Service Learning: Education Through Experience

Monday, 04 August 2008 10:12

Whether painting faces at the Kearney Area Children's Museum or scraping paint from homes in Omaha, thousands of University of Nebraska students give back hundreds of thousands of hours to the communities they call home through service learning events.

At UNMC, service learning offers students firsthand experience with patient care while providing communities across the state medical assistance. Faculty, students and staff work together through programs like the SHARING clinic (Student Health Alliance Reaching Indigent Needy Groups), a 10-year-old program that offers weekly care to the medically underserved in Omaha, and the Student Association for Rural Health, which promotes interest in health careers in rural areas of Nebraska.

UNMC students also volunteer within their individual programs to focus on addressing the health needs of both urban and rural Nebraskans throughout the state.

The Big Event, which takes place one Saturday each spring on UNL and UNK campuses, is a day-long opportunity for students and faculty to mow, paint, sand, dust, move, sort and cook in project sites chosen by The Big Event committees and Lincoln and Kearney-area businesses.

UNK psychology major Chris Hein, former co-chair of The Big Event executive team at UNK, said The Big Event offers students the ability to identify where their skills will be best served.

"The Big Event gives students the chance to do a variety of things from doing yard work for the elderly, to painting signs, to working with children, so volunteers aren't stuck doing just one type of community service. They can pick and choose exactly what they want to do," Hein said.

Like The Big Event, Seven Days of Service at the UNO campus focuses on student service. Instead of working on a project for a day, students can join a crew that works for up to an entire week over Spring Break. This year's project focused on the restoration and new construction of homes, The Salvation Army and the Malcolm X Birth Site in the Omaha Metro area, where students donated over $95,000 worth of labor.

"This project allows students to apply what they are learning in the classroom," said Kathe Oleson, assistant director of Service Learning at UNO. "Just as importantly, students learn about their community and its issues."

Inviting University of Nebraska students to serve and learn in Kearney, Lincoln, Omaha and across Nebraska benefits students, campuses and the cities through community interaction.

"It isn't often that we get the chance to thank the community as a whole. The Big Event is a great way for students to all come together on one special day to make their appreciation known to the community," Hein said.

In addition to participating in major events, students and faculty on all four campuses have joined cleanup efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the Hallam tornado, volunteered with dozens of community organizations, tutored young people and learned more about the needs of their communities. Service learning has been integrated into the curriculum in a wide range of disciplines, including international studies, biology, music and theatre, marketing and architecture. A report on Service Learning was presented to the Board of Regents at the June 2008 meeting.