New York Campus Compact and St. John’s University Faculty Institute

On June 27 and 28, 2011, 47 faculty members from nine institutions gathered together in the D’Angelo Center at St. John’s University for an Academic Service-Learning Faculty Development Institute co-sponsored by St. John’s University and New York Campus Compact. The Faculty Development Institute, entitled, “Service-Learning and Your Institutional Mission,” prompted participants to think about how service-learning connects to their institution’s mission and were provided with information and resources to further their knowledge of the Academic Service-Learning pedagogy. Dr. Robin Wellington, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology found the program, “Extremely valuable both in terms of material and the contacts/networking opportunity to obtain ideas from others who have been incorporating AS-L.” 

Rev. James Maher, C.M., Executive Vice President for Mission and Student Services began the session linking Academic Service-Learning to their institution’s mission and or plan highlighting that it is the integration of teaching, service and research, which strategically enhances Academic Service-Learning.

The Institute included several presenters and was facilitated by Dr. Edward Zlotkowski, Professor of English at Bentley University, who is known nationally and internationally in the field of service-learning and is founder of the Bentley Service-Learning Center. Throughout the program Dr. Zlotkowski led participants in designing or re-designing their course outlines to include an Academic Service-Learning component and were encouraged to provide feedback to one another on their outlines. At the end of the Institute, they had a newly designed course outline, which included an Academic Service-Learning component.

Working with Dr. Laurie Worrall, Executive Director of New York Campus Compact to plan the Institute Ms. Lynn Stravino, Associate Director of Academic Service-Learning indicated, “When you plan an event such as this you never know who will attend. We could not have asked for a more collegial group. It was exciting to see these gifted and accomplished academics working together across disciplines and institutions as they designed their service-learning components.”

Additionally Dr. Natalie Byfield, Assistant Professor of Sociology at St. John’s University spoke about the inclusion of Academic Service-Learning in her course, “Sociology of the Black Experience” and how that project moved her research and publication forward. Working with HerStory, an organization that provides a prison based memoir writing program in the Suffolk County prison system, Dr. Byfield collected data and worked with her students to evaluate the effect and the efficacy of the HerStory approach as a model for restorative justice. One of her students, recent St. John’s graduate, Sadé Vaughn, spoke about her work on the project, the impact it had on her academically and personally even providing an opportunity for her to present the HerStory project at a another conference.
 
Focusing on developing community partnerships, Mr. Anthony Butler, Executive Director of St. John’s Bread and Life, spoke about the importance of building meaningful service experiences for students to exemplify the benefits of the reciprocal relationships formed between community partners, students, faculty and the institution of learning.  He discussed the projects that St. John’s students have been working on at Bread and Life indicating that even the smallest project can take off into a long- term, sustainable program.

The Institute concluded with a presentation by Dr. Barrett Brenton, Associate Professor of Anthropology at St. John’s speaking about the importance of reflection to link the service with the academics and how to grade the reflections. He explained that students are graded on what they learned from serving and the connection to their course learning objectives and not the service itself.

At the end of the program, participants were awarded a certificate of participation and many commented on how beneficial the program was in better preparing them to use Academic Service-Learning in their future courses. According to Dr. Anthony Gabb, Assistant Professor in Administration and Economics at St. John’s, “Unquestionably, the event was interesting, informative and provocative!” For any questions regarding the AS-L Faculty Institute or future AS-L certifications, please contact Lynn Stravino at: (718) 990-7902 or stravinl@stjohns.edu