A Few Thoughts on Service Learning

When I initially embarked upon my Service Learning journey I personally did not know what to expect out of service learning, what service learning was all about, or even how it contributed to furthering my education. As a transfer student from the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater we were never exposed, required or expected to do something similar to Service Learning, so this entire experience was a bit alien to me. Before taking this class I had never done any kind of Service Learning except for the other Service Learning project that I was participating in at the same time which was for my environmental science class. Both classes of which I wa required to do service learning for were essentially retake classes for me since my multicultural and environmental class did not transfer from Whitewater. This in and of its self did not hinder the valuable experiences and lessons that I took with me from both of my service learning experiences that I was able to participate in this semester.

My experiences with Service Learning for our class (Film 150) and my Service Learning from my environmental science class (CES 210) were very different experiences indeed. In my CES 210 class which is a lecture class with about 200 kids in it, we were given a choice of our Service Learning partners to work with of whom I chose to work with Alliance for The Great Lakes. What I did for my service learning hours for Alliance for The Great Lakes was to monitor beach conditions at different beach locations as well as clean various beaches in and around Milwaukee country. So my Service Learning for Alliance for The Great Lakes was a very hands on and direct approach to our Service Learning hours that had a direct impact on the environment.

My experiences with Service Learning for our Film 150 I think took a more indirect approach to our Service Learning hours. I think we as a class though were much more involved in our organization then I was with Alliance for The Great Lakes. I personally speaking, had many interactions with the people lived in the neighborhood and got to document that directly. Even though I was not building or cleaning up anything, hopefully documenting the progress and transition that this neighborhood has gone through can someday make in impact on Johnsons park neighborhood.
Pictures taken from:
http://www4.uwm.edu/isl/