Service Learning-A way to understand life from a different point of view and a way to serve your fellow human beings.

WHAT? How is Service-Learning different from volunteering? Please reference the chapter(s) from Service-Learning: A Movement’s Pioneers and use quotes to support your response.

I recently heard from one of my far relatives that he went to Mexico to help build a house; he said Mexico was poor and underdeveloped. His thoughts of Mexico was poor and underdeveloped is the ideology of volunteerism-middle class, high school student went to an underdeveloped country to fix the problem with a temporary solution. For me that is selfish and ignorance because the volunteer was there to make his or herself to feel special, and entitled, they were not there to “help” anyone. He never mentions about the culture, the people, and their way of living; maybe for the people of Mexico, family, music, and self-happiness is more critical than a fancy house or a luxury car. In contrast, service-learning is different as A Movement’s Pioneers described “…a transferring of students from one setting where they got money, but not learning, to another setting where they get it all the learning and service combined.” During my summer in high school, I went to Browning, Montana, Black Feet nation, a reservation, to lived, learned, served, and volunteer. Through my experience, I did a lot of volunteer work like picked up trash, organized event, etc.… but I did learn a lot about their culture, the caused of poverty, and the oppression of the US government toward their religion. I learned how beautiful their culture was, how spiritual they were, how their behavior toward nature. If someone asks me what was it like to stay on a reservation, I would say it is beautiful, pure and spiritual. For me, that is what service-learning is all about.

SO WHAT? How do you understand your role in the community this semester? Please reference, with specific quotes, Remen’s and Illich’s articles to help articulate where you stand on understanding your community role. If you have taken SL-designated courses before, you can also talk about how your understanding of your position in the community has evolved.

At worst, in your “community development” spirit you might create just enough problems to get someone shot after your vacation ends_ and you rush back to your middle- class neighborhoods where your friends make jokes about “spits” and “wetbacks.” My role in the community is not to change anyone perception about their culture or their way of living, and I am there to listen, encourage and learn about their life. Encourage sounds like I want to persuade them to change, but that is not my intention. For example, I was with the middle school program at Canal Alliance last year, and I encouraged my students to go to college or trade school, so they have more opportunities. I also told them, it is okay to go to a community college or trade school, they don’t have to get into Harvard or Stanford to have more opportunities. For this semester, I expect myself to learn more about the culture and the cause of poverty in the Canal neighborhood. I also hope to bring new ideas and challenges to the community partner I work with this semester.

NOW WHAT? Please read through the SL Program Learning Outcomes and Rubric document. Is there an outcome or concept (or maybe several) that you are primarily interested in focusing on this semester? Why?

I think the concept of relevancy is essential to our class. Our students, including me, are in a private university, which we might not have a lot of connection with the community partner we will serve, which will make some of us feel disconnect and lose interest in the class. I want the course to be relevant to us but also to challenge our comfort zone.