Making Connections

Watch the Champlain College Tent City video on New England Cable News: www.alumni.champlain.edu

Engaging Students in Community Learning

 Story and photos by Stephen Mease
 

Remember when community service was just one more hurdle on the way to graduating-all you had to do was make sure you had 40 hours of mentoring or washing dishes at the soup kitchen along with all your classes completed before they would hand you a diploma and send you off into the world?

Community service, or "civic engagement," used to be simple in higher education-a counselor would match up a need in the community with students who could volunteer in their off hours or do it for class credit. A win-win for everyone, or so many people thought.

However, in recent years, higher education experts have starting putting more emphasis on making sure college students get beyond the "doing" to reach the "understanding" that people with a strong, lifelong involvement in their community often find provides lasting success.

Kyle Dodson, who joined Champlain College in the fall of 2008 as director of the Center for Service and Civic Engagement (CSCE), says making that link can be difficult, especially in today's complicated world.

Dodson and Ashley George, service coordinator for CSCE, have been struggling this year to find the right pathway to offering meaningful community service to a large population of diverse students.

"It's not as easy as one might think," Dodson says, "Many of our best students are very focused on their professional studies or working a job to pay their tuition, or simply want the time to take advantage of all the recreational and entertainment opportunities that helped sell them on coming to Champlain in the
first place."

Speaking with the honesty he is known for, he adds "serving in a soup kitchen doesn't work for everyone. There has traditionally been a strong social justice aspect to the Center, which is fine, but we are also trying to make sure it is open and welcoming to all-liberal or conservative."

Students, he says, are also looking for a direct connection between their professionally focused major and personal interests and the type of community service they perform. "Doing good for goodness's sake isn't always enough-or they aren't in a place in their lives yet to see the value of community service," he says.

Beginning the Journey

Champlain College established its Center for Service and Civic Engagement in 2006, right on the heels of a report by the Corporation for National and Community Service that said college student volunteering had risen by 20 percent between 2002 and 2005. Some 3.3 million college students volunteered in 2005, and the study said there appeared to be strong momentum toward the national goal of 5 million college student volunteers by 2010.

In 2006, Champlain's new CSCE, under the direction of Nancy Cathcart, was named to the first President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for its volunteer efforts to help with the Gulf Coast cleanup in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Center also fostered involvement with programs like DREAM (Directing through Recreation, Education, Adventure and Mentoring) and Tent City to raise awareness about homelessness.

Two years later, Champlain's new Life Experience & Action Dimension (LEAD) program began for incoming first-year students, forming the third component of Champlain's "Education in Three Dimensions" the professional and academic core education envisioned by President David F. Finney when he arrived in November 2005.

LEAD moved students away from the traditional requirement of 40 hours of community service over four years to having first-year students work on understanding themselves better using the Myers- Briggs Type Indicator, establish respectful living environments, and get involved by participating in community building or service activities. The College's hope was that by laying the groundwork in the first year, Champlain would encourage many students to continue with community engagement right through graduation.

Deciding Factor for Some

For Samantha Thatcher '13, a first-year student majoring in social work, it was Champlain's obvious commitment to community service and outreach to people in need that convinced her Champlain was the right college.

Tent City, the CSCE's annual homeless awareness camp-out on Aiken Green, was one of the factors that influenced her to choose Champlain College. "I saw something about it during one of the tours and I thought it was so cool that a school would do something like that. I think it is good to have social service and justice as part of the school and not just academics. It really is at the heart of Champlain," she said.

She spent the week participating in the project, giving up her laptop and cell phone and sleeping on a cardboard mattress outside. "I was trying to go all out for this experience. I haven't showered since Sunday, so I'm not looking my best right now," she told reporter Anya Huneke of New England Cable News, who was on campus filming a regional news story about the students and their experiences.

"It's rewarding to get out of my comfort level and get a taste of what it is like for a homeless person," she explained. Tent City helped raise $1,932 for the Committee on Temporary Shelter, and more than 100 students participated in at least one night of the program, according to community service specialist Ashley George.

For Champlain senior Kaitlin Elias '10, it was the fourth year at Tent City. The experience, she said, led her to start volunteering at an organization for homeless teens to help a population that often goes unnoticed. "It's easy for the homeless population to be out of sight, out of mind. Here-it's in plain sight..."

"Tent City is a good example of engaging a certain segment of students - it offers a hands-on experience, lots of learning and experience opportunities, and the evening programs with area social service providers offer built-in reflection time on the meaning of what they are doing," Dodson notes.

Tent City was just one way Champlain students were able to fulfill part of their LEAD requirement for community service. Other students participate in the Alternative Spring Break program of service in the Washington, D.C., area, tutor students at local schools, or participate in Common Ground, a series of dialogue and cultural simulation programs.

CSCE manages a variety of programs, including volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, tutoring local refugee students, cooking community dinners at three different nonprofit organizations in Burlington, assisting low-income individuals in filing their taxes, raising awareness about social issues through dialogue and discussion groups, designing educational video games, switching hundreds of lightbulbs off in campus buildings to save energy, staffing voter registration drives, and organizing blood drives for the Red Cross.

"Volunteering at community dinners for Spectrum (homeless teens), Ronald McDonald House, and Dismas House (serving just- released or paroled prisoners) is a good way to engage small numbers of students. Many of our repeat volunteers bring along a friend to help, building the program," Dodson says.

Becoming Global Volunteers

For other students, taking a more global view of community engagement is what works, Dodson has learned. This May, a group of 10 Champlain College students and two staff members will head to Tanzania to work with orphans and vulnerable youth in the new Students Teach for Tomorrow global initiative sponsored by CSCE and Champlain's Office of International Programs.

Teach for Tomorrow is designed to enable Champlain students to become better global citizens, but also understand the world better and be able to apply their experiences to their education. "It's a tangible extension of Champlain's Global Modules classroom programs and its growing study abroad programs in Dublin, Ireland, and Montreal, Quebec," Dodson says.

The 2010 trip is an outgrowth of a trip by Social Work major Elisha Kottler '10 and six other students last year to work with orphans. On her return to school last fall, Kottler worked with CSCE to organize another trip. Longtime Champlain College student activities planner Beth Fitzgerald '78, who was an advisor on the trip, decided to move to Tanzania in December to develop her own nonprofit organization, the African Empowerment Project, as a way to cultivate sustainable livelihoods in the developing world. (Follow her work on http://africanempowermentproject.blogspot.com/."

"We are working to ensure this first international service trip is meaningful and not just voyeuristic. Students are required to learn about the place they are going, determining goals for the trip and how they can really help the recipients," Dodson says.

Students involved in the trip have been working all year to raise $4,000 to donate to the nonprofit IMUMA Center for Orphans in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, and the UHURU Center for African Arts. "Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world, where many people live on less than one dollar a day," according to the brochure students developed for the project.

Building Community

For Dodson and CSCE, the challenges continue as they evolve and look for new ways to engage students. One area
that holds considerable promise, Dodson believes, is building better connections with Champlain College alumni to create working partnerships and expand the local opportunities for current students.

"It is an underutilized resource for Champlain and its students since we have so many graduates who are either leaders in nonprofit and service organizations or are giving their time and expertise to a full range of community needs," Dodson says.

Dodson plans to also enlist the faculty and staff in making connections for students and sees local business associations like the Burlington Business Association and Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce as natural partners for
the CSCE.

Champlain College isn't just a place to earn a degree, he points out. It is also where students learn how to be responsible, respectful, engaged citizens. "I believe Burlington has a good overall feeling about the contributions Champlain College students are making to the community-whether it is through internships, volunteering, or just being thoughtful citizens," he says.

"We're here to provide the encouragement, resources, and support that allow our students, faculty, and staff to connect
with the community-on local, national, and global levels- through leadership, service, mentorship, partnership, reflection, and dialogue."

And if there are a few bumps along the road, that too is part of the experience, Dodson says. "Part of this process is teaching our students that not every volunteer assignment is going to be fun or immediately rewarding, but part of who they are and what they can accomplish as active citizens."