Summer Bridge 2005
News
Political Science Event
As part of a class assignment, 40 students in Political Science 3800, Public Policy Analysis, organized a campus-community dialogue on November 27th, to learn about an issue that affects all students, the future of public higher education.
There were over 100 participants from the campus and community. Rather than just study public policy, the class, through the initiation of Professor Geron, agreed to develop the content of the program, conduct media outreach, do publicity, fundraise, and organize all the logistics including having catering the food and securing the support of the Associated Students Inc.
Students invited guest speakers including local State Senator Ellen Corbett who talked about the issue of rising textbook costs, and local State Assembly member Alberto Torrico, who discussed the challenges of the California state budget and the need for student voices to be heard in the Capitol. Campus President Mo Quayoumi addressed the audience and welcomed them to the campus.
Community Literacy Project
In the winter 2008, English 803 students were the latest to participate in an ongoing service learning activity: “The Community Literacy Project,” created by English adjunct Dale Katherine Ireland. The class partnered with the Family Emergency Shelter Coalition (FESCO), a nonprofit organization that serves homeless families with food, shelter, clothing, counseling and links to community resources.
Students selected new children's books from the donation library and created pre-reading, reading and post-reading questions and a no-cost activity to accompany the new children’s books. At the conclusion of this project each term, the students give their books and activities to community organizations that support underserved children in the community; in this case, the children gave the books to FESCO.
This year’s project culminated in a poster presentation, sponsored by the Service Learning Program that allowed students to reflect on their understanding and valuing of service learning and to share their projects with the campus community.
The highlight of the poster presentation was a talk by Cate Steane, Executive Director of FESCO, in which she helped students better understand the work of FESCO, how their service learning project would benefit the children living in shelters, and about the importance of writing in academia and in their future careers.
Director Steane noted at the start of the project that the books and accompanying questions and activities would “help our children, at a time in their lives when so much else is disrupted and uncertain, connect with their parents and improve their reading skills.”
Academic Reflection
Teaching a theory seminar? Advising interships? Supervising fieldwork?
Click on the link below for a PPT presentation on helping students make a
connection between discipline- and community-based learning. Apply these pedagogy
tips to any course without adding a lot of extra work! There is a method in the
madness!
Academic Reflection Presentation (PPT)
