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| From the Editors: |
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Happy official start to summer! Here at NSLC, we’ve been using the first part of the summer to concentrate on creating new resources to make it easier for you to stay up to date on what’s happening in the service-learning field. One we’re especially excited about is our new Keep Up to Date page at servicelearning.org/instant_info/up_to_date/index.php. Here, you can subscribe to our automatically-updating RSS feeds and podcasts on funding, new resources, and calls for proposals. If you have your own website, from this page you can also download NSLC and Learn and Serve America widgets to keep your site visitors up to date automatically too.
Also this month, we’re releasing a Spanish language version of “What is Service-Learning? A Guide for Parents,” our free Bring Learning to Life resource for parents. To download or order free copies of “¿En que consiste el aprendizaje-servicio? Guía para los padres,” visit servicelearning.org/lsa/bring_learning/index.php#spparents.
What’s your service-learning focus for the summer? If you’re looking ahead to the start of the new school year, be sure to plan and register a Learn & Serve Challenge activity at learnandservechallenge.org. Or, if the summer is your time to organize your office, clean your desk, tidy your electronic files, and reflect on the past year, include NSLC in your organizing regimen. We are always eager to collect any service-learning resources (whether print or electronic) that might have the potential to help someone else. So, before reaching for that recycle bin, pre-cycle by emailing or snail mailing your service-learning photos, videos, lesson plans, syllabi, sample forms, training materials, or other resources to us. It’s easy. Just attach them in an email to the librarian at info@servicelearning.org or visit servicelearning.org/library/promote for snail mail instructions.
Of course, this summer is also obviously a time for thinking about the role of voting in democracy and civic engagement. Check out our Service-Learning and Voting hot topic for links to helpful resources on the topic:
servicelearning.org/instant_info/hot_topics/voting. Unfortunately, with fires in NSLC’s own backyard of Santa Cruz, floods wreaking havoc on the Midwest, and natural disasters in Burma and China in the last month, in our field this summer also seems to be a time for thinking about how service-learning and volunteerism generally are and can be mobilized in times of great need. For information on this topic see. And, if you have used service-learning to help support a community in a time of crisis, please email Liberty at libertys@etr.org so we can be sure others can gain from your experience.
Barbara and Liberty
Barbara Holland, National Service-Learning Clearinghouse Director
Liberty Smith, National Service-Learning Clearinghouse Program Manager |
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| News: |
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National Learn and Serve Challenge
 The National Learn & Serve Challenge is a perfect opportunity to celebrate service-learning. October 6-12 marks the kickoff week to raise awareness about service-learning successes across the country with the spirit of continuing the effort throughout the year.
Through service-learning, young people can “BE A SOLUTION” to real world challenges that face our community, nation and the world.
You can “BE A SOLUTION” too! |
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Capturing Experience: How People 50+ Can Help Your Organization
 Discover proven strategies to capture the experience of people age 50+ in your community in this free online course developed by Temple University Center for Intergenerational Learning.
This 3-hour, interactive course will help you:
- Understand how today's 50+ population want to contribute
- Learn how to craft compelling paid and unpaid opportunities for them
- Explore proven ways to market your opportunities and develop a successful recruitment plan
- Master the most effective strategies for placing, training and supporting people 50+
Sign up at http://cil.templecil.org/. |
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| New From NSLC: |
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 ¿En que consiste el aprendizaje-servicio? Guía para los padres
Download or order our new Spanish language version of “What is Service-Learning? A Guide for Parents,” our free Bring Learning to Life resource for parents.
servicelearning.org/lsa/bring_learning/index.php#spparents
Hot Topic: Service-Learning & Voting
Service-learning is a tool that can be used to teach about voting and the political process and increase civic and political engagement among students. These resources provide ideas for and research on voting-related service-learning projects for CBO, k-12 and higher education students.
servicelearning.org/instant_info/hot_topics/voting/
Keep Up to Date Using Social Media / Web 2.0 Tools
Use this page to find out how to subscribe to our newsletters, email discussion lists, and automatically-updating RSS feeds and podcasts on funding, new resources, and calls for proposals. If you have your own website, from this page you can also download NSLC and Learn and Serve America widgets to keep your site visitors up to date automatically too.
servicelearning.org/instant_info/up_to_date/index.php |
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| People are Talking About... |
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What counts as service? That was a question that was bounced around on the higher ed email discussion list this last month. Members of the list discussed whether volunteering for a non-profit or campus-based organization should be considered service and what definitions were currently being used by the institutions of those involved in the discussion. This led to a discussion on the distinction between service and philanthropy and the role philanthropy could play in service-learning. To read more on this discussion and contribute your own thoughts visit: lists.etr.org/read/messages?id=89706.
If you’d like to sign up to receive messages from one or more of our email discussion lists on service-learning, please visit servicelearning.org/what_is_service-learning/lists_news/. |
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| NSLC How-Tos: |
Social Bookmarking
What is Social Bookmarking?
Social bookmarking is a method for users to store, organize, and search bookmarks of webpages on the Internet, as opposed to on their browser. Social bookmarking is a lot like bookmarking any webpage in your internet browser, only instead of being stored on your local computer they are stored on a website. Because of this you can access your bookmarks on any computer with an internet connection.
These bookmarks are usually public but can be kept private or shared only with specific individuals or groups. Individuals can view their bookmarks, and the bookmarks of others, chronologically, by category, or with a search engine. Social bookmarking allows you to: store webpages of interest; share webpages with friends, family, or colleagues; and discover new webpages by searching or browsing through someone else’s bookmarks.
Perhaps the most popular social bookmarking service is del.icio.us, but there are many more. Here are a few:
How to Get Started
In order to start you simply need to select a social bookmarking service, register to the site, and then you’re ready to start bookmarking!
Many webpages you may wish to bookmark may have a little icon that you can click on so that it automatically adds the page to your list of bookmarks.
Under the navigation and logos on the left of every page on the NSLC site, you will see a ‘Bookmark’ button. If you scroll over this image with you cursor, you will be able to bookmark the page you are on using many different types of social bookmarking or browser utilities. You will also be given the option to email the page you are on to a friend or colleague.
Even if you don’t see icons on the webpage, which you want to bookmark, you still can add a page to your bookmarks by logging into your social bookmarking websites and adding the webpage URL manually.
Now start bookmarking! |
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| Featured Library Resources: |
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Here are just a few of the newest additions to the world’s largest service-learning library.
CBO
A Guide to Service Learning for Disaster Preparation
Amy Kochanasz
This guide is designed as a resource and reference for anyone who is interested in engaging youth/students in service-learning focused on disaster preparation, response, mitigations, and/or recovery. The first section provides useful background information on service-learning, emergency management, and how to focus youth service-learning in this critical area. The second portion of the guide is a set of detailed descriptions and photographs of 20 of the funded projects in Florida. These descriptions provide contact information, background and details about activities, data on project impacts. Finally, the appendix is the Request for Proposals and attachments that were sent to potential applicants in the first year of the program.
servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=7633
Higher Ed
Millennials Talk Politics: A Study of College Student Political Engagement
Abby Kiesa et al.
The report follows up on a 1993 study published by the Kettering Foundation that found students considered politics irrelevant to their lives and they saw little purpose in actively participating in politics. Current students do not share those views they are eager to go into their communities and put their education to work. Nearly 400 students convened in 47 focus groups on 12 four-year college campuses across the country to discuss their civic and political attitudes and experiences. Researchers also collected written surveys from the students and drew on a national telephone survey to compile "Millennials Talk Politics."
servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=7635
K-12
Spinning Interdisciplinary Service-Learning Webs: A Project of the Maryland Service-Learning Fellows Program
Maryland State Department of Education
The authors present a collection of webs to help teachers infuse service learning into their content areas so that they may bridge connections to other content areas through interdisciplinary projects. Curricular webs are devoted to aging, bias, crime, environment, hunger and homelessness, literacy, poverty, pregnant and parenting teens, and substance abuse. Each web includes preparation, indirect action, direct action, advocacy, reflection, and celebration. This is the second edition.
servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=7499
Tribal
Making a Difference at the Tar Creek Superfund Site: Community Efforts to Reduce Risk
Rebecca Jim and Marilyn Scott
The Tar Creek area of northeastern Oklahoma is the site of one of the nation's worst Superfund sites, a product of the more than 300 lead and zinc mines that once flourished there. Although the area was declared a Superfund site in 1983, cleanup progress was minimal and area residents suffered many ill health effects. Close to half of the children six years and under had elevated lead levels in their blood, indicating lead poisoning. Through combined work of Tribal Efforts Against Lead (TEAL) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a community effort was launched to clean up the soil and inform residents of how to minimize their exposure to toxins in their area. This book describes the communities and the project in the voices of participants from every area: the community members, the tribal leaders, the scientists involved with the health of the people and the state of the land, and Learn and Serve America participants from Miami High School who were members of the Cherokee Volunteer Society working to make their community safer.
servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=7425
**Service-Learning ‘Classic’**:
In addition to bringing you new library resources or those selected each month around a theme, we want to highlight some of those foundational resources that are of enduring importance and usefulness to the field. Remember that you can always conduct a search for such "classic" resources (or "starter" and "expert" resources) by visiting our advanced library search page. servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/default.php
Learning Through Serving: A Student Guidebook For Service-Learning Across The Disciplines
By Christine M. Cress, Peter J. Collier, Vicki L. Reitenauer
This book is intended as a self-directed guide for college-level students who are engaged in service-learning. Though addressed principally to students participating in service-learning as a class, it is also suitable for students working individually. This book begins by setting the context, explaining the differences between service and volunteerism and linking service-learning to the larger issues of citizenship and democracy. It then provides activities, exercises and other resources to develop students’ skills of reflection, teamwork and cultural competence, and to help them plan, work with community partners, exercise leadership and manage change. The authors provide a framework for students to assess their progress and communicate final results to all stakeholders.
servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=6413 |
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| Order Publications from NSLC: |
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Did you know that NSLC offers copies of many of our most popular resources for free or low cost to both grantees and non-grantees? You can order copies of the Bring Learning to Life public service announcement DVD and companion materials (including “What Is Service-Learning? A Guide for Parents,” in English or now in Spanish) or order NSLC promotional items for your next event. The order process is easy. Just fill out the form online and let us do the rest!
servicelearning.org/pubs/index.php |
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| What's Happening: |
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Presenting for NSLC at the 21st Century Community Learning Centers’ Summer Institute, July 15-17 in Dallas, TX, is K-12 Program Advisor Shelley Billig from RMC Research. Look for her workshop, “Maximizing Impacts of After-School Programs Using Service-Learning.” Register for the event at: sei2003.com/21stcentury/.
Discovering Community: Students, Digital Media, and Place-Based Learning
July 14 – 18, 2008
Randolph Center, VT
Discovering Community Institute
servicelearning.org/events_jobs/slconf_events/index.php?action=detailed&event=736
Community-Campus Partnerships for Health's 11th Summer Service-Learning Institute
July 25 – 28, 2008
Leavenworth, WA
Community-Campus Partnerships for Health
servicelearning.org/events_jobs/slconf_events/index.php?action=detailed&event=692
The Campus Compact Professional Development Institute
July 28 – August 1, 2008
Atlanta, GA
Campus Compact
servicelearning.org/events_jobs/slconf_events/index.php?action=detailed&event=769
The National Educators’ Institute for Jewish Service-Learning
August 10 – 14, 2008
Burlington, VT
The Center for Jewish Service-Learning
servicelearning.org/events_jobs/slconf_events/index.php?action=detailed&event=788
Connecting Literacy to Service Learning - Adding Relevance, Transforming Lives
August 25 – 26, 2008
Brighton, MI
Smart Character Choices
servicelearning.org/events_jobs/slconf_events/index.php?action=detailed&event=802 |
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| Learn and Serve America Grantee Materials Roundup: |
Have you ever been convinced that your program isn't the first to try a particular idea? Do you wonder if others would be interested in your project discoveries? Whether you're just starting out, or have been engaged in service-learning for years, let the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse make the connection for you. We collect materials created by service-learning programs and add them to our library for others to access. If you have produced surveys, forms, curricula, project plans, or any type of materials that could be shared with others involved in service-learning, send them our way! Check out this list of recent grantee submissions to find evaluation tools, program ideas, publicity ideas, strategies for measuring learning, etc.
servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/grantee_submitted_mats.php.
Whether or not you're a Learn and Serve America Grantee, let others know about the successful approaches used in your service-learning program. Submit today at servicelearning.org/library/mat_contrib/index.php.
Remember that Learn and Serve America grantees must send the Clearinghouse all program evaluations and other material developed through their funded activities. |
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Expanding the Reach of Community Partnerships to Close Gaps: Community Partnerships - After-School Learn and Serve Programs
HMCUC (Historically Minority Colleges and Universities Consortium of North Carolina)
servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=7641 |
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| Promote Your Program! |
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NSLC needs your help! We are seeking high quality photos of your service-learning programs or projects to highlight on our sector pages, as well as on the rest of the site. Each photo used will include the name of the school, a link to the school/project, and a caption. We'd love to use this as a new way to drive folks to the great program models we know are out there. Please help us brag about you by submitting your photos today using this online form:
servicelearning.org/library/mat_contrib/share_photo_form.php
For even more bang for your publicity buck, Learn and Serve America grantee submissions will also be shared with Learn and Serve America and the Corporation for National & Community Service for inclusion in their photo collection.
Although we will be happy to work with any photos submitted, the best photos will be between 150 and 200 pixel/inch and no larger than 5Mb.
(Note: The submitter holds sole responsibility for obtaining appropriate legal permissions/releases from all stakeholders for submitted material.)
Thank you for your contribution!
We really appreciate all the contributions you make to the enhancement of Learn and Serve America’s National Service Learning Clearinghouse, America 's Resource for Service-Learning Information. |
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| Success Stories: |
| Success stories are a way for NSLC to highlight and show off what you have done and are doing in the realm of service-learning.
Submit your story. |
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Learning and Leading- Off the Field and in the Community
  CAMP (Collegiate Athlete Mentoring Program) Gator is a leadership mentoring program in which collegiate athletes and student leaders serve as mentors to at-risk students. The hallmark of the program is leadership training that mentors and mentees complete collaboratively; creating mission and vision statements, partaking in service leadership projects, and even the creation of a leadership skills video.
Mentees- At-Risk Middle School Students
- Students at PK experienced increased GPA's (13%) and decreased behavior referrals (72%)
- Mentors arranged practice visits and campus outings. These visits allowed students the opportunity to see what college life is truly like. One student, after a visit to Gator football practice, told his mother that "it was the best day of his life."
- From one mentee: "CAMP Gator has helped me by showing me that nothing is impossible…"
- From a teacher: "She is starting to realize the importance of school responsibilities thanks to the work with her mentor"
- From a parent: "My son now has improved self esteem, more caring for others. Can he do this again?"
Mentors- Student –athletes and Student leaders from the University of Florida
- # UF mentors received awards of excellence from the Department of Educational Administration and Policy.
- 100% of all UF students state that they would "strongly recommend" this program
- Students experienced improvements in public speaking skills, goal setting, and time management
- Students expressed an increase in the likelihood of the pursuit of education as a future career goal
- Quote by one mentor:"My goal was to change the life of someone in a positive way and this program has given me the opportunity to not only meet but exceed my goals…"
For more information about this project, please contact: Mr. Matthew Ohlson, University of Florida, Department of Educational Administration and Policy College of Education, Gainesville, FL 32611-7049, mohlson@ufl.edu, campgator.com. |
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View other success stories. |
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Spread the Good News! |
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NSLC is all about sharing, so please feel free to forward this newsletter to friends and colleagues and invite them to subscribe by sending a blank email to join_nslc-newsletter@lists.etr.org. You're also welcome to incorporate excerpts from the newsletter into your own newsletter (just be sure to cite Learn and Serve America's National Service-Learning Clearinghouse NSLC Newsletter and send us a copy). |
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