Profiles of service learning at the Roosevelt University Mini-Conference on Teaching

Over the past decade, the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Provost's Office at Roosevelt University has sponsored the Roosevelt University Mini-Conference on Teaching (or "RUMCOT").  Through this venue, faculty members at the university have been sharing best practices or personal implementations.

I compiled all of the presentations that focused on transformational service learning from the conference Proceedings, and you can download them here. 

Integrating service learning into your class: Merging educational and social justice goals (2012)
by Amy L. D. Roberts, Kimberly Dienes, and Steven Meyers

Lessons learned from an ambitious service learning class (2010)
by Cami K. McBride, Carrie Miller, and Valerie Vorderstrasse

Getting to transformation with service-learning (2009)
by Erik Gellman, Elizabeth Meadows, Steven A. Meyers, Pamela M. Robert, and Robert Seiser

Integrating service-learning into the business curriculum (2008)
by Carolyn Wiley

Including service-learning in your class: How we did it (2007)
by Steven A. Meyers, Patrick M. Green, Linda Pincham, and Robert Seiser

Can transformative pedagogy change the way you teach? (2006)
by Steven A. Meyers

Service-learning: A guide to course implementation (2005)
by Patrick M. Green

Transformational learning on talk radio!

Listen to Mike Boehler and Marie Lazzara as they interview Melissa Stutz, Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Studies at Roosevelt University and Hiba Dababneh, a Roosevelt University student who is enrolled in the university’s Walter E. Heller College of Business.  They discuss the concept of social justice at Roosevelt University, and how transformational learning during their education changed their experiences.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/linkedlocalnetwork/2013/01/24/lln-reports

Internships and Transformational Learning

Internships can provide powerful transformational learning experiences during college.  They allow students to gain hands-on experience in actual work settings, improve and explore career prospects, enhance students' resumes, and help develop professional references for graduate schools and jobs.  Because they are much lengthier than other forms of service-learning (they typically range between 100 and 250 hours in duration), internships permit greater immersion into these settings and allow students to make more sustained contributions to the community.

At Roosevelt, students can complete internship classes within particular disciplines.  Some of these opportunities are required because they are viewed as integral to professional development.  For instance, all students within teacher training programs offered by the College of Education will gain extensive field experiences through student teaching placements and seminars.  However, in most fields, it is an option that undergraduates may choose to pursue for varying amounts of credit in courses such as these:

ACCT 398: Accounting Internship
ART 390: Fine Art Internship
BADM 398: Professional Business Administration Internship
BIOL 391: Medical Internship
CJL 395: Criminal Justice Internship
ECON 360: Internship in Economics
FIN 398: Finance Internship
HIST 384: Internship in History
HOSM 385: Internship in Hospitality Management
HRM 398: Human Resource Management Internship
IMC 399: Internship in Integrated Marketing Communications
INFS 398: Information Systems Internship
JOUR 399: Internship in Journalism
LAWA L30: Paralegal Internship
MGMT 398: Professional Internship in Management
MKTG 398: Internship in Marketing
PADM 398: Field Internship in Public Administration
POS 338: Field Internship in Politics and Law
PSYC 393: Internship in Psychology
SENT 398: Social Entrepreneurship  Internship
SOCJ 360: Social Justice Internship
WGS 399: Internship in the Community

Students often aren't aware that they may pursue an internship and need encouragement and appropriate advising.  The educational benefits for well-designed placements are clearly established, as internships have been designated as a high impact practice by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Moreover, internships can be tailored to address social justice themes consistent with each discipline to connect with Roosevelt's mission.

In addition to assistance provided by departments, students can find possible internship placements by contacting the staff in the Career Development Office.  They can help them identify ideal opportunities, utilize their online resources, write a resume, and support students through the internship process.  Start with their site online at http://www.roosevelt.edu/Career/Student/Internship.aspx.  You can find instructions about how to search their internship databases by clicking here.

For departments that want to create or expand internship programs at Roosevelt, it can be helpful to refer to those that provide online materials, such as the Heller College of Business, Economics/Social Justice, and Psychology.  The Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation can provide assistance as well.

Service Learning in Introductory Economics

Students at Roosevelt University in social work, psychology, and education majors may expect that some of their classes might include a service-learning component. However, when Professor Jenifer Clark’s 46 students showed up for their first day of Principles of Economics II (Economics 102) class, they found that the course required them to go out in to the field. Service learning at Roosevelt University isn't confined to certain majors. Rather,  all students at Roosevelt can benefit from trying to apply their newfound knowledge to real life.

Professor Clark devised a service-learning plan that she hoped would expose students to how people in different life circumstances think about economic policy. With the help of the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation, Professor Clark connected with an array of individuals in with different perspectives on what types of economic policies are likely to promote a healthy economy. Professor Clark split the students up into groups and assigned them to either meet with an architect, a marketing CEO, two traders from the Chicago Board of Trade, a human relations professional, two individuals involved in the Occupy movement, or individuals experiencing homelessness at Dignity Diner. Professor Clark ensured that students with a variety of political views joined each group. The students used class time to meet with their groups, do research on economic policy, and prepare questions for their interview. 

Many of the students disclosed to Professor Clark that their interviews considerably impacted their lives. Those who met with homeless people at Dignity Diner described that their preconceived notions about homelessness had been shattered after getting to know real people in that situation. Students who initially felt extremely critical of the Occupy movement shifted their positions after meeting with those involved. Some group members who met with business professionals suddenly felt a surge of motivation to figure out what they wanted to do after college. The students who visited the Chicago Board of Trade described the sense of awe they felt while observing the action on the floor. Professor Clark required students to write a research paper and create a presentation about economic policy from the perspective of those they had interviewed. Many of Dr. Clark’s students had to take political positions opposite of their own in order to complete the assignment. 

Overall, Professor Clark deemed the service-learning component of her class incredibly successful. She explained that everyone involved in the process found the experience rewarding. Many of the interviewees contacted Professor Clark to gush about how impressed they had been by the students’ interview preparation and professionalism. Professor Clark described the students as deeply passionate during the execution of their presentations, and she rated the students’ research papers as exceptional. She surveyed the students at the end of the course to examine their impressions of the project. Many of them admitted their initial hesitation when they realized they would have to complete a transformational service-learning project. However, 46 of 46 students recommended that Professor Clark incorporate a service-learning component to the class in the future. Professor Clark noted that the students gained much more than just an ability to apply economic theory to real life. Throughout this project, the students also fostered their ability to see multiple sides of an issue, take the perspective of others, and challenge their own beliefs. Furthermore, the students gained exposure to different professions, practiced presenting themselves professionally, and gained networking experience.

Troubled youth mentored by RU Psychology students

Inspiration, hope for the future, and much-needed interactions were provided for boys and girls on Wednesday, Oct. 24, at Uhlich Children’s Advantage Network in Chicago.

Located at 3730 North California Ave., UCAN provides residential housing for troubled youths who have faced physical or sexual abuse, have been neglected by parents or face mental illness. Youth can reside at the facility up until age 19 and in some cases until they’re 21 years old, according to UCAN officials.

“UCAN strives to build strong youth and families through compassionate healing, education and empowerment,” according to its website.

An Affirmative statement is given for each week’s mentoring session. This week’s statement was:
“I truly believe that my haters are my motivators because they wish they were me but can’t be” - Nicki Minaj

The program, BoutIt, stands for Bringing Out Unity  Through Interactive Transition. The course, ACP 250, is cross-listed with a psychology course titled “Youth Violence Intervention and Theory.”
Approximately 35 mentors and their mentees sat down together on Wednesday to discuss how the day went and if any issues came up before starting the session’s activities.

Dr. Melissa Sisco, the Roosevelt professor who teaches the course, has 15 years of experience in dealing with at-risk youth and has mentored imprisoned youth for four years. Sisco provided the student mentors with a rundown of what the activities would be for the day.

Sisco said that it took students from business and psychology majors to put this program together and she is thankful for the transformations she has witnessed in the past six weeks. Spencer Scott and Carlo Villarosa are students who led the boys’ and girls’ sides of the room, respectively.

Sisco said young people like Darnell Owens, Spencer Scott, Chase Zvonek and Carlo Villarosa helped to create the foundation for the BoutIt mentorship program and truly bring it to life.  And they all bring different types of expertise with undergraduate backgrounds in  business, education, accounting, and psychology.

”We found a way to allow RU students to learn about violence through critical thinking and comparisons of research and real world topics,” Sisco said, “and to learn problem solving, making goals, and creating change through practicing it.”

Pamela Wilson, UCAN’s residential therapeutic recreation coordinator, said the most common issue with these kids is having trouble in school and not following the program in terms of treatment plans. Treatment plans refer to taking medication and participating in therapy sessions. There are 62 boys and girls aged 12 to 17 who are currently housed at UCAN.

“We’ll take a kid who has poor social skills, struggling psychologically, struggling educationally, and struggling behavior wise, and we design a treatment plan for them,” Wilson said.

“It is hard to chart the progress because we have a wide range of kids with a wide range of issues,” she said.

Spencer Scott and Brenda Lara, who led the girls’ mentoring, agreed that the girls open up more easily and are more laid back than the boys. Even though Scott is the only boy on the girls’ side, he lets Lara do most of the leading.

“I don’t do any of the actual leading because I thought it was important that it’s very female led for the females,” Scott said.

Scott and Lara said that support is provided for the girls during activities every Wednesday and that the girls have opened up to the student mentors.

Leading the boys’ side are Darnell Owens and Carlo Villarosa. They said the boys have a harder time opening up and are separated from the girls  because, often times, they will try to impress members of the opposite gender.

“Boys are rambunctious, and they just like to be actively doing something; and talking isn’t actively doing something,” said Villarosa.

“I wouldn’t say a bad experience, but a little challenging because we have a few children with behavioral problems and special needs,” said Owens, when asked about his experiences in the program thus far.

Some lessons Owens said he would like to pass on to the boys are, “You can’t change the past, but you can change the future,” and we are “empowering our students to be a difference in young people’s lives.”

Villarosa and Owens both said that mentoring these boys has not only changed the youth for the better but also created created a positive change for classmates as well. They both described BoutIt as a “dual-learning experience.”

For more information about this transformational program, please contact Dr. Melissa Sisco at (520) 977-6485 or msisco01@roosevelt.edu.

From the Roosevelt University Torch (10/29/2012)

Learning through mentoring, consulting, and current events

This fall Dr. Amy Roberts, an assistant professor of developmental psychology at Roosevelt University, is asking RU graduate students to engage in service-learning by helping Chicago community members answer questions like:

• Are there gender differences in littering behavior?
• How are relationships between employees and their supervisors influenced by a strike?
• How can local manufacturers best attract and retain quality employees?

Dr. Roberts got the idea to offer Advanced Research Methods (PSYC 530) as a service-learning course when she was mentoring an 8th grader with the Spark program (http://www.sparkprogram.org/). Spark is a national program that matches youth with mentors working in the careers of their choice for apprenticeships.  Dr. Roberts realized that she was covering many of the major topics addressed in her research methods courses through this mentorship with an 8th grader interested in psychology research. She thought students could learn about social science research through meaningful service to Chicago communities.  

Learning through mentoring

Graduate students pursuing MAs in clinical psychology are introducing Chicago area students to social science research by guiding them through conducting social science research projects. Twelve RU graduate students visit students once a week to help them articulate questions about human behavior and design methods for answering them. This mentoring has been made possible through partnerships with the Spark program and visionary teachers at Enrico Fermi Elementary, Crete-Monee High and St. Albert schools. These mentorships enable graduate students pursuing a Masters in clinical psychology to apply the research methods concepts discussed in class while gaining experience guiding children in working through challenging questions.  

Learning through researching current events

The recent teacher strike interrupted students’ mentorship projects, but also provided opportunities to ask new research questions. A small group of psychology graduate students who had not yet started projects with youth at local schools decided instead to study issues related to the Chicago Teacher’s Union strike. Students will be exploring teacher’s feelings about the strike, how relationships between teachers and administrators have been impacted by the strike, and how the experience of this particular labor strike compares to that of workers involved in other recent Chicago area strikes. These graduate students are applying research methods to answering pertinent questions while gaining experience working with labor communities following difficult changes in relationships relate to the strike.  

Learning through consulting

A third group of psychology graduate students pursuing MA in Industrial and Organizational psychology are working with Polyair, a local company who’s human resources manager, Juliana Lopez, is a Roosevelt University I/O Psychology Masters alum. These students will be helping Polyair to improve their procedures for recruitment and retention of high quality employees. This community partnership was supported by the Organizational Effectiveness Consulting Center of the Psychology Department at Roosevelt University. Graduates planning work in industrial and organizational psychology are learning to bridge research and practice while making important connections with local business.

Roosevelt Wins Civic Engagement Award

I am delighted to inform you that Roosevelt University’s commitment to service learning and civic engagement was recognized by the Washington Center which selected the University as a recipient of the 2012 Higher Education Civic Engagement Award. Roosevelt is one of five universities or colleges in the country to receive the award from more than 89 schools which competed for the honor. The other winners are California State University San Bernardino, Columbia College in South Carolina, Tulane University and the University of San Francisco.

Professor Steve Meyers and I will accept the award on behalf of Roosevelt University at a luncheon in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 1.

The award provides $20,000 in scholarship funds that will allow Roosevelt students to access the Center’s exceptional internship programs. The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars provides selected students challenging opportunities to work and learn in Washington for academic credit. The largest program of its kind, the Washington Center has 70 full-time staff and more than 50,000 alumni, many of whom are in leadership positions in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

The selection committee was impressed with Roosevelt’s dramatic growth in service learning and the community engagement activities spearheaded by the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation. During the past academic year, 1,460 Roosevelt students participated in one of 99 service learning classes. Faculty, students, and community partners have collaborated to address a wide array of social challenges that focus on areas such as urban education, environmental toxins, immigration, homeless youth, literacy and domestic violence.

This award recognizes the importance of service learning at Roosevelt. Congratulations to everyone at the University who has been involved in this great accomplishment.

Chuck Middleton, President

"Change Agents," an article in the latest Roosevelt Review

Click here to download "Change Agents," by Laura Janota in the latest issue of Roosevelt Review.  This article describes how transformational learning is being used in exciting ways throughout the university.  It profiles one innovative partnership we have established with Morrill Elementary School to increase the use of restorative justice instead of punitive discipline measures like suspensions and expulsions.

The download also includes a follow-up article, "Through their Eyes" that describes how Professor Tammy Oberg De La Garza takes a unique approach in her research and service learning outreach about literacy among Latino elementary students.

Chicago celebration of transformational learning

On April 19th, the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation held a celebration for transformational learning and the scholar activist program at the downtown campus.  The event, coordinated by Nikita Stange, AmeriCorps VISTA, was an opportunity for students and faculty to present the social justice work they have been doing in Chicago and beyond. From business to psychology and education to economics, students presented their research and service learning projects.

Nicole Comer, a teaching assistant for BAMD 398 described creating partnerships for Roosevelt students that will allow students to have social justice oriented internship opportunities in the Heller College of Business. 

Heather Dalmage and two of her students, Amanda Warren and Greg Fuller, described their experiences at Morrill Elementary School.  Their sociology class learned about restorative justice and participated in Peace Circles and student mentoring while fulfilling their transformational learning course requirement. Both Amanda and Greg both continued to volunteer at the school after their class was finished. Amanda said, “There is a huge difference between learning about injustice and actually seeing it.”  Kristina Peterson also had students from her Clinical Mental Health Counseling Course at Morrill in Spring 2012, and Alfred DeFreece will have sociology students there in the Fall 2012.  Leslie Bloom from the College of Education also had her students involved with school disciplinary practices.  Through the scholar activist program, she and her students examined how community organizations implement restorative justice programs in the Chicago Public Schools.  They were able to prepare a report that their community organization partners (COFI) can use in the future to secure funding.

Also in the realm of education, Tammy Oberg De La Garza used transformational learning and partnered with the Logan Square Neighborhood Association. Her students mentored Latino students and implemented “best practice” instructional methodologies.  Her students created videos that highlighted their experiences working with children.

Peter Lee, Corrie Harris, and Nicole Farr described how they learned about the issues behind the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, from the perspective of business and stock traders to individuals working with the Occupy group.  They expressed enthusiasm at having had a chance to better understand an issue they knew little about and found the experience rewarding. 

Joseph Bulter and Alex Atkins presented on their work with the Young Men’s Educational Network (YMEN) where they assisted boys in North Lawndale.  Through their work, they were able to make connections with the young men with the hopes of preparing them to become leaders. 

Students from Lisa Lu’s PSYC 310 course described their experiences trying to teach neuroscience to middle school students.  They expressed initial nervousness about being the leader in the classroom, but found the experience rewarding, especially since they were able to all work together towards one common goal: to deliver a science lesson.  The students were successful in their presentations as the school remarked that they loved having the Roosevelt students there.

Katie Copenhaver’s LIBS 201 class worked with nonprofits in helping build communication and marketing materials.  They conducted organizational assessments that allowed them to better understand the partner organizations.  One group worked with the Mansfield Institute to help categorize their social justice related materials.  Terry Pernell remarked that the experience taught him that at RU “we actually practice social justice not just preach it.”  Through their research and subsequent reports, students not only provided valuable help to the organizations but also strengthened their writing and research skills.

Transformational learning in Spring 2012

As the Spring 2012 semester comes to a close, we are happy to a few of the innovative ways in which Roosevelt University faculty members used transformational learning in their classes.

See photos from Mike Bryson's course in Sustainability Studies in which his students partnered with Growing Power Youth Corps to work together at the Chicago Lights Urban Farm.  

You can also learn how students in Lisa Lu's course ("Fundamentals of Behavioral Neuroscience" taught lessons about the brain to 7th and 8th graders at the Young Women's Leadership Charter School as part of Brain Awareness Week 2012.

These are wonderful testimonials to how transformational learning can make a difference in the lives of Roosevelt University students as well as the youth involved in these outreach efforts.

As a whole, transformational learning continues to grow at the university.  In total, we offered 99 transformational learning courses in 2011-2012 with an enrollment of 1,460 students.  This is a three-fold increase compared to just two years ago.  If you're interested in learning how to use transformational learning in your own classes, please feel free to contact the Mansfield Institute staff -- we'd be happy to help.

Schaumburg celebration of transformational learning

The Mansfield Institute was proud to sponsor a celebration of transformational learning at the Schaumburg Campus on April 13.  Organized by Jennifer Tani (Director of Community Engagement) and Jill Coleman (Assistant Professor of Psychology), the event showcased how Roosevelt University students and faculty have used this teaching strategy to address challenges and needs present in the northwest suburbs.

Jill Coleman and her teaching assistant, Aliya Ghouse, described how transformational learning enriched her Psychology of Women class during the past semester.  Flanked by display boards showcasing community partners for the class, participants learned how students benefited from the first-hand experiences of working with agencies that assist women and how to overcome challenges involved in community placements.  She shared a poignant quote from Lisa Musialowicz, one of her students, about the placement:

“While I was working at the volunteer fair with Deena, she mentioned that the women and children at the crisis center are in charge of their own breakfast and lunch, but each night a few people are assigned to the chore of making dinner for all of the residents.  With the food pantry getting so low this is becoming an even harder task…I decided that since Monday night was my night off, I would make dinner.  I decided on cheese tortellini and sauce with salad and garlic bread.  I don’t have a huge kitchen at my apartment so this was not exactly easy, but I managed.  When everyone saw what I brought, their mouths about dropped to the floor.  They kept saying how nice and generous it was.  To me, pasta, salad, and garlic bread is not a gourmet meal but, when you have nothing, everything is a big deal.

I left the center after dinner feeling better than I could have imagined.  I cook dinner for family and friends all the time and have never felt the way I did that night.  It was more than volunteering for a class that night.  It was doing something kind for women and children that maybe haven’t had a lot of kindness recently except for at ECC.”

Other presenters focused on how to facilitate outreach opportunities more broadly at the Schaumburg Campus.  A panel of students from Melissa Sisco's course in Child Abuse and Family Violence not only performed the service learning hours as part of this class, they shared results from a survey of 79 Roosevelt students about their needs and preferences for becoming more engaged in the community.  Melissa Palmer, Gina Stawinoga, Alexandra Corbin, Christina Luburich, Tiana Sapienza, Christine Westercamp, and Amanda Brullo reported that Roosevelt University students often wish for more opportunities for service learning as well as weekly volunteering, particularly in the areas of at-risk youth and intimate partner violence.  This data will inform the creation of the Campus to Community Outreach Initiative (CCO) at Schaumburg to establish additional community partnerships and to facilitate the placement process.

Jan Bone elaborated on the innovative partnership that she formed with CEDA Northwest when teaching Writing Social Justice during the Spring semester.  This community agency focuses on the impact of economic inequality in the northwest suburbs of Chicago.  Students in Jan's class developed their writing as they learned about issues of affordable housing and the lived experiences of poor people in the suburbs.  Applying their skills, students provided assistance for the redevelopment of CEDA's website, Facebook page, and compiled a 94-page document to help the agency find options to sustain their funding needed for operation.

Sonia Ivanov and Jessica Elbe from CEDA attended the celebration and received these materials at the reception.  Expressing gratitude and excitement around this collaboration, they shared how challenging it can be for not-for-profit agencies to sustain their work as funding becomes more scarce throughout Illinois and how vital the students' assistance has been for their organization.  Several undergraduates in the class will continue to serve at CEDA even after the course ends.

SUST 350′s Workday at the Chicago Lights Urban Farm

This past Wednesday was the third week for my SUST 350 Service & Sustainability class doing work at the Chicago Lights Urban Farm in Cabrini-Green. We help out on a variety of chores and projects at the farm on our Wed afternoon work sessions. Last week we pulled weeds, sifted compost, and harvested thousands of pumpkin seeds from some of last year’s leftover pumpkins. This week we sifted more compost, pulled weeds, and began work on constructing the 2nd hoop house for the farm.

Click to read more...

Students spend their spring break fixing homes in Indiana community hit hard by recession

Instead of driving to Florida or jetting to Mexico, a group of Roosevelt University students spent spring break helping others in an unusual destination – Goshen, Ind. Dedicated to the University’s social justice mission, 10 students traveled to Goshen March 11-17 to fix up vacant homes with the not-for-profit group, La Casa, Inc. 

Undergraduates Mooni Abdus-Salam, Samantha Benduha, Molly Connor, Marius Cuciulan, Traci Gilbert, Chelsea Morrison, Hannah Pilla, Kevin Stefanowski, Bailey Swinney and Emilie Wilkie were busy every day of their break making repairs, including indoor remodeling, roofing and landscaping, on homes that La Casa makes available to low and moderate-income residents.
 
”Community service has always been important to me,” said Morrison, an undergraduate political science major who was part of the Center for Student Involvement ‘s third annual Alternative Break Immersion trip. “It’s particularly important when you help people who can’t make do for themselves,” she said.

In 2010, a group of Roosevelt students spent their spring break helping at a community center in a small West Virginia town.  In 2011, Roosevelt students went to work at Benton House, a community center in in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood.  This year, volunteers chose to help in Elkhart County’s Goshen, Ind., which has been hard hit by the recession, including foreclosures and unemployment, due in large part to the collapse of its RV manufacturing industry.

“We took the trip to help out people who have fallen on hard times,” said Katherine Mason, the Roosevelt career counselor who led student volunteers in fixing three La Casa properties.  “It was an eye-opening experience to see how badly a small town like Goshen has suffered,” she said.

Hannah Pilla, an undergraduate English major who has participated in all three Alternative Break Immersion excursions and who helped organize the trip to Goshen, said the experience was labor intensive but very humbling.

“Every time I go on these trips, I realize I’m a lot more fortunate than many people,” said Pilla. “When you see someone who doesn’t have a place to live, it makes you feel lucky and good about yourself that you can do something to help,” she said.

Abdas-Salam, a Chicago resident who also was part of the Alternative Break Immersion trip last year, said the Indiana excursion was rewarding in part because it opened her eyes to problems that families face in semi-rural areas.

“I learned to get along with different types of people and it was great to help these families with painting, roofing, gardening and a lot of other things that needed to be done,” said Abdas-Salam, who wants to enter the not-for-profit field after graduating in 2013.

During the trip, students also spent time working at a home for recovering drug addicts and individuals with disabilities. They were assisted in their volunteer work by student volunteers from Boston University and by prison inmates doing community service. The group also had the opportunity to have dinner with members of the area’s Amish community.

Bailey Swinney, an undergraduate sociology major who went on the trip, said one of the best experiences was taking a tour after working hours in downtown Goshen where a guide from La Casa showed the group how volunteer efforts over time have helped Goshen regain its economic footing. “I loved having the opportunity to put social justice theories discussed in Roosevelt’s different classes into action,” said Swinney.

The trip gave Emily Wilkie, an undergraduate majoring in sociology and women’s and gender studies, a fresh, hands-on perspective on what it means to be homeless, addicted and/or disabled.

“I learned a lot from the open and honest discussion members of our group had.  It was truly an amazing experience and I would recommend it to anyone thinking about attending the Alternative Spring Break Immersion trip next year,” she said.

Roosevelt University researcher and her students worked behind scenes for passage of new state law

Kathleen Kane-Willis, director of the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy at Roosevelt University, predicted that deaths from drug overdoses in Illinois will decline thanks to a new state law, the Emergency Medical Services Access Act, which was recently signed by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn.

“The number one reason why folks don’t call 911 is the fear of police and prosecution,” said Kane-Willis, who has been advocating with grassroots organizers since 2010 for bi-partisan passage of the new law, which gives limited immunity from prosecution to those who call 911 or who seek medical treatment in a drug overdose situation.

With its passage, Illinois becomes the fifth state in the nation (New Mexico, Washington, Connecticut and New York have approved similar legislation) to grant limited immunity to drug users who are overdosing and to those who reach out on behalf of a drug user in an overdose situation. The law protects individuals from prosecution when small amounts of most illegal substances are involved. It does not protect drug sellers or traffickers.

In Illinois, the grassroots coalition that worked for passage of the new law in 2010 and 2011 included parents who lost children to overdose, researchers, Roosevelt University students in Kane-Willis’ Drugs, Alcohol and Society class, Students for Sensible Drug Policy in Illinois and drug-treatment providers.

“We did background research and went down to Springfield to advocate for the new law,” said Clay Wallace, a Roosevelt graduate sociology major (also pictured) who was the teaching assistant for Drugs and Society, a transformational learning class. Wallace, a resident of Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, enlisted the support of his state representative, Democrat Barbara Flynn Currie, who co-sponsored the Emergency Medical Services Access Act.

“This was democracy in the making, and it showed me that lawmakers are willing to look at things on a practical level.  The bottom line is no one wants people to die from a drug overdose and our lawmakers understood that,” he said.

“I hope this new law will someday be remembered as the first in a series of policy reforms that helped lead to a substantial reduction in the lives lost due to substance abuse,” said retired Chicago Police Captain John Roberts, a resident of Homer Glen in Will County, whose 19-year-old son died of a heroin overdose. Roberts is the founder of the Heroin Epidemic Relief Organization (HERO) and a member of the broad-based coalition that worked behind the scenes for passage of the new law.

The bill’s sponsor in the Illinois House, Representative Kelly Cassidy said “Simply put, this bill will save lives.  I am thankful to the advocates who worked so hard for so many years to pass this bill.  I am particularly grateful to the parents who shared the stories of their tragic losses to raise awareness and hopefully prevent others from enduring what they have."

Promoting child literacy through transformational learning

Students in Tammy Oberg De La Garza's READ 320 collaborated with the Logan Square Neighborhood Association during Fall 2012 to promote child literacy through transformational learning.



Her students document how much they learned in compelling videos. These undergraduates describe how they not only helped others, but also how the experience affected their personal development.

Transformational learning in LIBS 201: Writing Social Justice

On the first day of class in September, students in Jan Bone’s Fall 2011 Writing Social Justice course in Schaumburg (Liberal Studies 201) did not know they had signed up for a course that could include transformational learning. However, more than two thirds of them opted to take part in the transformational project on domestic violence. The rest of the class studied an alternative curriculum on immigration issues. Those that chose to be a part of transformational learning were paired with contacts provided by Agnes Masnik, Illinois State Senator Matt Murphy’s district director and secretary of the Northwest Suburban Alliance on Domestic Violence, headquartered in Palatine and near the Roosevelt/Schamburg campus. The contacts Masnik provided to students were all members of the Alliance and are committed to promoting prevention of domestic violence.

Over the 2011 summer, Bone and Masnik met several times to coordinate how to make the partnership between Roosevelt University students and the Alliance work effectively for everyone involved. Together they hatched the idea of creating blog postings where student authors would write-up their interviews with participating members of the Alliance. Bone and Masnik both spoke highly of their experiences working together on the transformational learning portion of the course; each wanted to give the other lots of credit for her work.

The 16 students who chose to partner with an Alliance member or agency went through a process of choosing a partner, requesting an interview with them, interviewing them, preparing questions, and actually interviewing. Interview questions were prepped as a class assignment and reviewed by Bone before the students met their individual contacts.

Students learned a great deal about interviewing skills as well as skills geared toward writing up an acceptable short interview report for their blogs on the Alliance website. Bone talked with her students about audience and purpose and the need to consider both when interviewing and writing up the material. Each interview piece went through multiple revisions with the help of Bone and Masnik before being published on the blog. Besides the end goal of posting their work on the Alliance’s blog, the students also were working to finish their pieces as a promotional timed to run concurrently and shortly after the Domestic Violence awareness event co-sponsored by Roosevelt and the Alliance called “Break the Silence on Relationship Violence” held on October 27th at the Schaumburg campus.

The partnership between Bone’s students and the members of the Alliance was at times complicated, but it was also valuable. It took a lot of coordination between the students and their designated contacts to find a time where they could even talk about setting up a meeting, much less actually meet. Bone also reported that she liked the challenge and will run a similar transformational learning course in Spring 2012 with the help of a teaching assistant using a $2000 grant from the Mansfield Institute of Social Justice and Transformational Learning for the course. The $2000 scholarship will be applied to the student’s Spring 2012 tuition.

Masnik elaborated that in a time where nonprofits are struggling to provide a service, the organizations were able to have the students help spread their message of social justice. The students’ blog entries were a new medium whereby attention was being drawn to something that needed attention: the cycle of domestic violence. The students also got a lot out of the experiences in the class as well. Not only did they learn interviewing strategies and improve their writing skills, but also they had the chance to learn by experiencing and being able to work with someone in the field. They enjoyed seeing their bylines published with their blogs, as well as the credit line for Roosevelt’s Social Justice classes.

The students were able to go to the sources to learn -- taking their learning a step farther than a textbook is able. Transformational learning also made the students feel involved, powerful, and as if they were actually doing something meaningful. After all, how many college sophomores get to interview a mayor or police chief and have their work published?

Bone’s transformational learning course gave them those opportunities. Her Spring 2012 class in Writing Social Justice will work closely with staffers from CEDA Northwest Self-Help Center, a non-profit agency that works in partnership with 14 communities to achieve self-sufficiency and improve their quality of life. CEDA Northwest serves the communities of Arlington Heights, Bartlett, Buffalo Grove, Des Plaines, Elgin, Elk Grove Village, Hanover Park, Hoffman Estates, Mount Prospect, Palatine, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg and Wheeling.

Check out the students' blog posting on the Northwest Suburban Alliance on Domestic Violence page at http://endallabuseblog.blogspot.com/.

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.

Transformational Learning through the Writing Center

Carrie Brecke's LIBS 201 course (Writing Social Justice) is about the politics of literacy and carries the requirement of tutoring in the Writing Center for two hours a week.  Students also have the opportunity to tutor at the Social Justice High School where they are currently organizing an in-house writing center.  In this class and through tutoring, students appreciate how essential having a voice that will be heard is for everyone in a democratic society.   Emphasis here on everyone.   Students in this class come to understand how writing is a political act, and through tutoring, students help others find agency through writing. Every semester, students in this section of LIBS 201 put in over 500 hours of tutoring, which is a truly transformational experience for them, from the help they offer struggling writers to the insights they get in terms of the inequality of educational institutions, they begin to understand how deep a social justice issue writing and learning to write is. Many of the students in this class go on to become staff tutors at the Writing Center.  Learn more through their recent newsletter.  The editors, Jeff Schaller and Katie Kelly, both began as transformational learning students.

Undergraduates Benefit from Transformational Learning: “You Learn So Much”

Undergraduates in Dr. Lisa Lu’s transformational learning class in Human Neuropsychology had the unique opportunity to take the information they were learning in the classroom and apply it in the community by helping people with brain injuries, such as strokes or as a result of accidents. Amina Avion and Melissa Trejo, both seniors at Roosevelt, completed their service learning projects for Psychology 350 at the Midwest Brain Injury Clubhouse and Victory Center, a supportive living community.

Asked whether this service learning class was rewarding, Avion said, “Definitely.” She explained that she has taken a number of transformational service learning classes while at Roosevelt and she finds them to be a “really enjoyable experience.” She said that these courses not only give students the opportunity to integrate activity with knowledge, but they also offer students experiences that help them decide if a field holds promise for a career. Trejo added that transformational learning classes are, “a perfect opportunity to test the waters. It can help you decide what you really want to do.” The service learning component offered them more than the coursework alone; working with people showed them deeper levels of the subject matter and the applications of what they were learning.

This class was more time consuming than their others, but it did not keep Trejo or Avion from finding the experience worthwhile for a number of reasons. First, transformational learning gave them the opportunity to give back to others. Avion said she never would have interacted with the people at her site or those with such difficulties, but this transformational learning class provided her with the opportunity. Trejo found the experience to be eye-opening. She said, “This enhances you as a person.” Both students emphasized that transformational learning classes help develop time management skills, teach responsibility, and promote commitment because people depend on the students to be there. Service learning not only helped these students grow academically, but also professionally and personally.

Transformational learning classes are not without their difficulties, however. Psychology 350 involved a 20-hour service learning component in addition to classroom time. This process involved searching for a site, making sure it was appropriate for the class, and background checks. Despite these challenges, Trejo advises, “Go for it!” Trejo and Avion encouraged others should follow in their footsteps. These types of classes not only apply to psychology, but experience in the world is important regardless of the discipline. Avion closed with her sentiments about how transformational learning should be a part of every college’s curriculum. She did not just spend the semester learning neuropsychology; she learned much more about others and about herself.

Transformational Learning Courses at Roosevelt University

The Mansfield Institute has created and is happy to share a comprehensive list of transformational learning courses offered at the University during the 2010 - 2011 academic year. These include 22 classes during the Fall 2010 semester (which had a total enrollment of more than 400 students), and 22 class sections that are being offered during Spring 2011.

Click here to download the description of the wide range of transformational learning classes.

Collectively, these courses are taught at the downtown and Schaumburg campuses across a range of disciplines, such as education, psychology, criminal justice, history, sociology, art, economics, and journalism. Regardless of the discipline, these transformational learning courses serve as the capstone course for the Certificate in Social Justice Studies, which provides students with conceptual and evaluative tools for examining many social injustices.