Monday, November 21, 2011
Alternative Break Immersion 2012 applications available
Please inform your students of a wonderful opportunity to impact a community in need and be part of an amazing team! During Spring Break 2012, Katie Mason will be taking a group of up to ten students to Goshen, IN where we will provide service for an organization called La Casa, Inc. La Casa, among many things, provides affordable housing for rent and to purchase for individuals who are considered in the low-to-moderate income status. They will spend the week doing housing repairs and learning about the community. Trip dates are March 10th-March 17th. Applications are available in the Center for Student Involvement (AUD 344) and are due by December 5th at 5pm. Questions? Contact Katie Mason at kmason@roosevelt.edu (Career Counselor in the Office of Career Development).
Monday, October 17, 2011
Social action in transformational learning classes
What is our "brand" of service learning?
One of the most important ways in which service learning at Roosevelt differs from other universities is our frequent emphasis of creating social change through students' community work. For instance, many service learning placements across the country involve tutoring children who experience adversity, but fewer encourage their students to question and act on why those inequalities exist in the first place. This is where our social justice mission directs our work in a unique way for transformational service learning.
I recently read an example of this broader focus in an issue of the Diversity and Democracy newsletter published by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Here's an excerpt below. You'll find other examples from some of the previous posts on this blog.
Perspective-Taking and Community
In my classes, I connect assigned readings directly to challenges facing our local and global economies. These challenges affect both students' lives and the lives of the community members with whom they come in contact. I use the course readings as media for enhancing critical dialogue on the possibilities for new models of democratic engagement and collaboration. To make the readings concrete, I give my students the opportunity to work alongside new immigrants in a Pomona day labor center, day laborers on the street corners of Rancho Cucamonga, farm workers in the San Joaquin Valley, and labor and community organizers in diverse coalitions throughout the region. The readings and our class discussions become "real" when students meet with these day laborers and community organizers to work on common projects that emerge from their dialogue. Just as in the classroom, students advance to new levels of collaboration and civic engagement by practicing democratic exchange.
Having identified problems that are relevant to the workers, students use participatory community-based research and action to locate solutions. Drawing on their discussions with workers, students organize various projects that push for social change. Students and workers have collaborated to implement English classes, health workshops, and immigration rights research projects. Students have also organized petition drives, researched the constitutionality of checkpoints, marched to protest immigration raids, and campaigned to ensure continued funding for the local day labor center. To combat negative portrayals of new immigrants, students and day laborers have organized community-wide art and pictorial life history presentations. Thus the workers and students join in raising their voices and ensuring that they are heard. In all these projects, students come to accept the day laborers as teachers. With the help of the Center for Community Engagement and funding from alumna Susan Hanson, the college hosts weekly Encuentros (Encounters) lunches where day laborers share their life stories and converse in Spanish with students and faculty. Students also perform teatro (activist theater) in various communities during their spring break.
Through the projects and class readings, students become more equipped to understand contemporary debates over immigration, free trade, globalization, and the many myths that circulate about farm laborers, union organizers, and immigrant workers. By learning to respect each other's perspectives and by pursuing specific outcomes that benefit both campus constituents and workers, students and workers have developed a genuine trust over the years. In this way, the practice of perspective-taking becomes a useful tool in understanding the diverse experiences that intersect in the "border culture" between academia and the world beyond. Students learn to value the perspective of the "other": the poor, the worker, the oppressed, the immigrant, or the person of another color, class, gender, or sexuality. Similarly, workers and community organizers grow to respect classrooms as places where ideas can become deeds that advance their efforts to be heard.
One of the most important ways in which service learning at Roosevelt differs from other universities is our frequent emphasis of creating social change through students' community work. For instance, many service learning placements across the country involve tutoring children who experience adversity, but fewer encourage their students to question and act on why those inequalities exist in the first place. This is where our social justice mission directs our work in a unique way for transformational service learning.
I recently read an example of this broader focus in an issue of the Diversity and Democracy newsletter published by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Here's an excerpt below. You'll find other examples from some of the previous posts on this blog.
Perspective-Taking and Community
In my classes, I connect assigned readings directly to challenges facing our local and global economies. These challenges affect both students' lives and the lives of the community members with whom they come in contact. I use the course readings as media for enhancing critical dialogue on the possibilities for new models of democratic engagement and collaboration. To make the readings concrete, I give my students the opportunity to work alongside new immigrants in a Pomona day labor center, day laborers on the street corners of Rancho Cucamonga, farm workers in the San Joaquin Valley, and labor and community organizers in diverse coalitions throughout the region. The readings and our class discussions become "real" when students meet with these day laborers and community organizers to work on common projects that emerge from their dialogue. Just as in the classroom, students advance to new levels of collaboration and civic engagement by practicing democratic exchange.
Having identified problems that are relevant to the workers, students use participatory community-based research and action to locate solutions. Drawing on their discussions with workers, students organize various projects that push for social change. Students and workers have collaborated to implement English classes, health workshops, and immigration rights research projects. Students have also organized petition drives, researched the constitutionality of checkpoints, marched to protest immigration raids, and campaigned to ensure continued funding for the local day labor center. To combat negative portrayals of new immigrants, students and day laborers have organized community-wide art and pictorial life history presentations. Thus the workers and students join in raising their voices and ensuring that they are heard. In all these projects, students come to accept the day laborers as teachers. With the help of the Center for Community Engagement and funding from alumna Susan Hanson, the college hosts weekly Encuentros (Encounters) lunches where day laborers share their life stories and converse in Spanish with students and faculty. Students also perform teatro (activist theater) in various communities during their spring break.
Through the projects and class readings, students become more equipped to understand contemporary debates over immigration, free trade, globalization, and the many myths that circulate about farm laborers, union organizers, and immigrant workers. By learning to respect each other's perspectives and by pursuing specific outcomes that benefit both campus constituents and workers, students and workers have developed a genuine trust over the years. In this way, the practice of perspective-taking becomes a useful tool in understanding the diverse experiences that intersect in the "border culture" between academia and the world beyond. Students learn to value the perspective of the "other": the poor, the worker, the oppressed, the immigrant, or the person of another color, class, gender, or sexuality. Similarly, workers and community organizers grow to respect classrooms as places where ideas can become deeds that advance their efforts to be heard.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Mansfield Institutes Welcomes our New Fellow from AmeriCorps VISTA – ILCC
My name is Nikita Stange and I am an AmeriCorps VISTA – ILCC with the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation. I am the community outreach and special projects coordinator here.My undergraduate degree is in Sociology with a concentration in Health, Human Service, and Social Justice. My primary focus up until this point academically has been on racial studies and education and I am excited to continue learning about these issues while working with the Mansfield Institute. I believe that there are significant changes that need to be made in our education and penal systems so that individuals, young and old, can become productive members of society.
I am confident that Transformational Learning is one way that we can work together to create meaningful social change. As a former Roosevelt student and a recent grad, I hope that I can be a useful resource for TL faculty and students. Currently I am working with SOC 325/425 (a TL course) where students are going to Morrill Elementary to work with students and teachers to bring a Restorative Justice model to the school. My role has been to support the professor and the students so that they can be successful at Morrill. My hope is to do the same for our current TL faculty as well as those faculty considering this pedagogy. Please consider me as a resource for TL course related work that may include helping to set up your community partnership, promoting your TL course, or helping you structure/organize your TL course projects. I am located in AUD 670 and can be reached at nstange@roosevelt.edu
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Grants for Teaching Assistants for Transformational Learning Classes
Are you thinking about using transformational service-learning in your class for Spring semester, but feel that you would need some extra help in incorporating it into your class?
The Mansfield Institute is happy to announce that we are able to provide faculty members with teaching assistants to give added support! Full-time and part-time faculty from across Roosevelt University are invited to submit proposals to hire an undergraduate or graduate student who would be able to provide 8 hours of support each week during the semester. Students receive a $2,000 scholarship to be applied toward their Spring 2012 tuition as compensation for their work.
Specifically, teaching assistants can help faculty members with the transformational service-learning component of their class by working with the Mansfield Institute to help students find community placements, coordinating with community partners, assisting with off-site travel of visits of community partners to campus, and evaluating students' service-learning assignments with appropriate guidance and supervision.
Click here to learn more and to download the brief application! Applications are due no later than November 1, 2011. Contact Steve Meyers at smeyers@roosevelt.edu with any questions or for any assistance that you may need.
The Mansfield Institute is happy to announce that we are able to provide faculty members with teaching assistants to give added support! Full-time and part-time faculty from across Roosevelt University are invited to submit proposals to hire an undergraduate or graduate student who would be able to provide 8 hours of support each week during the semester. Students receive a $2,000 scholarship to be applied toward their Spring 2012 tuition as compensation for their work.
Specifically, teaching assistants can help faculty members with the transformational service-learning component of their class by working with the Mansfield Institute to help students find community placements, coordinating with community partners, assisting with off-site travel of visits of community partners to campus, and evaluating students' service-learning assignments with appropriate guidance and supervision.
Click here to learn more and to download the brief application! Applications are due no later than November 1, 2011. Contact Steve Meyers at smeyers@roosevelt.edu with any questions or for any assistance that you may need.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
New e-Book Available on Service-Learning
The Roosevelt University library recently acquired a helpful e-book on service-learning, Experiencing Service-Learning, by Robert Kronick, Robert Cunningham, and Michele Gourley.
You can access and read it entirely online by clicking here.
Here's a synopsis:
"A unique resource for students and professors alike, this book reveals the important practical, educational, and emotional benefits provided by college programs that allow students to help others through service work in inner-city classrooms, clinics, and other challenging environments. Filled with vivid first-person reflections by students, Experiencing Service-Learning emphasizes learning by doing, getting into the field, sharing what one sees with colleagues, and interpreting what one learns.
As the authors make clear, service-learning is not a spectator sport. It takes students 'away from the routines and comfort zones of lecture, test, term paper, exam' and puts them into the world. Service-learning requires them to engage actively with cultures that may be unfamiliar to them and to be introspective about their successes and their mistakes. At the same time, it demands of their instructors 'something other than Power-Point slides or an eloquently delivered lecture,' as no teacher can predict in advance the questions their students’ experiences will raise. In service-learning, students and teacher must act together as a team of motivators, problem solvers, and change agents."
The Roosevelt University library has been purchasing a variety of additional books on service-learning that provide more information for faculty members. Their complete set of holdings in this area can be accessed through the catalog.
You can access and read it entirely online by clicking here.
Here's a synopsis:
"A unique resource for students and professors alike, this book reveals the important practical, educational, and emotional benefits provided by college programs that allow students to help others through service work in inner-city classrooms, clinics, and other challenging environments. Filled with vivid first-person reflections by students, Experiencing Service-Learning emphasizes learning by doing, getting into the field, sharing what one sees with colleagues, and interpreting what one learns.
As the authors make clear, service-learning is not a spectator sport. It takes students 'away from the routines and comfort zones of lecture, test, term paper, exam' and puts them into the world. Service-learning requires them to engage actively with cultures that may be unfamiliar to them and to be introspective about their successes and their mistakes. At the same time, it demands of their instructors 'something other than Power-Point slides or an eloquently delivered lecture,' as no teacher can predict in advance the questions their students’ experiences will raise. In service-learning, students and teacher must act together as a team of motivators, problem solvers, and change agents."
The Roosevelt University library has been purchasing a variety of additional books on service-learning that provide more information for faculty members. Their complete set of holdings in this area can be accessed through the catalog.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Art, Activism, and Transformational Learning
Roosevelt University undergraduates in Maggie Leininger’s Art as Activism (ART 360) class and the youth and young adults from La Casa Norte had the unique experience of collaborating in creating a public art project. Leininger had “always wanted to integrate art in public spaces and in a communal dialogical manner, but struggled with how to complete something of this nature.” The class started to take shape with the help of a book (The Citizen Artist: 20 Years of Art in the Public Arena) and a partnership with La Casa Norte (LCN), a non-profit group that provides services to homeless youth. Leininger used transformational service learning so her undergraduates could work with youth to produce a mosaic mural for the center and allow them to experience the artistic process of collaboration.
Using the theme of self-identity and portraiture, Roosevelt students and LCN youth each completed individual squares of mosaics. As Leininger described, “RU students guided LCN clients through the visual art process of designing a mosaic tile that reflected their identity through form, shape, and color. They did this by talking directly with LCN clients, getting to know them and then directing them towards images or ideas that seemed suited to the project. Roosevelt undergraduates also assisted in constructing a felted portable art space called Commun-ique that was placed at the museum campus area of Grant Park in which public art workshops were offered.” The mosaics were then assembled together into a larger mural that was installed at a new housing site constructed in late 2010 at LCN.
Collaboration with community members initially presented several unknowns for Leininger and her students. Though they generally came from different backgrounds, the Roosevelt students and the youth were able to connect on age-related interests of music, tattoos, art, and movies. Leininger observed, “these valuable interactions removed so many barriers of participation for the LCN youth and proved to be a valuable asset to the successful outcome of the project as LCN clients felt that they could identify with RU students despite obvious sociological differences.”
This transformational learning class provided students with an educational experience that emphasized collaboration and societal engagement that extended beyond a typical academic setting. Students were individually responsible for achieving their own goals, but there was also a communal goal for all involved. The format of this class helped students develop the skills to work with others and to manage personal issues in the service of a positive outcome for the group.
Leininger found the class to be a real success. She described time as being her greatest obstacle. Both Roosevelt University students and LCN youth had set time restrictions that allowed for a limited window for interaction. Because both groups were excited about the experience, they were able to determine a time that worked for everyone. Leininger’s flexibility and creative problem solving were also helpful for her use of transformational learning. She recommends this teaching approach to any professor who has larger goals for students.
Collaboration with community members initially presented several unknowns for Leininger and her students. Though they generally came from different backgrounds, the Roosevelt students and the youth were able to connect on age-related interests of music, tattoos, art, and movies. Leininger observed, “these valuable interactions removed so many barriers of participation for the LCN youth and proved to be a valuable asset to the successful outcome of the project as LCN clients felt that they could identify with RU students despite obvious sociological differences.”
This transformational learning class provided students with an educational experience that emphasized collaboration and societal engagement that extended beyond a typical academic setting. Students were individually responsible for achieving their own goals, but there was also a communal goal for all involved. The format of this class helped students develop the skills to work with others and to manage personal issues in the service of a positive outcome for the group.
Leininger found the class to be a real success. She described time as being her greatest obstacle. Both Roosevelt University students and LCN youth had set time restrictions that allowed for a limited window for interaction. Because both groups were excited about the experience, they were able to determine a time that worked for everyone. Leininger’s flexibility and creative problem solving were also helpful for her use of transformational learning. She recommends this teaching approach to any professor who has larger goals for students.
Celebration of Transformational Learning
At the end of the academic year, dozens of faculty members gathered to celebrate the success of transformational service learning at Roosevelt University. Over the past year, the number of classes involving community outreach has increased dramatically. 
Professors shared their experiences, learned from each other, and developed a supportive network around their commitment to bridging the classroom with community needs.
Professors shared their experiences, learned from each other, and developed a supportive network around their commitment to bridging the classroom with community needs.
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