Staff Covenant 2013-2014

This year our staff's covenant has the theme of "practicing resurrection." The beautiful thing about our covenant is that what "practicing resurrection" means, is different for each and every one of us on staff at the Service-Learning Center.  We don't know, exactly, what will be...but I hope that as the year goes on we will receive glimpses of what it means to "practice resurrection." I pray that as we further reflect and act on the words in this covenant, that they will lead us individually, and as a community. 

Service-Learning Center 2013-2014 Staff Covenant:

We practice resurrection, we don't know what will be

with joy, we commit to:

Fostering a community that values 

individuality

cultivating conversation and

imagination

Honoring the progress of

small steps and unhistoric acts.

Seeking justice within God's

improbable grace.

We don't know what will be; we practice resurrection.

  This year I hope our staff is able to foster imagination, participate joyfully in unhistoric acts, seek justice, and overall be a group of individuals who "practice resurrection" in all of its knowns... and unknowns.

-Kelsey Stark, Communications Coordinator

Anniversary Story-Seeking

This summer and school year, I’m the Service-Learning Center's 50^th Anniversary Research & Project Coordinator, a title more or less made up, like my position, like a lot of my work. I’m figuring out how to honor the Service-Learning Center’s first fifty years. So far, that’s involved organizing old files, perusing historical documents, books about service-learning, and articles about Christian education; googling alumni, digging through archives, interviewing former staff members, writing web copy, sending out surveys, pestering people to complete them, and transcribing hours of recordings. 

I’m a lover of structure and clarity in a very open-ended job, which has frustrated and challenged me, humbled and empowered me. I've had to ask for help and advice frequently. I've had to trust my instincts and follow through on ideas. I've been gutsy and also wildly inefficient, and I've generally felt somewhat intimidated by the tasks before me, undefined as they may be.

The Service-Learning Center has a powerful legacy. It’s been a community, a resource, a family, a home, a launch pad, a safe place, a starting point, and so many other things to so many people I respect and admire. Articulating that legacy, honoring it, feels like a fairly weighty task. It’s already hard to talk about the ideas that drive this place: justice, peace, presence, community, sustainability, shalom. We use those names to frame phenomena we don’t know how to describe, to talk about the often so intangible acts of kingdom-building that comprise our purpose in this life. Language is just a container for the dynamic, collaborative soul of this place that is not a place at all—it’s not the Commons Annex that forms the S-LC. It’s the people who are there and who have been there and who have built and absorbed a culture that changes with them.

I, as the 50^th Anniversary Research & Project Coordinator, have to find some way to articulate that culture, to ask good questions about that culture, and to do it all with some semblance of grace and concision.

But to do that well, I have to find the stories of people to whom the S-LC has mattered. I have to tell those stories with the same honesty and feeling they show, which means I have to really listen, and follow the threads of narrative backward and forward. The anniversary is about our history, but it’s also about the future, and the kind of chapters that have already been foreshadowed. So I’ll spend the next ten months or so teasing out the story, as faithfully as I can.

Any assistance is appreciated.

Shalom,

Katie Van Zanen.

Agency

Last week our summer student staff met with the summer orientation staff for one of our regular professional development sessions. The topic was the Reformed Identity of Calvin College, which was established from the beginning as “messy.” One of the foci of our conversation was the question of our agency in the process of redemption, something about which Calvin’s vision statement makes some claim when it says that “Through our learning, we seek to be agents of renewal in the academy, church and society.”

This got me thinking about what it is that we hope for students who go out into the communities of this city/country/world to do service-learning. To what degree are these people agents for God’s redemption in a broken world in the short time they spend serving there? In the four years I’ve worked professionally in the Service-Learning Center, this question has been a compelling one that I come back to perennially. One of the keys here, I think, is the phrase “Through our learning…” which qualifies our claim of agency.

So, what does this mean for students who might spend an afternoon stocking a food pantry for StreetFest? Or a week encountering the complexity of coal mining’s impact on Appalachian communities? Or a semester tutoring an English language learner at an urban elementary school? Or many hours interviewing community members for an ethnographic study in Peru?

My hope is that at the conclusion of each student’s experience, they might view their situation through a lens of shalom. Imagine what this place would look like in the fullness of God’s kingdom. Each person encountered would be living an abundant life, expressing their unique giftedness as an image-bearer of God. Relationships would be restored in such a way that each interaction contributes to the other’s flourishing. The flora, fauna, and built environment would all declare the glory of God. True shalom will be even greater than we could possibly hope or imagine.

But our communities are far from this vision of shalom. They are broken, fallen. Comparing our actual experience to the kingdom can help illuminate further questions: Has my service done anything to alleviate the brokenness here? How are people and organizations working towards renewal? How does the sin that affects all of my daily actions (and inactions) contribute to the brokenness I’ve seen? What is my agency in the fallenness of our world?

We trust that in spite of overwhelming brokenness in the world, Jesus Christ has power over sin. Through his resurrection, he will prevail in the redemption of this world. We may feel powerless, on a tiny boat about to capsize amidst torrential downpours, hurricane force winds and monstrous waves. But if we lift our eyes in search of the horizon hidden behind the storm, we may see a ghostly figure amidst the squall. That person, who with a word from his lips can command the rain to subside, the wind to cease, and the waves to still, beckons us to step out of our boat and walk towards him through the storm.

It is not in our own power to walk on water or to calm the storm, but with the power of the risen king behind us, we can step towards shalom.
-Noah

keep my eyes to serve, my hands to learn

There are still a couple weeks until graduation, but I think I'll probably run out of time to do this properly. Though a little premature, this is my note of deep gratitude and farewell to the S-LC.

Dearest friends,

I find it a little ironic and a lot sad that I'm leaving the place that taught me so well to love Grand Rapids. I'm struggling to understand what it means to anticipate leaving a place in which I learned to invest in my city. I'm anxious that I won't be able to convince myself to invest in a new place. Still, I'm excited to start graduate school and to settle into a new place. That I'm wrestling with leaving and anticipating re-planting is a testament to the good work, the kingdom work of the people at Calvin College, I think. As Jeff likes to remind us,  our work in the Service-Learning Center is most truly measured by qualitative evidence.

I've been thinking recently about community and what role community has in shaping people. I'm convinced that communities like the Service-Learning Center cultivate people of paradox, the kind of people who are at once present and kingdom-minded. I know that the S-LC will continue to change and grow, but I'm confident that the people here will always be asking hard questions and pursuing truth. I'm proud of the person that will be graduating from Calvin College on May 18, and while I know that I'll likely find another community that will challenge me and change me, I hope I'm able to hold on to part of the person that's been shaped by this place. I hope that despite the demands of graduate school, I will still leave room for art and challenging reading and good music and service-learning.

Thank you to all the people that taught me to read Wendell Berry (and to disagree with him a little), to the people who introduced me to good music, to the people listened to me rant and tempered my impatience with hope.

Peace.
-Anna

Service-Learning: the HYPEN and what's on both sides

Some days I am amazed at how easy, yet difficult it is to understand the basic concept of the work our office does. Service-learning. It's a 2-fold concept. I mean, is it really that complicated? There's the one part: SERVICE and then the second part: LEARNING.

In my recent ponderings of what service-learning really is and the work of our office, I came up with this somewhat poetic rant that brings to light my recent desire to overemphasize the 'learning' piece of our work:

we are not just 'do-gooders'

we are kingdom-builders who know that we are just a small part of a big, big project that only God can complete
just everyday workers taking part in His big renewal project

we are not just 'doers' and givers
we are learners and takers

we don't go for praise
we don't go just to make ourselves look good
we go to grow and learn

we go to give and see

we go with curiosity and intent to be awakened
to something new, something hard, something broken
we go as an expression of our faith
we go to bring hope and light


After writing this, I realized that all too often we forget to also define service. While trying to emphasize the learning piece that makes service-learning so distinct from volunteering, it became evident that not often enough do we break down what is on BOTH sides of the hyphen. If I were to reason as to why that is, I feel as if it would be because service is something so inherent to many of us. I don't think it unfair to assume that we have all heard the term 'service' before. What's interesting is that our background and understanding of the term might differ from what the person next to us is thinking. That said, think about something for a minute. Think about all the places we hear and use the term/idea of 'service': military service, worship service, customer service, public service, volunteer service, community service, service provider, service center, answering service, public servants, postal service, service professions, table service, funeral service. That's a pretty decent list if you ask me.

So while we all may have different backgrounds, thoughts, and experiences that define our version of service, the one thing in common is that all these kinds of service involvethinking beyond our selves. It involves doing something for the common good and/or for another person.

And guess what? dictionary.com agrees! This web source defines service/to serve as "to help, to give, to assist, to be useful, to supply with aid or information, duty performed to/for another, to act as a servant, something done for public benefit without regard to personal direct benefit."

Now I know most people (myself included) can think of a point in time when we didn't want (or maybe didn't even know how) to think outside ourselves. We were our own world and that world was the most important one. When that's the case, we needed encouragement and we needed someone brave enough to push us into a situation that could remind us that there is more to this world that 'me' and what 'I want' and what 'I need'. This is why I seriously love our StreetFest and ABSL programs - because they get people started on the journey of living as a true servant of Christ.

This got me thinking about the connection between what contexts we have grown up hearing about service and the way we apply it to how we think about service-learning.

For example, one context some of us may be heavily influenced by is the concept of service as 'community service' - as something that someone on probation must complete in order to be relieved from a more harsh punishment by the judge or as a good work someone does to make up for something bad they've done. When we let this context of service influence our view of service, we fall into the mindset that volunteering is something we do 'because we have to' in order to make up for past wrongs (past sins or past wrong doings to a people group or neighborhood).

Another way we often view service is in the context of worship. We attend worship services at which we engage in communication with other believers and with God. We enter the space and choose to open our hands and hearts to give and receive love and fellowship. When this concept and way of thinking about service is applied to volunteering we begin to see service as an act of worship, rather than a requirement. Serving in this mindset is an expression and outpouring of our faith - we choose to do it. We serve and give of ourselves to others because Christ first gave himself for us. He thought beyond himself and what he wanted and what would be easiest for him to what the world and all of us sinners needed.

'Voluntary service' is yet another term and context we commonly use to think about serving. While I think that many people would argue that 'voluntary service' is an oxymoron of sorts, I am not afraid to disagree. Not all service is voluntary; or rather, not all service is done out of free will. The reality is that sometimes we are forced to give our time and energy. We don't want to do it. We grumble, we complain, we show up and do what we have to do so that we can go home. The mind blowing piece here is that true service - service where we are joyfully engaged and seeking out opportunities to learn and grow and interact - is the real voluntary kind. The rest is just a kick off to the real thing as our hearts become pushed toward change - motivated and humbled to think beyond ourselves.

In summary, I guess the point of all this writing that I'm doing is to remind us that every piece of the phrase 'service-learning' is important and meaningful - the 'service', the 'learning', and the hyphen that joins the image together in a beautiful connection.


Peace and Blessings Always,
Emily

A Week to Remember

Believe it or not, we are now three weeks post-spring break. It all seems to have gone so fast, and there are even times what I forget that it ever happened because it seems so short in the grand scheme of time. Hearing the stories and experiences of others has been wonderful, but I can’t help but feel that my trip was the best (doesn’t everyone think that, though?) I had originally thought I would spend this time talking about my experiencing with coordinating the trips, but I find myself instead drawn to talk about my own service-learning trip to New Mexico.

The “service” part of the trip was to promote higher education to Native American students: we visited many schools and talked with many students, but it is hard to know if our presentations actually sparked any interest in the possibility. For me, the “learning” part of the trip was exponential. I was blessed to see learn, see, and participate in some of the Navajo and Zuni traditions, language, and culture; see and hike the magnificent beauty of the landscape (three times!); and to hear individual stories of challenge, hope, and inspiration. No words can explain the incredible and dumb-founded awe I within for the entire 8-day trip and no number of pictures or stories can detail how life-changing the experience was.

Due to delayed flights, our group missed our last flight from Phoenix to Albuquerque on the first day. Instead, we (well, Noah) made the 5-hour drive to Gallup. This initial test of flexibility was one of the greatest things that could have happened for us. The drive was crowded, long, and a blast of making life-long friends. I probably will never forget listening and singing to Disney in the backseat with Alicia, getting pulled over by a Navajo cop, or trying to capture the “perfect” picture of a cactus.

And don’t even get me started on our group’s addiction to the card game Monopoly Deal… seriously… like, we still get together when we can just to play… it’s a problem.

So what did I learn? Well, here’s just a quick few points:

• Berniz likes her Starbucks. Seriously. She would get it 24/7 if she could. And I’m not exaggerating.
• New Mexico is beautiful! The colors, weather, and landscape just scream the glory of God’s creation. I wish I could sell my house and car, and just roam/hike its desert landscape for the rest of my life.
• I don’t have to leave the United States to experience a new culture. Before spring break, I was sure that I would travel abroad and teach to teach in new cultures. It turns out that I don’t have to leave the United States for such an experience. Who knew? There is so much diversity and need here in the United States, whether it is acknowledged or not. We don’t need to travel abroad (and spend thousands of dollars) to have that eye-opening experience our society promotes. Now, I’m struggling because I have no idea whether God is calling me abroad or not. I’ll just have to wait and see where He takes me.
• There are so many good people in this world. We spoke with dozens of people who have dedicated their lives to serving in a community with high need that pays less than other places. Their love, compassion, and dedication to community are wonderful stories of God’s active presence in our world. They are my idols!
• I’ve made some incredible friends. You can’t experience something like these and not feel eternally connected to those who walked beside you in this process. In fact, we are currently planning a trip to Frederik Meijer Gardens, just for kicks and giggles. If nothing else, our addiction to Monopoly Deal will keep us together. Sam, Noah, Alicia, Berniz, Nikita, Tonisha: I love you all so much and I think of you as my family. Thank you for making this trip so great!
• There is so much about Native American culture that is not being shared with the dominant society today. My sheltered little world seems to be shrinking relative to the diversity of the world around me. I had no idea that there were so many Native Americans around today, and I certainly had no knowledge of their culture. Guess what: just because they live on a reservation does not mean that they live in teepees! It’s sad that this was news to me.

So if it’s not clear yet, spring break was wonderful. Life-changing? Yes. Fun? You betcha. Challenging? Without a doubt. Would I do it again? Well, duh! As we drove away from Gallup, where we stayed, I assured myself that my experience was not over. I was not saying “good-bye” to New Mexico, but “see you later.” Someday I will return, whether that’s when I’m retired or in 1.5 years when I graduate. God’s hands were not with us on this trip. God was with us on this trip. 

-Nic

Photo Contest!

Show us service-learning through your eyes!  Submit your original pictures of service-learning and you could win $50 to the campus store.  There will be one winner for each of these categories   spring break trips, ABSL (service-learning for class), and most "liked" on the SLC facebook page (can be absolutely anything related to service-learning).  

Submit your photos to servicehyphenlearning@gmail.com with "Photo Contest" in the subject line.  Please include:  

• your name and the names of others in your picture
• the organization you're working with and the reason you were serving there
• a caption (1-3 sentences) telling us the significance of the photo, how you served and/or what you learned.  

Submit as many photos as you like!  Deadline is April 17.  

   

*If you submit photos of the faces of anyone who is not a Calvin student, we will seek permission from the agency to publish that photo.  Please be aware that if permission is not granted, your photo will not be eligible for the contest.