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To Whom Much Is Given

2007 Conference on Service Learning in Higher Education

Conference Schedule

Breakout Block I

10:00-10:45 Sessions

Profiling the Culture of Poverty in Alabama (Central Bank Room)

What does poverty look like in Alabama?  This session will discuss the nature of poverty in Alabama, the cultural and social structures that contribute to the problem, potential long-term solutions, and how students can become aware of these issues.

Nick Foster (Executive Director, Alabama Poverty Project)

Kimble Forrister (Executive Director, Alabama Arise)

Scott Douglas (Executive Director, Greater Birmingham Ministries)

Isabel Rubio (Executive Director, Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama)

Maximizing Learning in Service Learning: Strategies and Resources (Birmingham Room)

This session reviews what research, theory and practice reveal about best practices for leveraging the most learning possible from service learning in higher education courses. Geared toward faculty teaching service learning courses, the session will engage participants in conversation about challenges and ongoing debates about how to structure and facilitate high quality service learning experiences.

KerryAnn O'Meara (Associate Professor, Higher Education, University of Maryland College Park)

Service Learning in First Year Programs  (Wilson Room)

Teaching Freshman Writing and Speaking: Perspectives Gained from Service Learning

Panelist will discuss how service learning provided a focus for written and oral assignments.  Community engagement with Bread and Roses, a women and children’s homeless shelter, provided clarity and focus in terms of audience and purpose for assignments as well as a concrete introduction to systemic societal issues such as poverty, homelessness and domestic abuse.  The presentation will include student writing illustrating student learning.

Lynette Sandley (Director of Service Learning, Samford University)

Music, Literature and Service Learning in First Year Courses

Presenters each teach one of several first year (IY) service learning courses at Birmingham-Southern College.  In Dr. Hindman’s “Fundamentals of Music” course, students learn the rudiments of reading and analyzing music and then work in pairs with students at Woodrow Wilson Elementary school to create a youth opera. In Dr. Tatter’s “Literature and the Social Experience” course, students explore issues of gender, race, and class through literature and their experiences with one of several service placement sites including a neighborhood after school program, two homeless shelters, and a soup kitchen.

Dorothy Hindman (Assistant Professor, Music, Birmingham-Southern College)

John Tatter (Professor, English, Birmingham-Southern College)

Alabama Action: A Pilot Light for Service

Alabama Action is a unique service learning experience for University Honors Program freshmen.  For one week prior to the beginning of classes in August, UHP students work together on an Alabama Action project that combines service to the Tuscaloosa community with enriching academic sessions (UH 103) taught by University professors and community leaders.

Lesa Shaul (Director, Honors Academy, The University of Alabama)

Trey Hayes (Industrial Engineering student, The University of Alabama)

Phillips Thomas (International Studies student, The University of Alabama)

Leadership, Social Change and Social Justice  (Mason Room)

Incorporating Service Learning in an Academic Leadership Course

Presenter will discuss “Foundations of Leadership,” a four-hour upper level course at Samford University designed to open the minds of students to the interdisciplinary nature of the study of leadership.  This course incorporates readings, in-class and online discussions, service learning, group work, simulations, critical reflection and lectures.  The service learning aspect of the class is integrated throughout the course rather than as an “add-on.”  Issues addressed have linkages to poverty or homelessness in general, as well as lack of access to quality education, healthcare, and the “isms” we must overcome in society.

Suzanne Martin (Program Director, Leading Edge Institute; and Adjunct Faculty, Samford University)

The Journey to Advocacy: Hess Fellows Model

The Hess Fellows Program offers competitive eight-week paid summer internships for Birmingham-Southern College students to work with selected community organizations involved in advocacy. The workshops will feature the experiences of two recent Hess Fellows and their insights into efforts to reduce social injustices. The presentation will include ways to integrate advocacy experiences with academic courses, an evaluation of the Hess Fellows program, and a discussion on whether the program is comprehensively developing solutions to poverty.

Jeanne Jackson (Director, Hess Center for Leadership and Service, Birmingham-Southern College)

Art Richey (Student, Birmingham-Southern College)

Carson Land (Student, Birmingham-Southern College)

Multidisciplinary Professional Services  (Nicholas Room)

Professional Services to Nonprofits Through Service Learning

The presenters will discuss how professional and other schools (such as law, business, accounting, communication, human resources, computer science, etc.) can offer service learning courses that: a) expand the capabilities and resources of nonprofits and service providers; and b) provide professional students the opportunity to refine and practice their skills while also becoming more aware of their civic responsibility to use these skills for social good.  The benefits to such a program are numerous.  The nonprofits acquire high-quality professional services for free. The students get the opportunity to practice and perfect the practical skills of their profession.  Finally, and most importantly of all, Alabama's needy residents benefit through more effective social services.  

Bob Kuehn (Professor, Law, The University of Alabama)

Ron Dulek (Professor, Management and Marketing, The University of Alabama)

Forming the Bridge between the Community and the Built Environment

This session presents a unique interdisciplinary approach towards meeting community needs through a Community Outreach Center for Design and Construction, using service learning, and forming useful ties between social work educators, students, faculty in the College of Architecture, and community partners.

Emily Myers (Director, Social Work Program, Auburn University)

Carole Zugazaga (Assistant Professor, Social Work, Auburn University)

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