Academic Service-learning: Reducing Inequality in Our Community

Introduction

You are a part of a global effort to increase access to education and empower students through “open pedagogy.”  Open pedagogy is a “free access” educational practice that places you – the student – at the center of your own learning process in a more engaging, collaborative learning environment.  The ultimate purpose of this effort is to achieve greater social justice in our community in which the work can be freely shared with the broader community.  This is a renewable assignment that is designed to enable you to become an agent of change in your community through the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  For this work, you will integrate the disciplines of Communication Studies and Business Administration to achieve SDG #10: Reduced Inequalities.   

Learning Objectives

Students will research the benefits and challenges of service learning (for students and for the organizations and communities they serve). Students will formulate and implement innovative solutions to current social, economic, and/or environmental issues within their target community. Students will research the life, work, and contributions of a selected entrepreneur (or leader) and prepare a fifteen-minute presentation.

Purpose/Rationale

This active learning practice is designed to improve your academic skills, increase community connections, and improve social justice for our community.

Instructions

Steps for Successful Service-learning Assignment:

In groups of 4 or 5, students will research the benefits and challenges of service learning (for students and for the organizations and communities they serve) and write a 6 – 10 page paper about their findings.

During the research process, each group member must analyze a real-life case study about service learning (SL) to determine lessons learned and identify ways SL can enhance social justice and improve quality of life for the people in their communities. Brief individual presentations about their findings are due the third week of the semester.

Based on their research and analysis of case studies, each group will create a fun, original, and effective Steps for Successful Service-learning presentation in a creative format (e.g., video; graphic novelette or comic book; animation; board game or any type of interactive game; original artwork or installation). Groups submit papers and deliver presentations the fifth week of the semester.

Students will also share their projects (or images and descriptions of them) publicly through at least one social media platform in order to raise awareness about the ways in which SL can be used to reduce inequalities etc.

Social Justice and Entrepreneurship Assignment:

In groups of 3, students will formulate and implement innovative solutions to current social, economic, and/or environmental issues within their target community. Each group delivers a presentation during the fourth week of the semester, explaining the problem they have identified. The group members discuss three alternative approaches for resolving the issue. During the eighth week of the semester, each group delivers a presentation explaining their approach, the resources they need for implementing their idea, how they will acquire the required resources, and how implementation of their idea would enhance social justice and improve quality of life for the people in the target community. During the last month of the semester, groups deliver their final presentation, discussing the outcome of their project, presenting facts and measurable outcomes, and their conclusions and lessons learned. The group presentations, findings, and materials will be publicly accessible to other students and will be passed on to students in subsequent semesters as legacy projects and/or case studies/educational materials. Each group will be required to craft and implement an effective strategy for communicating the identified issue in the community and encouraging other students in the community to continue their work and keep the project alive.

National Portrait Gallery Assignment: Celebrating Diversity Assignment:

In groups of 3, students will tour the National Portrait Gallery. Each group will choose a person whose portrait is exhibited in the gallery.

Groups will research the life, work, and contributions of the selected entrepreneur (or leader) and prepare a fifteen-minute presentation. Students are required to create an inspiring presentation, explaining how the selected entrepreneur/leader overcame challenges and obstacles in his/her personal life and/or career and draw lessons from them. Students are encouraged to choose an entrepreneur, leader, or cultural icon with whom they relate (i.e., a person who had similar experiences in his/her life as they have and faced similar challenges and setbacks etc.).

Students are required to publish their work using social media, celebrating diversity by creating and sharing a free and accessible source of inspiration and education for students all around the world. Students are also required to present a strategy for effectively communicating and promoting their work to the intended audience.

Groups will visit the National Portrait Gallery during the fifth week of the semester and will present their reports during the fourteenth week of the semester.