Katie Smith
Staff Reporter
Students are stepping off the Hill this semester to bridge the gap between McDaniel and the Westminster community.
Several courses offered this spring allow students to take what they learn in the classroom and use it to serve local organizations. Approximately 40 students volunteer or intern for local organizations as a part of the new initiative to infuse service with education, according to Jim Mayola, liaison for McDaniel’s Center for Community Outreach and Service.
The organizations served include the Boys and Girls Club, the Cold Weather Shelter, Mission of Mercy, Rape Crisis Center, and the Marriage Resource Center.
“I think this program is essential to help build a bridge between the college and the community,” Amy Gilford, associate director of the Marriage Resource Center, says of the new service-learning initiative. Gilford describes the program as “wonderful” and “long overdue.”
According to Sarah Stokely, associate dean of Student Academic Life, Dr. Julia Jasken’s Writing for Nonprofit Organizations class is the first official service-learning class at McDaniel, as it requires that each student intern for a Carroll County nonprofit. Her students, Jasken says, are learning “what it takes to work for (or run) a nonprofit.”
Jasken implemented service-learning into her Writing for Nonprofit Organizations class after observing a trend with her students. “When I created assignments where students produced texts for a clearly identified audience outside their professor, they enjoyed the assignments more and their work was of much better quality,” she says.
Mayola believes college students can greatly benefit the organizations they serve. “They bring new ideas and keep an organization fresh,” he says.
Jasken’s students are providing valuable services to their respective nonprofits, including grant writing, brochure design, and event planning.
The organizations are not the only ones benefiting?there are benefits for the students as well. The work these students do looks good on a resume and gives students connections to important players in the community, Mayola says. He also believes service-learning allows students to connect course material with real-life experiences.
“In the classroom, you learn theory. When you work, you learn how the theory is applied,” Mayola says.
Dr. Stephanie Madsen’s Adolescence class incorporates service as well, but on a voluntary basis. Students from this psychology class volunteer at Westminster’s Boys and Girls Club. They work mostly with teenagers at the Club’s after-school program, helping them with homework, planning activities, and “hanging out” with them, according to Abby Walker, a volunteer from Madsen’s class.
For Walker, volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club has increased her desire to continue volunteer work after the semester is over. “This experience makes me want to continue that work next year here, and at home,” she says.
Walker’s experience would surely encourage Stokely, who hopes that such service while at McDaniel is a trend that continues on in all students’ lives beyond college.
“All of us are hoping the college is producing engaged citizens,” Stokely says.