculum of the course through the "targeted teaching" as well as enabling students to see the application of their course learning outcomes.

The community agencies that are involved in the service learning projects not only receive  needed support, but come to have a better understanding of the value of the educational institutions and their students.

At this period of time, it is… >>>

I am excited about pursuing the practical ideas that were provided in this module.

The idea of publicizing service learning projects is an excellent one for promoting service learning and helping participants (students, faculty, and site personnel) recognize the value of the projects that they have been involved in.  In an effort to "recharge" our institution's committment to service learning, I am going to use past projects to stimulate interest in the development of new projects.

Having annual celebrations of service learning projects is another new idea that I am interested in pursuing. This will aslo provide affirmation for all… >>>

Once again, I have learned more about developing service learning opportunities and promoting service learning to faculty, students, and the community.

While I knew and have seen the positive effects that service learning has on participating students and faculty, I never thought about personal  branding nor knew about ROI.  I am going to include those concepts into our Service Learning Handbook.  These are also an important concepts to share with faculty.  

The examples of service learning projects that were provided have made think about extending our service learning opportunities to the health and exercise programs that we provide.

This is… >>>

This course is affirming, enjoyable and informative.

I have included service learning programs in some of my English Composition I,(First Year Writing) courses as well as my Children's Literature courses.  In both cases, the students not only learned how to apply the skills that were learning in class to working with students in elementary schools, but learned that giving is much greater than receiving.  

As my students worked with the elementary students, their skills of critical reading, thinking, and writing were sharpened.  They became more engaged in class discussions by being apply to more aptly apply theory to practice. Those… >>>