Service Learning

What is Service Learning?

Service learning is an experiential instructional strategy that engages students in solving problems within their schools and communities as part of their academic studies, transforming them from passive recipients to active participants in their education and community while providing a deeper understanding of theories and course content.

Service learning courses at Saint Joseph’s College encourage tolerance, leadership, and civic and social responsibility, while promoting the Core Values of the College. The Office of Service Learning promotes and supports the integration of this experiential component into course content, furthering the Mercy tradition of service on which the College was founded.

How Does Service Learning Work?

Engaging in service as part of a course contributes to learning course content just as reading texts, watching films, or conducting experiments in the lab do. Learning continues to occur through an array of reflection activities and assignments that help students connect their service experiences in the course with the central ideas, hypotheses, theories, and methods they are studying.

On the Saint Joseph’s College campus, students are learning about energy use and its environmental impact in the Environmental Science core course. As a service learning project that serves the college community, students are measuring energy consumption in campus buildings. Data on energy use patterns is collected on hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly time scales, then analyzed to reveal patterns of peak usage. Students are also researching the sources of energy consumption, the devices used, and user patterns. The goal is to develop a plan, tailored to the studied buildings and energy user groups, to improve efficiency and reduce consumption. Students will then analyze the effectiveness of the program and assess the long-term strategies for achieving the goal of reduced energy consumption.

Pearson's Town Farm At Pearson’s Town Farm (the local organic farm), students are learning about the environmental consequences of modern agricultural practices and alternatives to the industrial model. As a part of their coursework, students work at the farm. By actively participating in the farming activities, they learn through experience what they otherwise would only read or hear about. While practicing sustainable agriculture, they see how some other current practices are unsustainable. Students then relate their local experience to their developing understanding of the global impacts of agriculture through reflective exercises. The products of the farm are distributed to the students’ food service, as well as to the local food pantry charity, establishing the real connection between their work and the community served. The exercise is a valuable learning experience, a valuable service, and deepens the students’ connection with the Mission of the College.

What Are the Benefits of Service Learning?

Service learning challenges students to learn firsthand about community, democracy, diversity, justice, civil society, social responsibility, leadership, and critical thinking. In addition, it offers students opportunities for personal growth, faith development, improved social and communication skills, job training, and exposure to an array of diverse perspectives that exist beyond the confines of campus life.

“I was afforded the opportunity to be a volunteer for the Portland Adult Education program. I was able to see a firsthand account of how beneficial [the] work truly is for people. After working in both the basic and advanced level English classes, I can see how much improvement people are able to make in such a short period of time.” ~Ahmed Dorghoud, Criminal Justice, Class of 2014

“… I volunteered at Portland Adult Education (PAE) as my Service Learning Component for [Social Problems]. Some of the people that I have served at PAE come from other countries with greater social problems than people in the United States face. The hardships that they have endured we have learned about in class at Saint Joseph’s: exponential population growth, unhealthy living conditions, war, and famine, to name a few. As an influx of immigrants, refugees or asylum-seeking persons enter the United States, it is our duty to offer them educational opportunities. Not only does this welcome them, but it provides them with skills they need to integrate into our society… At PAE, people are treated with respect and dignity. I feel as though we are acting locally and thinking globally when we do our work there.” ~Sue Attianese, Class of 2013

“In Social Problems we learned about poverty, access to food, and environmental issues (among many other topics). Pearson’s Town Farm is working to effect positive change in all those areas. By partnering with Catherine’s Cupboard, Pearson’s Town Farm is able to provide local families with fresh produce that they probably would not have access to otherwise. The Farm is also tremendously environmentally-sound. From the lack of chemical treatments for the soil; preferring more natural additives like compost and manure, to the grass fed sheep Pearson’s Town Farm is growing healthy food while respecting the land that is used to create it. I learned a great deal about companion planting, permaculture, tending to animals, and market settings. I helped clear areas for new fields, break new ground for our plants, and fill numerous plant flats. I planted, weeded, harvested, and sold the produce. I learned how to sheer a sheep as well as the many extraction methods and uses for lanolin.” ~Courtney Hoffses, Political Science, Class of 2012