Institute on College Student Values

I had the privilege of attending a small conference last weekend - the John C. Dalton Institute on College Student Values at Florida State University in Tallahassee. There were about 200 other conferees in attendance, from as far away as Alaska and Maine and California. Keynote speakers included Parker Palmer and Marcia Baxter Magolda, both of whom were excellent in their own ways. Workshops touched on topics ranging from Reflective Practices, to a better understanding of the Strengths Inventory, to an explanation of Aristotle's ideas about Eudaimonia. Two other workshops were offered by Calvin folks, in addition to mine, which was on Covenant-Making as Orienting Practice.

Ashley Pace, Calvin senior and Service-Learning Center student staff member, gave what may have been the only presentation by an undergraduate student at the conference - she talked about her summer research on findings from the CIRP and NSSE national surveys - trends that relate to how students are affected by service-learning practice on college campuses. And a group of three Resident Directors - Aaron Einfeld, Kyle Heys, and Annie Mas-Smith - presented on 4 practices in Calvin's Residence Life experience that foster benevolent purpose in Calvin students. I learned a lot, met new people, and came away with a deeper appreciation for the work that is done by way of the Service-Learning Center at Calvin College.

So many of the ideas that were presented were ideas that are essentially already underway, if not well established, in our office and among our students. For this we can be grateful. Do we have much to learn from others in different institutions? Absolutely. I made contacts and took notes, and have plans for sharing information and strategies with our group over the next several weeks. For now though, I am grateful for the opportunity to attend the Institute, yes; but more importantly, to return to work. 

Adelante.

Service-Learning Conference at Messiah College

Last week Thursday, Friday and Saturday found seven of us (four summer student staff and three of us from the professional staff) on the road to Grantham, Pennsylvania for the bi-annual national conference the folks at Messiah College host on Faith-Based Service-Learning.

http://www.messiah.edu/external_programs/agape/national_conference/about.html

On top of being a great road trip, we were able to meet some wonderful colleagues and learn about what is happening in the world of service-learning and civic engagement all around the country, and in same cases, the world. The conference theme was "Sustaining Our Call to Service," and there were excellent discussions about the many aspects of the theme over the three days of the conference. Dr. Richard Hughes gave the opening plenary address, and he went over a rationale for service as a central Christian practice, as well as a key practice found in religious traditions ranging from Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and Hinduism. He pointed out the need to see service as foundational to our faith-based practice, even if and when it becomes passe' among college students. Other plenaries included Gretchen VanderVeer, the Director of Leadership Development and Training for the Corporation for National and Community Service, and two panel discussions - one with local community partners from the Harrisburg area, and another with practitioners involved in international service-learning from the Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox traditions within Christianity. Peppered in between the plenaries were a wide range of paper presentations and workshops. Meal times and breaks were full of deeper engagement with topics and practices, as well as institutional and geographic limitations, and wider discussions about the role of particular faith traditions in how service-learning looks 'on the ground' in various contexts.

I was able to visit the Harrisburg Institute on Friday afternoon, thanks to the hospitality of Dr. Susan Hasseler, the Dean of Messiah College's Dean of the School of Business, Education, the Social Sciences and Community Engagement, and Craig Dalen, the manager of the Harrisburg Institute. Situated in the heart of downtown Harrisburg, it houses 25 students committed to living and learning in the heart of urban Harrisburg, even while they take classes at the suburban campus 20 minutes away in Grantham.

We were energized by the conference. Lots of good conversation about ways to deepen partnerships, better assess learning, extend the conversation and the practice on our campuses, and collaborate one with another.

Summer is Here

So the academic year has ended, what will become of the blog conversation in Bryan's absence? Hopefully Bryan will continue to add to our discussion for at least a few more weeks, until his June wedding at least.

Meanwhile, an update. There are several summer projects underway in the Service-Learning Center, including important but tedious work on recovering un-recorded placements and hours served over the last several years, developing a new strategic plan and potential mission statement (!) for the office and its work, following up on contacts with recent agency partners, and recruiting partnership for the next year, particularly for our StreetFest kick-off in early September, and maintaining communication with student staff who are far-flung around the US and the world. We will be reading a series of summer articles, and hopefully having some discussion of these on the blog.

I gave an address this week to the annual conference of the Christian Reformed Campus Ministry Association. There were 40-50 campus ministers from around the US and Canada, and they heard about how service-learning is part program, part philosophy, and part pedagogy.

I am also preparing for my participation in a panel discussion next weekend at the bi-annual conference on Faith and Service-Learning at Messiah College - the panel will be on the topic of International Service-Learning.

And I began reading an interesting article today on service-learning and its use as a way to enable a set of helpful dispositions toward justice in students. The article, by Brad Hadaway, argues that the spiritual disciplines of historic Christianity provide a set of practices that work to either block unhealthy pre-existing dispositions in students that mitigate against the development of a disposition toward justice, or they work to provide a kind of on-ramp in the development of this disposition toward justice. The reading is a part of a larger project in which I will participate this summer, on the relationship between Christian practices and the art and vocation of college teaching. More on this as the reading continues...