If you're close to me, you know activism is something I've been passionate about for a long time.
I interned as a social justice research intern for a non-profit who's main goal was to fight against police brutality, and knowing that I was involved in trying to make a change gave me a sense of fulfillment that not much else has. I believe this real world and hands-on experience A.K.A putting my money where my mouth was, helped enhance my education in so many invaluable ways.
In Enck's chapter, I loved how she said she was drawn to CAP, because of its commitment to having students involved in first person activism. I was especially excited by her bringing up service learning, because its something that I'm most passionate about and hope to be involved in and have my students involved in as well in the future. Knowing you possess the power to change the world for the better through your actions is something I know ignites excitement for many of us. This is where activism can be initiated, leading into creating real change.
Before I found my place in the COMM department, I was a Psychology/ Sociology major. One of my Sociology classes was called social issues. In this class we were required to have an entire service learning project that we did throughout the semester. We had to have 12 hours with a local organization and actually volunteer and help with issues we cared about. I chose to volunteer at a hospice and elderly home, because during that time in my college career, I had learned about the lack of interaction they received with people who did not work at the facility. I did not initially think my life would be changed as much as it did after that first day.
I got to actually spend time and learn from the people that I hoped to help. Having a sense of agency and not just 'sitting around' and being sad with no actual action. This experience enhanced my life in multiple ways, so much so that I continued volunteering at that hospice for years after that class ended before I moved away. Feeling fulfilled and understanding that I can make the change and affect people in a positive way through positive actions made me feel like I was in the right space. I think having hands on work and activism is a vital aspect in the academic sphere. It allows students to have interaction with all that they read, learn, and research about. Putting the 'academic' sphere and their 'personal' sphere together in activism allows connections to be made that will benefit their overall educational experience.
My #lightningboldt is that service learning is something that I hope to implement in classes that I may teach in the future and also classes that I may be enrolled in as a student.
Do you guys have any service learning experiences you feel that you've benefitted from?
#lightningboldt! I love that you had a rewarding experience in your service learning project. I did one in my final semester of undergrad in Minority Gerontology at UNT! My service organization was Meals on Wheels. I really enjoyed working in the most violent and economically blighted neighborhoods in Dallas with complete immunity. I felt like I had a golden bubble of safety when I drove around trying to find my meal delivery locations in South Dallas. It sounds like a similar type of deal as yours, 12 hours of work with the organization of my choice (I like that Meals on Wheels is mostly secularly funded), and I felt so good doing it that I continued delivering my routes through the summer, long after the class was done and I had already graduated! I tend to think psych and COMM have tons of commonalities. One key difference I perceive is that psychology seems to stops short of COMM in terms of social justice. Psychology would seem to teach the theories and COMM teaches us how to address the injustices through our individually developed communication activism pedagogies. One of our DQs was, what's the difference between CAP and CCP--CCP stops just short of CAP. We learn how to intervene using CAP. Like, what the fuck's the point of learning about shit that pisses me off if I can't fight it?!
ReplyDeleteI actually haven't had many real service learning experiences in college, but I had a lot in high school through scouts, which (looking back now) served as an incredible education opportunity. I think it only makes sense, like Ruth mentioned, that if you are going to introduce students to all of the problems in the world, you should also prepare them to go tackle those problems, and what better way that service learning, advocacy, and activism? I think this whole concept of communication activism pedagogy fits in really well with Dewey's ideas of creating civically engaged citizens. If your goal is to prepare students to make the world a better place, they can start doing it in college and build a framework for the future.
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