Service-Learning and Community Engagement Course

Instructor: Dr. KerryAnn O'Meara
Teaching Assistant: Alan Bloomgarden
Fall Semester

This course is designed for newly admitted students in the service-learning and comunity engagement track of the higher education masters program, for doctoral students emphasizing service-learning and engagement in their studies, and for other higher education masters and doctoral students as space allows. The program specialization in service-learning is designed to prepare students for roles as: directors of service-learning centers in colleges and universities; as coordinators of student volunteers in communitybased organizations; as liaisons between faculty and community in academic servicelearning and community based research and outreach projects, and/or as facilitators of the growing range of other higher education-community partnerships. Thus this course immerses students in the practice and theory of service-learning, the integration of community service and related academic study. A survey of some of the major areas of literature and research on service-learning and engagement is provided in a small seminar setting where students and instructors can draw upon their own educational and professional experiences-as well as texts, as a means of teaching and learning together.

Leadership in Engagement Summer Program

Instructor: Dr. KerryAnn O'Meara
Summer Semester

This course is designed as an opportunity for current directors of service-learning in higher education to reflect on the literature and research on service-learning and the meaning and challenges of leadership in this context. The course aims to help directors to develop theoretical and practical tools as leaders of engagement on their own campuses. The course is linked with an off-campus four day professional development retreat, held at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, sponsored by Campus Compact. The instructor is one of the facilitators of the retreat. A survey of some of the major areas of literature and research on service-learning and engagement is provided in a small seminar setting where students and the instructor can draw upon their own educational and professional experiences—as well as texts, as a means of teaching and learning together.