Serving to Learn

As a sociology major, Rebecca Ellis '15 is accustomed to studying poverty in the classroom. But a full understanding of and appreciation for those theories have come from her work with Samaritan Inn in downtown Roanoke, Va., a day shelter that provides breakfast, lunch and noontime worship services daily to the homeless.

Since her freshman year, Ellis has devoted at least two hours, twice a week, to helping with projects such as painting and collecting items for the shelter to sell in its thrift store. Through her work, she has come to know not only the owners of Samaritan Inn, but also the people who come for food every day.

"Just getting off campus and into the community has helped my career path, and it helped me to be part of a bigger community," says Ellis, from Virginia Beach, Va. "I think it's important for students to do something off campus and see the conditions around their school and do something to help."  

As a student employee in the Roanoke College Center for Civic Engagement, Ellis serves as the College's liaison with Samaritan Inn, partnering with faculty whose courses include a service-learning requirement and helping students schedule their volunteer hours. She is gaining valuable leadership experience while encouraging her peers to become active in the local community.  

"Serving in the community really gets students out of their comfort zone," Ellis says. "We're all fortunate to have an education and to be attending a wonderful college, so it's important for us to step back and give back to the community that's welcomed us."  

Service learning is growing in popularity at Roanoke. Ellis is one of more than 400 students engaged in some form of service learning at Roanoke - up from 100 students about three years ago. While service learning overlaps with community service and volunteerism, the "learning" part is key. Service-learning courses merge reality and theoretical content as students draw insights connecting the material studied in class to their observations in the field.  

Research has shown that students who participate in service-learning activities are more engaged academically, says Jesse Griffin, director of the College's Center for Civic Engagement. These opportunities can sharpen their leadership skills, foster personal growth and strengthen their connections with the community in and around campus.  

"One of the things we hope students get out of service learning is to gain some direction and find passion in their life related to what they want to do with their careers down the road," Griffin says. "Even though it's an investment of time for the faculty, they do see gains in what their students are learning and in what they're able to do in the classroom in terms of conversation and engagement."  

More Than Soup Kitchens  

When most people think of volunteer service, they often immediately think of soup kitchens or building homes for Habitat for Humanity - service projects that are often faith-based or that emerge out of social sciences. But service learning has broadened since former Roanoke College Chaplain Paul Henrickson established the Center for Community Service in the 1990s. Today, service learning at Roanoke includes disciplines such as art history, English, biology and business administration.  

Dr. DorothyBelle Poli, associate professor of biology, transformed her "Plant Diversity" course into a living laboratory by having her 15 students create a garden for the Salem Montessori School. They installed a French drain system (a trench filled with gravel or rock that redirects surface water and groundwater away from an area) and added a rain barrel. They also created themed flower beds: a pizza garden with herbs and spices, a bed of colorful flowers arranged to look like a rainbow and a "bean teepee," where bean plants would grow up along poles to create a play space.  

"Plants aren't cute and fuzzy, so students sometimes have a hard time connecting with them [in traditional labs]," Poli says. "But with this project, I think they really started to connect to the plants and to understand the material better. They also learned a lot about communication and teamwork."

As part of receiving reaccreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) in 2012, the College strengthened its focus on experiential learning - a process through which students "learn by doing" and then reflect on, in writing, what they've learned from the experience. Service learning is one of the five areas of experiential learning emphasized at Roanoke, which also includes undergraduate research, internships, study away (abroad or within the United States) and artistic endeavors. Students participating in any type of experiential learning are required to examine their experiences through ongoing written reflections. At the end of each semester, they participate in a public showcasing event on campus to share the personal impact of their experiences.

The Center for Civic Engagement was established and is overseen by the Office of the Dean of the College to enhance the focus on learning through these experiences and assist faculty in incorporating service learning into their courses. Each semester, 10 or more service-learning courses are offered. The College has established partnerships with 17 community agencies, primarily focused on needs such as hunger, housing and education.   Experiential learning ties in with the College's mission of developing the whole person and preparing them for a lifetime of learning, service and leadership.  

"Service learning is one of the key experiential learning opportunities that we offer to our students," says Dr. Richard Smith, vice president and dean of the College. "Service learning is a fine way for students to explore who they are, what their gifts are and how they want to use those gifts to contribute to the betterment of society."  

Dr. Richard Grant, director of experiential learning, adds that these experiences can lead to personal growth and help students develop direction for their career aspirations and other life goals.  

"For some students, service learning really clicks, and they find their passion," says Grant, who recently was appointed associate dean for academic affairs and student engagement, effective July 1. "They see they can make a difference in the world."  

Service learning at Roanoke isn't always local. There are numerous courses that involve international travel and service opportunities, such as Griffin's course, "Self, Culture and Civic Responsibility," which includes a spring break trip to Ochomogo, Nicaragua to help with an ongoing water sanitation project.  

Dr. Chad Morris, assistant professor of sociology, teaches the May term course, "Globalization and Health in Palau," giving students the opportunity to travel to the small Pacific island nation to study the impact of globalization on nutrition and food security. Morris has been working on the project for five years and has had more than 70 students involved in some component of the project, including gathering data via door-to-door interviews and focus groups. He returns with another group this May. Ultimately, the research being conducted is to assist the Palauan government in solving public health crises, which include high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.  

"We really are being of service to the people in Palau to gather the data they don't necessarily have the infrastructure to gather themselves," says Morris. "At the same time, Palau is of tremendous service to our students in helping them to see what global health looks like, helping them learn about people in cultures outside their own experience and providing them excellent experience for their resumes from a research perspective."  

Alternative Break  

College students often dream of beach getaways or mountaintop ski excursions during their breaks. But some Roanoke students willingly give up their pre-orientation, fall, winter and spring breaks to embark on "Alternative Break" trips, traveling outside of the Roanoke Valley to perform community service. These trips, designed and planned by students who have received special training in planning civic engagement experiences, also include the learning and self-reflection components. 

Claire Brooks, '17 was so inspired by her experience with Griffin's Nicaragua class last year, she decided to help plan an alternative break this spring.

"The service component was something I'd never experienced before, but from that moment, I knew I wanted to be more involved," says Brooks, a biochemistry major. "The minute I got back to Roanoke, I knew I wanted to have more experiences like this."  

In March, Brooks and MacKay Pierce, '17, led a group of six students on a service trip to Eagen, Tenn., where they studied the issue of mountaintop removal - a form of surface mining - and its impact on rural communities in Appalachia. The students visited mountaintop removal sites, talked to coal miners and did hands-on work such as building a greenhouse and a solar-powered water heater.  

For Pierce, the project helped bring to life the issues he studies in his majors - environmental studies and sociology.  

"This place we visited is, in a sense, on the front line of a lot of environmental efforts," Pierce says. "Getting to know many of the people who live in the valley gave faces to the consequences of the coal industry on these communities. We heard many heartbreaking stories but met many more strong and driven people. On a personal level, the most challenging thing is to leave a job undone. Of course, we never went under the illusion that we could solve the issues surrounding the coal industry and rural Appalachia in seven days, but having to come back with that reality is tough. They are still removing mountain tops."  

Concepts in Action  

Service-learning projects can open students' eyes to real-world problems. Through these experiences, they often develop empathy and a desire to make a difference.  

Dr. Shannon Anderson, an assistant professor of sociology, instills an awareness of poverty, inequality and economic injustice though her May term course, "Exploring Ghana Through Service." She and her students travel throughout the African nation doing various projects, including tree planting and mentoring schoolchildren. They also spend time with women who receive microloans to help them market handcrafted products and support their families.  

"In our field of sociology, getting out there and meeting people allows students to see concepts in action," says Anderson. "I could stand in the classroom and talk about poverty or gender until the cows come home, but until students really see the difference that these factors make in people's lives, it doesn't have the same impact."  

Students in Katie Elmore's course, "Principles of Education," have the opportunity to get into local schools as tutors or mentors, working one-to-one with students. This experience helps her students decide if they want to become teachers, but they also get an up-close view of poverty in the local community and a better grasp of education policy.  

Elmore, a teaching associate in Roanoke's education department, recalls one student whose classroom presentation was particularly moving. The student shared that the child he mentored had a father in jail, an often-absent mother, very little food and slept on the floor. He expressed a newfound realization that his own life was one of privilege, just by the sheer luck of circumstances.  

"When I hear students say that kind of stuff I think, 'My job here is done,'" Elmore says. "The students get it, and it makes me realize that my own life's work is contributing to something bigger. Most of my students come away from this experience changed, and that's what I hope for."  

The Future of Service Learning at Roanoke  

Griffin and Grant hope service learning continues to grow at Roanoke, especially in disciplines that typically don't have obvious service-learning connections. Through an internal grants program, nearly $1,000 per course is provided for costs associated with service-learning projects, including transportation and a small stipend to compensate faculty for the additional work involved.  

Griffin also would like to see more monetary support for alternative breaks to encourage more students to go on the trips and to reduce their out-of-pocket costs.  

"The truth is, it would be great if we had some capacity to grow the alternative spring break program so that we could have eight of these trips going a year and have them be low-cost," Griffin says.  

For Rebecca Ellis, the work at Samaritan Inn has been a defining part of her overall Roanoke College experience. As she prepares to graduate, she's handpicking her own replacement for the College's liaison with the day kitchen, looking for someone who will be as devoted to the place as she has been.  

Asked what Samaritan Inn has meant to her over the years, she replies firmly, "Everything."  

"My whole college career can be summed up by this place," says Ellis, who is applying for jobs in the social work setting. "The owners and the people who come here mean the world to me. The thought of finding someone to replace me breaks my heart. These people are like family to me, and they've given me just as much as they say I've given them."