The learning and growing opportunities for 500 children this summer got a boost from communications students at Salt Lake Community College as part of a service-learning project.
Susan Knott’s class COMM 1020, Principles of Public Speaking, culminated in a service project that involved students preparing 500 donated backpacks full of supplies for children at two elementary schools and preschools. The project was supported by SLCC’s Engaged Learning Office and grant funding of $1,500.
Below is a project synopsis written by Susan Knott that details all that went into her students’ efforts to help children who live in communities served by SLCC. Congratulations to Susan and her students on a successful project!
As a designated service-learning course, COMM 1020, Principles of Public Speaking includes preparing and delivering speeches around the JEDI themes of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and a community service project. With this particular project, service-learning integrated community activism and civic engagement into the speech coursework. Engaged learning practices emphasized theory and experiential discovery through strategically planned community service. Informative speeches about the selected SLCC community partners helped students develop civic literacy and knowledge. Learning about community partners’ core service goals helped the students learn more about growing disparity gaps based on race, ethnicity, and income. Taking civic action, the students aligned the course service-learning project with the United Way’s core work to eliminate racial and economic disparity gaps in education.
SLCC Comm students worked together in teams with Title One elementary schools and preschools to provide 500 backpacks filled with materials and supplies for summer learning programs. The backpacks and accompanying 20 teacher lesson file boxes were donated to Meadowlark Elementary, Moss Elementary and the adjacent preschools. Twenty students from three COMM 1020 Sections worked together, gathering donated backpacks. The Engaged Learning Office awarded one student from each section a $500 Service-Learning Grant to purchase workbooks and other teacher-requested items for a total of $1,500 towards school supplies. Teams created flyers and backpack donation boxes to place around the SLCC campuses.
On May 4, all the SLCC teams met at the South City Campus JEDI Hub for our “Universal Day of Service, May the Fourth Be with Us” event. SLCC students filled the Summer Learning Backpacks with workbooks, binders, books, markers, pencils, whiteboards, learning quilts and art supplies. The COMM 1020 and 1010 courses are also available to high school students as concurrent enrollment classes, and for this project, high school students in Knott's 1020 class also recruited peers from Hillcrest and Skyline high schools to help assemble the backpacks. Students intentionally chose to celebrate the Service Day in JEDI Hub’s newly designated Justice and Peace Garden as students had learned about the plans to create it as part of their project. Students also recorded speech video lessons and books to share with students as part of the How-To Speech Assignment for children to access over the summer. The students’ resulting JEDI Agents of Change team presentations demonstrated effectively sharing and presenting ideas with the hope of changing the world within the sphere of our influence. Service-learning objectives promoted a JEDI call-for-action approach combined with engaged learning. Students’ team documentaries reflected on their service-learning experiences and the outcomes of the service project.
Students taking part in this project reported the “justice” outcome as providing an opportunity for summer learning for underserved children. The project supported “equity” by providing hands-on learning materials requested by the teachers for students who may not have Wi-Fi for online learning. Learning materials integrated with English language learning programs to help families learn English in their homes served the “diversity” objectives. Helping underserved students to stay connected with the schools and their teachers over the summer supported the “inclusion” objectives. Service-learning is a high-impact practice that enhances course learning outcomes and student engagement while also addressing community-identified needs. Service-learning involves students in activities that attend to local needs while developing their academic skills, increasing their subject matter knowledge and commitment to their communities.
(Adapted from The Service-Learning Grant & Designation Program).
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