Running head: CASE STUDY #3 1

Case Study #3

Hector Solis-Ortiz

Loyola University Chicago

February 17, 2015

CASE STUDY #3 2

Introduction

Experiential learning is a pivotal part in a student’s overall learning experience in

that it provides students an opportunity to interact with their surrounding community.

These centers enable a student to gain an immense amount of opportunities to learn and

thrive depending on the needs of the student. These service learning experiences enhance

a student’s worldview and in some instances can become a transformative experience

while in college. In order to understand the full scope of what goes into an experiential

learning program or center it would be beneficial to look at existing programs to see what

the common trends are and where they differ.

Descriptive Analysis

San Jose State University’s (SJSU) Center for Community Learning &

Leadership (CCLL) department states, “we support faculty and students in community

learning, projects and research that develop in students the knowledge, skills, values and

motivations to socially responsible citizens” (San Jose State University, n.d.). They are

able to do this by establishing partnerships with nonprofit organization and coalitions in

the Silicon Valley. The CCLL has a variety of programs that interact with the outside

community that include: JusticeCorps, Community Learning Courses, Project SHINE,

Student Against Violence Everywhere, Veterans Embracing Transition Project, and

Restore Coyote Creek. Each one of these programs is meant to instill leadership

opportunities by tying in each student's field of study and getting to provide a positive

outlook for the community. JusticeCorps is a program that allows students to work in a

Superior Court self help centers where they can assist in attorney facilitated workshops

and is intended for Justice Studies majors in which they can earn internship credit as well.

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The hope within this program is to apply what they learn in a classroom and work

alongside the community to get better immersed in their environment. CCLL offers a

wide variety of Community Learning Courses that meets the needs and interest of the

student’s field of study while providing tangible service work in the community. Some

of these courses include child development in mental health courses where students have

a chance to work with students in a daycare setting while studying student behavior. Not

only do they have a chance to learn outside in the community, but they can bring what

they learn into the classroom.

Fordham University’s Service Learning department states, “this experience is in

service to underrepresented or marginalized group... service learning ought to benefit

both the student who learns course materials through, exposure and experience and the

community agency” (Fordham University, n.d.). Fordham is a Jesuit institution which is

why most if not all of their programs are meant to interact with a community that lacks

resources especially if they are marginalized. Students have a variety of different

program to choose from in this department. Students who choose to take a service

learning course will have to sign up for these classes that would count as a general

education course and most of these class will be humanities based courses. Fordham’s

service learning initiatives include two different approaches, including: Interdisciplinary

seminar and Integrated Service Courses.

An interdisciplinary seminar is one in which students delve deeper into social

justice issues by having an opportunity to work in social justice projects within the larger

New York state community and be able to apply academic coursework and service in one

fell swoop. In this program students will need to give at least 30 hours of community

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service to a designated location that is assigned to them at the beginning of the semester.

They also have to attend five disciplinary seminar meetings in which they talk about

social justice and the Jesuit ideals and how they connect to the overall mission of the

University. The second program are the integrated service courses which are similar to

the interdisciplinary seminars, but differ in that student’s service experience is strictly

facilitated in the classroom. There’s also a bit of a disconnect in that most of these

courses are still in a workshop basis and it’s a new initiative in which the department is

trying to expand on it so at times it’s unclear as to what the true intention is.

Santa Clara University (SCU), was another Jesuit University I was highly

interested in seeing how they structure their experiential learning. Their Community

Based Learning department takes an interesting role at their University. All of their

programs are based off “The Thriving Neighbors” initiative designed for staff and

students to work in collaboration with residents in the San Jose area as well with the

Greater Washington State residents. “Thriving Neighbors will build local capacity for

entrepreneurship, expanded educational choice, healthy living and more” (Santa Clara

University, n.d.). The hope is that students will gain practical skills in helping others and

be a “good neighbor” which in turn can be transferred to being a person to serve others in

the future.

The center offers 9 different initiatives for students and faculty to interact with

the community. There are some programs that are entirely staff centered in which they

are there to provide professional services. For example, the “Abriendo Puertas: Opening

Doors to Early Childhood Education Via iPads” program is an initiative where faculty

and staff work with parents in the San Jose are to provide math and literacy development

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for young children in predominantly Latino neighborhood by incorporating technology in

the classroom. Students have an opportunity to participate in three set programs that

include: Arrupe Engagement, internships and fellowships. The Arrupe engagement

program is where students can choose service learning classes through the course

catalogs and have a chance to do service with 50 local community partners. The

internship program is designed for students who are Juniors and Seniors to have a chance

to work with a community partner for a full year providing service. Finally, there are 15

fellowships that are granted to students that want to partake in a community based

learning experience where they go to impoverished areas around the world and provide

their service and reflect on how it connects to the Jesuit ideals.

The University of San Francisco’s (USF) Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public

Service and the Common Good “educates leaders committed to lives of ethical public

service by implementing academically rigorous programs, cultivating authentic

community partnerships, and creating transformational experiences” (University of San

Francisco, n.d.). They are able to achieve this through a variety of programs such as

fellowships as well as intensive programs. The most noteworthy programs that students

participate in is the Advocates for Community Engagement (ACE) in which students

commit to work onsite for a nonprofit organization. The role of the student is to be the

liaison between their nonprofit, USF faculty and other service learners. In order to be a

part of the program students need to go through in intensive course and actually get paid

for their experience instead of receiving college credit. Howard (1993) states, “academic

credit is for learning, not for service...academic credit is not awarded for doing service or

for the quality of the service, but rather for the student’s demonstration of academic and

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civic learning” (p. 3). The reason I thought it was important to highlight is to start

looking at how do students create that civic learning experience. Especially, when there

are not any way to gauge how students are civically learning through this specific

program especially if students are getting paid to be a part of it.

The second program is a Global Service Learning program in which students take

a global sustainable course throughout the spring semester in which they learn what it

means to be a global citizen. Once this course is over students will then take a class

abroad in India or Bolivia where “they develop a proposal for a sustainable development

project, solicit grant funding, and collaborate with colleagues and community members to

implement the project” (University of San Francisco, n.d). This abroad experience is

then followed by a 2-unit course in which students are then to reflect on their overall

experience and look at things in a valued based approach. It was so interesting to see

how intentional these programs were in developing students global citizenship and how

integrated the experience was.

New York University’s (NYU) Experiential Learning is not as easily defined or as

expansive as it was for the previous institutions listed. NYU has certain opportunities in

which students can get involved in experiential learning and service program, but isn’t as

accessible or visible at the institution. Since the coursework at this institution is very

rigid students do have opportunities to opt into service learning courses but only

dependent on a plan that students make with their academic advisors. There is no

specific outline as to what these programs are or a curriculum as to what students should

be learning in these internships. Furco (1996) states, “internship programs that students

are the primary intended beneficiary and the focus of the service activity is on student

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learning” (p. 4). Even though there seems to be a universal understanding of what an

internship should be it is unclear as to how these internships will specifically broaden a

student’s understanding and or immersion into a service learning experience. Only

certain programs are allowed to participate in this type of learning depending on what

major field of study they will be using. Also, it is a bit hard to distinguish between where

an internship begins and service learning ends. The mission and the program is so vague

which is something that I found a lot of universities had in common.

Comparative Analysis

“The hyphen in service-learning is critical in that it symbolizes the symbiotic

relationship between service and learning….the human and community needs that

service-learning addresses are those needs that defined by the community” (Jacoby, 2010,

p. 5). Throughout my narrative there obviously were a variety of Jesuit institutions in

which I chose to focus on because I felt as though that service learning came naturally for

the Jesuits. That being said it was interesting to see how much of a difference existed

within each respected institution. The most common things that I found within the Jesuit

schools is how these centers for experiential learning were completely mission focused.

There were a number of times in which these institutions would keep mentioning phrases

as creating experiences for students to engage in “the common good.” They continually

felt that service learning should have more a service component aspect into how a student

should gain practical skills and have a chance to reflect on their experiences. However,

the way things were worded at times made it seem that students were just there to provide

service instead of working with others, not specifically for other people. If that were the

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case students would have a difficult time reflecting on their experiences and would miss

out on having a transformative point of view.

Another similarity that I found amongst all of the institutions were a lack of detail

as to what each program’s learning outcomes. There were some set learning outcomes

for programs, but as I was navigating each center it was unclear as to what the intent at

times. Stanton (1999) states, “from the outset of the project, participants and service

recipients alike must have a clear sense of: (1) what is to be accomplished and (2) what is

to be learned” (p. 5). Stanton (1999) makes a good point in that for a program to be truly

effective it has to be able to clearly state service and learning goals. This was frustrating

at times in that I was able to understand what each program did, but did not comprehend

how it fit back to the students overall experience.

Differences that I came across through the institutions were that even though

some of the mission statements seem to be similar, for the most part the Jesuit

universities were able to tie in mission with their programs. For institutions such as San

Jose State University and New York University there seemed to be a bit of a disconnect

with what their mission/vision was and the type of programming that the experiential

departments would offer to its students. For example, New York University state, “has a

strong commitment to community involvement,” there was lack of information or ways

in which they went about in doing so. As I briefly mentioned before not all students

would be able to participate in experiential learning as it is more intended for students

studying the humanities. If this institution had a strong commitment to community

involvement it would be able to find ways in which all students could actively participate

without getting consent from their academic advisor.

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Finally, the biggest similarity that I was able to see is how institutions are

committed to providing programs for both students and faculty to engage in service

learning programs. This was a great surprise in that it showed how some of the

institutions still had a commitment to give back to their respective communities.

Conclusion

Overall, this case study was helpful in learning how to provide service learning

opportunities for students. It is not enough to have a program in which students do

service work for the community, but it is important to gauge what they are taking away

from those experiences. Even though service work is important how we as educators and

facilitators make sure that its more than just task oriented work that we provide for our

students. Experiential learning has to be something in which students are able to reflect

upon each individual task and start to see their place in the world in some senses. This

responsibility lies in the learning outcomes that we set for these programs as well as

making sure that every program that we develop is mission driven to help the common

good, but to still instill a sense of reflective practice throughout these programs.

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References

Center for Community Learning & Leadership | San Jose State University. (n.d.).

Retrieved from http://www.sjsu.edu/ccll/

Experiential Learning at New York University. (n.d.). Retrieved from

www.nyu.edu/students/undergraduates/academic-services/undergraduate-

advisement/unique-academic-opportunities/experiential-learning.html

Honnet, E.P. & Poulsen, S.J. (1998). Principles of Good Practice for Combining Service

and Learning, The Johnson Foundation.

Howard, J. (1993). Community service learning in the curriculum. In J. Howas (Ed.),

Praxis I: A faculty casebook on community service learning. (pp. 3-12). Ann

Arbor: OCSL Press.

The Ignatian Center at Santa Clara University -Community-Based Learning. (n.d.).

Retrieved from http://www.scu.edu/ic/cbl/

Jacoby, B. & Associates. (1996). Service-learning in higher education: Concepts and

Practices. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Mission - Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good –

University of San Francisco (USF). (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.usfca.edu/centers/mccarthy/about/overview/

Service Learning Program | Fordham. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.fordham.edu/info/20168/service_learning_program

Stanton, T.K., Giles, D.E, Cruz N.I. (1999). Service-learning: A movement’s pioneers

reflect on its origins, practice, and future. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.