Researching social problems on microfiche or in a book is not enough. It's one thing for a student to get mad about homelessness, but it's another thing for her to face a homeless child. At Chandler-Gilbert Community College (CGCC), service learning in ENG 101 and 102 combines community service with academic instruction to make students' work more relevant.
Students and faculty then become involved in a community service program. Most choose Into the Streets which takes place in both Fall and Spring semesters as a 2-day community service event involving 14 local agencies including homeless shelters, domestic violence crisis centers, and public schools among others. Students choose one day, Friday or Saturday, and serve at a chosen agency for 3-4 hours. The readings and service experience then focus class discussion and student writing of the essay.
In ENG 102, the students' service learning experience goes deeper. Students serve 20 hours in community service while researching how to solve a social problem related to their future career aspirations. Such primary research helps students understand what needs to be done and see how they can be part of the solution. Students involved in past semesters are hired for each class as service learning assistants to help coordinate community service placements in the over 100 agencies involved in the project.
The results of the service learning project have been extremely positive. The students' writing is much more passionate. Students are connected with the issues they choose and the community they serve. Faculty members are eager to teach the service classes. Finding service learning assistants and new service agencies to meet the demand for more service learning sections in ENG 102 has been the only obstacle at this point.
The service learning project began in the Fall semester of 1993 with one section of ENG 102. This semester, 14 ENG 102 sections, about half of all sections, and all of the ENG 101 sections include a service learning component. Faculty from other disciplines, hearing of the success of ENG 102, received training in the Summer of 1994 on how to incorporate service in their curriculum. Today, service learning is used in various English, biology, communications, humanities, honors, math, psychology, Spanish, education, and reading sections at CGCC.
CGCC English instructors seem to agree that they would never choose to go back to the traditional way teaching research and composition. Seeing and solving problems first hand can only complement what students are reading on microfiche in the library.