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Service Learning Projects
By Kinsey Wangaard
In the fall of 1998, the School for Ethical
Education and the Albert Schweitzer Institute co-hosted two youth
seminars focused on service learning. The seminars promoted ethical,
civic, and academic growth through service learning projects.
Seventy-nine students, teachers, and parent volunteers attended the
seminars. Student teams from Bridgeport and Norwalk to New Britain
discovered core values they have in common, and they learned
teamwork, decision-making skills, and strategies for implementing
effective service learning projects.
Service learning, although similar to community
service, has several unique traits that distinguish this strategy
from other volunteer activities. Service learning includes students
during project planning, integrates academic objectives within the
project goals, allows participants to reflect during and after the
project, and should result in meaningful contributions to the
community.
After the seminar, each team worked with
classmates, advisors, and the community to develop a service
learning project. Through the efforts of these teams, six schools
completed service learning projects.
The “Guardian
Angels” project was sponsored by sixteen eighth grade students and
four staff members at Dag Hammarskjold Middle School in
Wallingford. During the year, eighth graders paired with sixth
graders to create a mentoring relationship. The eighth graders
became friends and positive role models for their sixth grade
“angels.” The eighth graders quickly saw positive results. One
eighth grader described the improvement he saw in his sixth
grader’s schoolwork; “One day we had a breakthrough. My angel
told me that he got one of the highest grades in the class on a
test, and I told him how proud I was of him. He gave me this
enormous smile.”
Five other schools completed notable projects.
Each month students from Roosevelt Middle School in New
Britain visited residents at a senior residential care facility. East
Lyme Middle School students tutored elementary school students
in reading every week throughout the school year.East Lyme High
School students initiated a recycling effort and a fundraiser
for the refugees in Kosovo. The Sheehan High School team
raised money for a homeless shelter. At Wolcott High School,
each grade initiated a service learning project, and their efforts
benefited a homeless shelter, a convalescent home, and a shelter for
teenage mothers.
After the success of 1998-1999 service learning
projects, SEE and the Albert Schweitzer Institute are planning to
repeat the process with student team planning seminars scheduled for
October 1999. For information or an application contact SEE: 1000
Lafayette Blvd., Bridgeport, CT 06604.
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