On Twenty Years of Service Learning at JSC and Making Meaning

I am particularly privileged to be able to work with so many wonderful students as they make meaning of their service experiences. I have had so many profound conversations with our students, whether it’s in the van on the way back to campus after a day volunteering at a local arts organization, or late in the evening in our office. I am so impressed by the work that our students put into making meaning. As one author wrote, service learning is a sync-ing up of one’s studies with parallel practical application.

Perhaps more than anything else, I get to see students exploring, in great depth, the commonality, universality, and diversity of human experience. There is a sense of brotherhood or sisterhood that I get to see students experiencing with those they seek to serve, a connection to what it truly means to be human. There is a recognition of interdependence: the difference between caring for the well-being of others because it makes oneself feel good, and the caring for the wellbeing of others because it is to care for one’s own well being. I am reminded of a quote from Hillel, “if I am not for myself, who will be? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” So often when the realization of the pure and simple truth of these questions hits, I see students no longer able to be idle or self-interested.

I have seen and discussed this commonality of human experience, and the meanings and conclusions we can draw from service experiences, with so many students. Our programs provide a wonderful laboratory for studying democracy, with a small d. What does it mean to be a citizen, or a global citizen? What does it mean to be a member of a community, or many communities?

Watching students make connections between their roles as a student here at JSC and their life outside the campus—whether it’s down the street or in their hometown—is astonishing. It is such an honor to see the application of classroom experiences, the connections that our students make—to watch that moment where the textbook or lecture comes to life. This is a new kind of scholarship—public scholarship that encourages our students to become active, thoughtful, engaged community members—and it informs our passionate commitment to the Local. We live the words of educator Johnetta B. Cole, who said, “The most profound expression of education is action—action in the interest of helping to heal what ails our communities, our nation, and our world.”

Over the 2006-7 academic year, JSC students logged over 15,600 hours of community service. Our students volunteered here on campus, mentoring local children; others participated in local community groups and coalitions, like the Lamoille Valley Hunger Coalition; some volunteered elsewhere in the state, like the group that traveled to sort food at the Vermont Food Bank in Barre; many participated in Break Away trips all across the US, whether it was to the mountains of Utah, planting trees, or New Hampshire working with children, or the coast of Maine building a home for Habitat for Humanity. A group of students and staff participated in our international Break Away trip, traveling to Tanzania in East Africa to work with children affected by the HIV/AIDS crisis. Even when serving on the other side of the world, JSC volunteers think about “bringing it home”—how to integrate this new experience, new knowledge, into their lives as community members and citizens.

So, how are we moving forward? We have several exciting developments. Inspired by the many experiences and insights our students offer regarding social and economic justice, we are finding new and innovative ways to increase not only access to our programs but also to the college experience. This includes overhauling the financial structure of our Break Away program to offer new lower program fees and scholarships. We’re also supporting long-term engagement with the AmeriCorps Education Award Program, a US government program that provides students with financial incentives to perform 300 to 900 hours of service. This year alone, we are recruiting students for this program to receive education awards equivalent to scholarships of over $35,000!

We are also finding ways to provide more students with the opportunity to serve and participate. Our CSLocal program offers many “low-commitment” options for students seeking to explore the community, get out of their dorm room, or simply looking for something to do. We organize four or five of these local service-learning opportunities a month, each holding to the principle that the length of service should always exceed the length of travel.

Our Bonner Leader Program offers leadership, service and long-term engagement for first year students who wish to commit to a two-year service internship in a local non-profit. Both of these programs have seen tremendous growth in the past year, and we hope to continue that trend!

We’re committed to continuing education outside the classroom, especially in discourse and engagement with important social issues. Through training sessions before service trips, book discussions, film showings, campus lectures, and a new project from our Bonner Leaders called Talko Tuesday, we’re showing how talk can lead to some pretty big things. Our students are learning, through their efforts, what it means to be an active citizen: to be a part of the conversation. After all, decisions are made by those who show up. Johnson State College and the Center for Service Learning have been preparing students for twenty years—preparing them to show up, and have something to say—and will continue to do so for many years to come!

What we are doing here is remarkable: in today’s troubled world, we are educating students to be citizens—to really engage in the world around them. It’s anti-apathy, anti-cynicism, realism and idealism together. Our students leave JSC knowledgeable and ready to address our global and local challenges, to be creative about solving problems, and to speak up. We echo William Faulkner by urging, “never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world, in thousands of rooms like this one, would do this, it would change the world.” Thank you for joining us!