Building Ethical Communities Through Service Learning '98-'99

Introduction

In the fall of 1998, the Albert Schweitzer Institute and the School for Ethical Education co-hosted two youth seminars dedicated to promoting ethical, civic, and academic growth through service-learning.  Other seminar goals included the student participants learning skills for collaborative planning and research, presenting project descriptions, and methods to increase community connections to the school.  These two seminars provided students with foundational skills for organizing and implementing a service-learning project, and they resulted in the successful completion of service projects in six Connecticut schools.

Service-learning, although similar to community service, has several unique attributes 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.

Youth Seminars

The two youth seminars, held on October 16, 1998 and November 13, 1998 at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, were attended by a total of seventy-nine students and faculty members.  The first seminar was designed for middle school students and included participants from Roosevelt Middle School in New Britain, Dunbar Middle School and Wilber Cross Middle School in Bridgeport, Nathan Hale Middle School in Norwalk, East Lyme Middle School in Niantic, Dag Hammarskjold Middle School in Wallingford, and Foote Middle School in New Haven.  The second seminar included high school students from Choate and Sheehan in Wallingford and students from the high schools in East Lyme and Wolcott. 

Seminar discussions and activities focused on team work and making ethical decisions.  (Appendix 1)  In the morning, students and faculty members participated in team building exercises that identified shared values and applied those values to ethical dilemmas.  The students were given real-life problems and asked to reach a consensus on how to solve each problem.  Solutions for each problem were possible by completing a service-learning project.  After reflecting upon this activity, several students described how useful it was for them to hear the perspectives of others while they were seeking dilemma solutions. These exercises introduced service-learning project ideas and the criteria for a well-implemented project.  Teams began brainstorming other project ideas before lunch, and they returned in the afternoon to draft a strategic plan for service-learning. 

At the conclusion of the seminar, each school submitted a brief draft of their service-learning plan.  The proposed projects included: a multimedia tour of the school for helping new students and visitors, visiting a residential care facility and writing a newsletter, developing a tutoring and reading program with a local elementary school, and developing a sixth and seventh grade mentoring program.  Each summary included a description of project goals for both service and academic learning and an outline of the project action plan.  (Appendix I, page 11)  The summaries also described how students’ participation would be evaluated.

Seminar participants were invited to this event free of charge and without any follow-up requirements.  Organizers noted their goal of encouraging a yearlong dialogue between participants and the organizers.  It was also noted that participants may be funded to attend a conference in the spring of 1999 if they followed through with their service-learning project.  However, there were no funds for this at the time of invitation and no formal expectations where made except the attendance and critique of the seminar.

Seminar Reflections

Each seminar concluded with time for participants to complete a seminar evaluation (Appendix 2).  The responses to evaluation questions were very positive.  Seventy-seven percent of the participants strongly agreed with the statement, “I learned something important at the seminar.”  All of the participants noted they were pleased to attend the seminar. 

Seminar organizers were encouraged to note seminar comments, which included the link between ethics and service, “I learned how to use values to solve problems.” and “This seminar opened my eyes to how ethics and values connect.”

The seminar appeared to combine some fun (noted by five students), with important learning opportunities for teaching community building skills (two students), service-learning strategies and working in a collaborative group (four comments).  Six students also took the time to note the value of learning from their fellow peers.

Three participants wrote, “Don’t change a thing”.  While organizers noted points of improvement were possible, one particularly positive student noted, “I feel proud to have been here.”  This was the sentiment of organizers as well. 

Table 1: Participant results initiated by Building Ethical Communities through Service Learning Seminars 1998-1999.

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