Pre-schoolers perform for parents and village elders at school carnival. © sideRhodes photography

It’s not unusual for college students to offer their time to organizations and non-profits with a mission to make a difference. When students grow in how they perceive the world and themselves, however, a simple service project can become a powerful and life-changing event.

Such projects are what make up the Service Learning program at Carroll Community College. The Office of Student Life operates the program, which has been going strong at Carroll for three years.

What is Service Learning? “It is a structured student opportunity to engage the community by taking classroom knowledge and applying it to the outside world,” said Dell Hagan Rhodes, coordinator of Service Learning at Carroll. “Students can work with non-profits or community partners. They have the chance to work with people who may otherwise never cross paths with them.”

“For example, students make relevant applications of what they learn in the classroom,” Rhodes said. “While preparing English narratives, a group of students went to the Health and Human Services department to document why people become homeless in Carroll County. In the realm of experience of these students, it didn’t make sense for people to be homeless. Stereotypes of the homeless as people who are jobless and eat in soup kitchens were shattered.”

Rhodes is excited about an upcoming Service Learning project for students from July 21 through August 6, 2007 in Big Falls, Belize. The project is sponsored by Carroll and the Community College of Baltimore County. It is the only collaborative community college project of its kind in the country, according to Rhodes. Students will address the needs of the Mayan community by offering a two-week summer literacy camp for children. The goal is to help raise passing rates on yearly school examinations in Belize.

“We will help children who throughout the year speak English in the classroom, but over the summer months lose much of their language skills,” Rhodes said. “This is because Mayan, Spanish, and Caribbean dialects are predominantly spoken at home.”

Belize students must pass tests to progress to the next grade. For years, many of them did not pass because they needed English literacy training. After seven years of the program, Belize students now have a 90 percent passing rate on the tests.

Participating community college students will also provide school supplies and teaching aides in a country where after buying books, there is little money left for simple items like pencils and paper. Students will apply for the opportunity to participate by outlining their educational goals and what they hope to learn from the experience.

The trip to Belize and numerous other opportunities throughout the academic year show what Service Learning intends to accomplish. “We want college students to build character,” Rhodes said. “The most effective experience involves service with reflection. We want students to come away with a sense of meaning, with a sense of having been changed by the experience.”

Student Maria Cho raises her hand during language arts class. © sideRhodes photography

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