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| Learning through service |
Carrie Baker
Senior Staff Writer
Chancellor/ Student Development Beat |
Josh Brown | Chief Photographer
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The number of students involved
in community service through the Appalachian State University Service
Learning Programs doubled during the 2001-02 academic year to include
more than 1,000 through 39 classes, said Shari L. Galiardi, coordinator
of the programs.
Service Learning is a division of Appalachian and
the Community Together (A.C.T.).
Galiardi said the number of classes involved in
the programs dramatically increased to 31 during this semester alone.
Galiardi said she hopes to see next semester equal 31 and make involvement
this year surpass the standards set last year. |
Galiardi attributes this
increase to the number of professors and classes showing interest
in using Service Learning Programs as part of their curriculum.
In an effort spearheaded this year by Dr. Norman E. Clark, assistant
professor in the Department of Communication, all Foundations and
Context of Human Communication courses (COM 1100) are incorporating
Service Learning Programs.
COM 1100 courses involve more than 300 students in service projects
for the elderly, homeless or underprivileged population of the community.
These projects help students not only earn a sense of involvement
in the community, but also teach them intergenerational communication,
said Clark.
“Students learn to interact and get a better sense of community,
people and issues in the community,” said Clark.
Service Learning Programs work with direct and indirect service projects,
said Galiardi. An example of a direct Service Learning project is
the activity carried out last year as part of Elaine Oehmich’s
Design Fundamentals I classes (ART 1011).
Oehmich’s students worked with the residents of the Rock House,
a transitional living facility for the homeless. The design students
helped the occupants redesign their living spaces.
“From the inception of the idea to the final critique, the refurbishing
and redecorating of the Rock House has proved a life-enhancing experience,
not only for the residents therein, but [also] for the students who
worked on the project,” said Oehmich in a recent A.C.T. publication.
The trend of students and professors showing increased concern in
community involvement from the classroom angle led Appalachian to
join the North Carolina Campus Compact (NCCC).
NCCC is a nationwide coalition of colleges, whose presidents and chancellors
have shown they believe in the concepts of public service and civic
responsibility, said Galiardi.
Appalachian State is one of the 14 North Carolina charter institutions
to join the NCCC. North Carolina is the 27th state to form a “state
compact,” said Galiardi.
Galiardi is excited to see Appalachian as a new member of NCCC and
hopes it will further increase Appalachian’s community service
awareness, she said.
“We are hoping to break down stereotypes and assumptions and
learn more about the community,” she said.
Meanwhile, Service Learning Programs continue to grow. This semester,
courses involved in Service Learning Programs fall under the departments
of Art, Communication, Sociology, Social Work, and Interdisciplinary
Studies, Family and Consumer Sciences, and Health, Leisure and Exercise
Sciences.
Freshman Seminar courses also remain involved in the programs. |
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