Service Learning Essay Research Paper John DoeBenefits

Service Learning Essay, Research Paper

John Doe

Benefits of Service Learning

Dear President Hagan:

Alfred A. Montepert once said, ?Move out man! Life is fleeting by. Do something worthwhile, before you die. Leave behind a work sublime, that will outlive you and time.? This quote is the perfect motto for Service Learning. As in the quote Service Learning gives students the opportunity to ?Leave behind work sublime, that will outlive you and time?. Service Learning not only gives students an opportunity to be helpful to his community; it gives students a chance to find new interests and also develop people skills.

First, students will be able to be helpful and benefit their community. The work that is done by students helps the community and at the same time saves them money. This will take the place of work that needed other paid workers and it will save time for the community to do other work. Benefiting the students as well as Roger Williams University, Service Learning is very important. President Hagan states ?The inclusion of youth in community and school service activities has received warm reception from educators, parents and citizens alike.?(Hagan, Service Learning) The students help in return builds a good reputation with the community and also gives good publicity to the school. The community feels that Roger Williams cares about the community that surrounds it when students help.

Secondly, students will be given the chance to find new interests. Doing work in a certain field such as help teaching children, students may realize that they really enjoy it. For example, my mother did volunteer work for our church one day; she was involved with tutoring small children. After that experience she decided she wanted to be a teacher and persued that field of study. My mother is now a first grade teacher. As you can see this might encourage students to change their major to study education for later plans of working in that field. Others might enjoy doing Service Learning work for the community and decide to make volunteer work apart of their everyday lives. On the hand, students might chose to do Service Learning in their major that they are studying and decide that is not the right area of interest.

Lastly, Service Learning gives students an opportunity to develop valuable people skills. President Hagan states that ?By combining classroom learning with service, educators effectively utilize contemporary constructivist (hands-on) methodology by involving students in active, meaningful tasks.”(Hagan, Service Learning) These people skills will be useful later in the work field. Students will learn to interact with many different types of people and personalities. They will learn how to encourage, and lead people by example. One incident in my life that shows how Service Learning gives students an opportunity to develop people skills happened when I was in eighth grade. Our class took weekly trips to the local nursing home. The purpose was to basically entertain the senior people by singing songs, playing games, and just talking to them. One visit I encountered an elderly woman, named Rose, I asked her how she liked it at the nursing home, which started a deep conversation. She basically told me her life story and how she had a grandchild the same age as me. At the end of this conversation she complimented me on being a very attentive listener. This incident shows how students develop good people in Service Learning. I was just a young man, but I developed skills, which will benefit me throughout life.

Service Learning at Roger Williams University is a great