Service-Learning Meet and Greet, Fall 2013

Every semester, I try to provide my students with enough information about the different community organizations working with our classes so that they can make informed placement requests.  Over the summer, I started thinking about how much more effective it would be for my students to hear this information directly from representatives of these organizations instead of me.  So I invited all fourteen community partners who had confirmed interest in working with my students this semester to come and present to my classes.  Knowing how busy non-profit organizations are, I was hoping to hear back from maybe half of them, expecting only five or six to actually be able to make it.  The response I got was a complete surprise!

Almost every organization expressed and interest in coming to UNCA and presenting to my classes, and in the end, ten of them were able to make it.  Both classrooms were packed, and the community representatives were able to give my students specific information about the needs of their organizations, current projects, and the application process.

I offer my thanks to everyone who made my first service-learning meet and greet on August 30th such a success:

Emily Lindesmith, ABCCM

Lindsay Kazi, Asheville Middle School

Ben Herring, Brother Wolf Animal Rescue

Robin Mehler, Girls on the Run

Emma Harver, LEAF

Jim Faucett, Youth Outright

Ryan Rosemond, UNCA Rhodes Property

Amy Leitner, In Real Life

Traci Thompson, Women's Wellbeing and Development Foundation

Susannah Crawford, HAPI Lab           

2012-2013 Feedback from Community Partners

At the end of each semester, I send out a survey to the community organizations my students have worked with, asking for feedback about the partnership.  While the response rate has been lower than I would like, their comments are always reaffirming:

"We love our UNCA service learning volunteers- they bring high levels of engagement and enthusiasm, connect with the kids, and truly add value to our programming."

"The kids really enjoyed having some young, energetic people in the classrooms. It also was a huge help to teachers-- breaking the classes into smaller groups so they could concentrate energy on students with the highest need."

"[One student] was a great volunteer with In Real Life- he was reliable, flexible, and most of all worked extremely well with the kids."

"[The students were able to] build relationships with our folks and to begin to understand the way homelessness hurts our entire community. Also helped with specific needs in the community."

"[One student] was fantastic. She helped with office tasks, though her most valuable contribution was in translating documents for us into Spanish and she wrote an article for the Spanish newspaper in West Asheville to promote GS to that community."

"We gained a dedicated volunteer for one of our EC classes, and the students greatly benefited from the extra adult support, as well as interacting with an 'outside' adult."

"[One student] was very helpful in any task assigned to her. LEAF gained a competent and dedicated volunteer and are excited she is coming back for the Spring semester."

Congratulations!

Two of my students from this past fall semester have landed internships with the community organizations they began working with during their LANG 120 service-learning project.

Samantha Singer is continuing her work with LEAF in Schools & Streets.

Sam's blog: http://samhsinger.blogspot.com/ 

Emily Lindesmith is interning at a program called Our Circle that is run by ABCCM.  She writes, "[t]he program is a part of a study for the Department of Labor," the purpose being to determine if vocational programs are more effective when participants receive a 'circle' of mentors."  Emily has also volunteered to serve as a liaison between service-learning classes at UNCA and ABCCM in attempt to strengthen and sustain a working partnership between the two organizations.

Emily's blog: http://emilylindesmith.tumblr.com/

Congratulations to both of them!   

Links:

The Key Center at UNCA: http://keycenter.unca.edu/

The Key Center is the campus hub for community citizenship and service-learning that works to connect students, faculty, and community partners with service-learning projects.


Student Blog (Fall 2012): http://emilylindesmith.tumblr.com/

Emily Lindesmith focused her writing and research on promoting a living wage rather than a minimum wage.  She worked with ABCCM for her service-learning project and at the end of the semester was asked to stay on as an intern.

Student Blog (Fall 2012): http://samhsinger.blogspot.com/

Samantha Singer's semester-long project was on art advocacy.  She worked with the LEAF in Schools program, volunteered with the fall LEAF festival, and was then awarded an internship. 

Service-Learning Celebration, Fall 2012

Thank you to McLeanMoore, Dena Hughes, and Samantha Singer for presenting their service-learning projects at the UNCA Fall 2012 Service-Learning Celebration on December 3rd, 2012!

 

Spring 2013

Spring 2013 classes are off to a good start!  Thanks to Sara Brown, Lise Kopell, and others at the UNCA Key Center, my students will be working with the following community organizations this semester:

Be Loved Community
ABCCM
Brother Wolf
RiverLink
UNCA Campus Garden
UNCA Rhodes Property Garden
ASAP
The Women's Wellness and Development Center
LEAF
Asheville Community Design Lab
William Randolf School
In Real Life
Asheville Middle School
Girls on the Run