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.