Service Learning at UMM

The service-learning program is completing another successful year. Perhaps the most visible project this academic year was the Bread ‘N Bowls event, a service-learning project in Kevin Flicker's Beginning and Advanced Ceramics classes. Kevin's students and local artists donated handmade bowls, which community members could purchase, along with a meal of bread and soup, for $10/each. We raised more than $1,000 for Someplace Safe and the Stevens County Food Shelf through this fundraiser! In a series of discussions, students reflected on how their artistic skills and, for art majors, their role as artists in their local communities could be used for social change. We are grateful to the long list of local businesses, places of worship, and individuals who contributed before and during the event!

Three new service-learning courses and two continuing courses focused on work with young people at the Morris Area School District . Brook Miller's Introduction to Literature students worked with fifth graders on writing poetry. Because the college students were teaching the basic elements of poetry they were learning in class, their course material was reinforced. Students also have the opportunity to reflect on the ways literature can be used as a community development and an educational tool. The college students and their fifth grade buddies had a poetry reading and ice cream social at the end of the year.

In Nancy Pederson's English in the American University course, international students read a book about a young Chinese-American girl with immigrant parents and discussed cultural issues in the book. The fifth graders were able to hear contemporary perspectives on life in China today, and the UMM students had a chance to experience the American public school system first-hand.

Lory Lemke's Logic students taught logic to sixth graders in order to reinforce the new concepts they were learning in the course and to enhance the sixth graders' critical thinking skills and, hopefully, their interest in college.

Finally, Diedre Onishi's Creative Drama with Children and a one-credit practicum associated with Jennifer Rothchild's Introduction to Sociology worked with the after-school program, the Zone. Jennifer's students tutored students in the TREC program, and Diedre's students planned fun, educational activities using the new educational methods they were learning in their course.

Two new and three continuing community-based research courses provided requested data to local agencies. In the honors course entitled The Theory and Practice of Community Based Learning, a select group of students of color who had been chosen for the Global Issues Honors Consortium conducted community-based research projects to determine ways to better meet needs of diverse groups of people. Projects focused on education, medical care, native wild rice distribution, and Native American college students. These projects began in the fall semester and continued into spring semester; final reports have recently been provided to the partnering agencies, and we are hopeful that the information gained through the students' research will be beneficial—and perhaps lead to new partnerships as well.

Each year, Jennifer Rothchild's Sociology of Gender and Sociology of Deviance students conduct community-based research projects for a variety of agencies. This year, the agencies included Stevens County Human Services, the service-learning program, Someplace Safe, UMM's Violence Prevention Program, and the UMM Commission on Women.

Jinzhu Gao's Database Systems students developed a database for Someplace Safe that will be used to more effectively track the caseload of the agency. The class also assisted with developing a template for inputting community surveys that will be developed and analyzed by UMM Economics students.

Students in Pareena Lawrence's Econometrics course created a survey in consultation with many community groups about household environmentally-friendly practices; look for it soon in your mailbox! It will provide useful information to a variety of people and agencies in our community.

Tom Gausman's Marketing Principals and Strategies course offered a business and marketing plan for a family considering starting a local business in an effort to increase economic viability in our small town.

Long-standing projects in Fundamentals of Writing, Introduction to Creative Writing (Argie Manolis), and Developmental Psychology: Adulthood, Aging and Death (Jacqueline Greenwood) continue to provide recreational and educational opportunities for senior citizens. Principles of Television Broadcasting (Barbara Burke) students always provide promotional materials to a local non-profit; this year, students are working on a promotional video for the local Kiwanis club.

Next year's classes include several old standards and a few new offerings. For more information, visit the service-learning website.