Consider all of the papers, reports, and projects that are handed in and handed back, week after week at your school. Those weeks roll into semesters — and semester to semester the number of assignments going from student to instructor and back again begins to really add up.
This back-and-forth has educational and extended value, but what if the time, ideas, and reviews leveraged to create something even more: service.
The idea of service learning is not new, and there may be multiple interpretations of what it entails, but for this discussion, let’s say service learning is turning classwork into serviceable benefit for others. It’s about using learning experiences to build connections with and provide value to local and other communities. Sound like something you would like to incorporate? How could you bring service learning into your course?
Here is a quick list of ideas:
1. MARKETING PROJECT
Use a marketing project to build a youth literacy campaign for a community library: Students could conduct research, create social media outreach, and report on project success.
2. SOCIAL MEDIA COMPETITION
Hold a student competition to generate the most social media shares advocating safe driving: Such a competition could generate interest within the school and community and get local government and law enforcement agencies involved. Maybe the competition could even extend beyond your local area.
3. GRAPHIC DESIGN WORK
Have students complete graphic design work that could be used as collateral by a local non-profit. Consider having students identify local groups that could use visual messaging upgrades for their print and/or advertising materials. Students could contact the organizations, work through design processes, and present their completed work.
4. ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN
Direct students through an advertising campaign that highlights a need in a foreign country. Is there a social studies instructor at your school whose class could coordinate with yours in making a difference for people somewhere else in the world?
5. WEBSITE IMPROVEMENT
Task students with analytics know-how to increase website effectiveness for a family support center. Imagine students using technology and data understanding to meaningfully address the needs of a community service and ultimately benefit individuals and families.
Helping Fulfill Stukent’s Mission
By way of reaching out to support others, Stukent makes available a number of resources in fulfilling the mission to help educators help students help the world. For example, Stukent Conference Grants are made available to assist instructors in covering the costs of educational conference attendance, and Stukent Research Grants help educators pay for research activities.
University of South Dakota instructor Travis Loof received a Stukent grant to attend a conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).
“Thank you so much for this generous grant to attend and present at AEJMC!” Loof writes. “I am excited to share my research and knowledge with other professors. At the conference, I learned that when teaching data analytics, match the technical tools with societal impacts to create important and useful learning opportunities for students.”
To learn more about Stukent grants, click the button below.
