The children are part of a diabetes and obesity wellness program for kids who have diabetes or are at risk of developing the disease. Blunt, a Sinclair Community College Dietetic Technology student, spent two Monday nights last year working at the center as part of a service-learning assignment for a dietetics class. She kept coming back. “I really enjoyed working with the children so much, I stayed and worked about every Monday for the rest of the year,” Blunt said.

There are hundreds of students like Blunt, investing their time and skills across the Dayton community through service learning. Service learning is neither ordinary volunteering nor an involved internship. Instead, it’s a teaching strategy that puts students in action to meet the need of a community agency that’s linked directly to a learning objective within their class. A concept used across the nation’s colleges and universities, service learning is known to boost a student’s comprehension, classroom involvement and civic engagement.

“This really is about preparing our students for the future and helping our community,” said Marilyn Rodney, Sinclair’s service learning coordinator. As Rodney will tell you, the benefits are numerous. Faculty members say that students return to the classroom more enthusiastic and involved in their studies after a service-learning experience. Nonprofit agencies, strapped for cash and resources, value the time and talent that the students bring to projects such as computer networking, food-bank drives and health screenings. And for students, the learning experience complements what they are studying in a current course and often opens their eyes to a different slice of society. Oftentimes, the exposure to community service leads to volunteer commitments and, in some cases, jobs with the agencies after graduation.

Making the commitment
Sinclair increased its commitment to service learning in 2003, hiring Rodney into a full-time position to direct the effort. Rodney, a registered nurse who has spent much of her career in higher education, links the needs of local nonprofit agencies to faculty members and their students.

Sinclair Associate Provost Tom Huguley said that the decision to invest in service learning has borne fruit. The administration supports the teaching strategy, he stated, because it is proven to be a powerful pedagogy. “I believe this is one of those examples that ties the curriculum directly to our middle name: community,” he said.

Rodney encourages teachers to embrace service learning as an alternative teaching method, rather than a cumbersome add-on to an already heavy schedule. Some programs, such as Dietetic Technology and Nursing, have integrated service learning throughout their curricula. It’s becoming more popular in developmental courses, giving first-year students an opportunity for hands-on learning. Rodney hopes that it will someday be a requirement for graduation.

She has research on her side. According to the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), students involved in service learning are more apt to become active community members. Students who participate in service learning are more likely to vote in elections, contact elected officials about issues and volunteer again in the next 12 months, according to the association.

Sinclair has gained national attention for its commitment to service learning, twice scoring a spot on the AACC’s honor roll for excellence in service learning.

Gail Robinson, director of service learning for the Washington, D.C.-based association, said that Sinclair trains its faculty well on how to make service learning a meaningful teaching strategy. “Sinclair is a leader among community colleges nationally in service learning,” Robinson said.

A learning method with big benefits
As a Nursing professor, Connie Beal loves the “aha moments”: those times that a student gains a new perspective, considering something for the first time. Often they come through service learning, she said. Beal has her students identify and write about these revelations.

Faculty members prepare students before a service-learning event, through readings and visits from the partner agency’s leader. After the assignment students often write reflective papers and discuss their experiences in class. About 700 students across Sinclair participate in service learning at about 60 agencies each academic year.

One developmental reading and writing course strengthened students’ critical-reading skills through readings and research about homelessness and poverty before the class spent time sorting and delivering mail at St. Vincent de Paul’s shelter. An architectural technology class is learning about energy conservation by conducting energy audits at local nonprofits. Technical writing students rewrote the resource book distributed by AIM for the Handicapped, Inc., a Dayton-based agency. “I think it’s amazing what they can give back to the community; and at the same time, they are learning what they are supposed to be learning for their course,” Beal said.

As the economy worsens, many nonprofit agencies are finding their needs growing, but funding stagnant or shrinking. Sinclair’s students help bridge that gap through their service-learning stints. At the Gospel Mission in downtown Dayton, classes of Computer Science students have installed wireless networks that the nonprofit didn’t have the right expertise or manpower to complete on its own, said Tim Godfrey, a Gospel Mission leader who oversaw the project. “They have opened up new doors and opportunities for moving forward that we never had before,” Godfrey said. Opportunities. That’s what service learning seems to boil down to, for agencies and their clients, as well as students.

When Dietetic Technology student Blunt spends those Monday nights encouraging the children at the Cassano Health Center to eat better and exercise, she’s building her nutrition-education skill set, one child at a time. “It has really enriched all of our lives,” she said.

By Tracy Staley

Tracy Staley is a Dayton-based writer whose work has appeared in the Dayton Business Journal, the Nashville Business Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader, among others.