#servicelearning

Date & Time: 3-14-2020 9:30am - 5:15pm

Duties: Baumgartner Galleria Entrance Attendant 

Today was an unusual one, the news of the COVID-19 virus being classified as a global pandemic has been declared today. People are advised to stay at home, take precautions and keep clean. The morning meeting became quick due to all gatherings and events being canceled due to the pandemic. After talking with some security guards who were stationed near me, it became apparent how recent events are impacting people differently. When the museum opened, it wasn’t long until people began to show, but 2 hours into the opening of the museum we had only obtained 13 guests so far. This was highly unusual for the museum on a Saturday. As the day progressed the count rose but still came at only half the usual visitors. Throughout my shift I was thanked by visitors for being open and for keeping cleanliness in mind. Although I did a “open to close” shift again at the museum, I made time go by quicker by doing a few sketches of the building in my buckets of free time. When I came home for my shift, I was called by the museum saying they are unfortunately shutting down due to the pandemic. I’m thankful I got to spend the last day there, as well as the other experiences and people I had come to know at the museum. I hope that soon our lives can get back to normal. 

This semester's service learning project has been super fascinating. Writing advocacy letters, making awareness resources like documents and flyers, and volunteering for community clean-ups were some of the activities our class did. Creating a flyer to spread the word about Florida's springs' decreasing water flow, which is a problem that has serious implications for the environment and the community, was my personal contribution.

The challenge of making the flyer felt rewarding and improved my communication and research abilities. I definitely feel like I discovered the necessity of clear messaging through the process of reducing complex knowledge into a way that can be understood. I became aware of the ability of educational resources to promote community involvement after giving this experience some thought.

In an article titled "Service-Learning" by Felten and Clayton (2011), they point out that "service-learning is embraced as both a mechanism for community engagement and high-impact pedagogy across institution types and disciplines," (Felten & Clayton, 2011, p. 76), which is in line with the ideas presented by the Service Learning experience. This article highlights how service-learning initiatives encourage social responsibility and connection with the community in addition to academic learning.

All things considered, this experience has strengthened my opinion about the importance of combining learning with real-world use. The difficulties I encountered, especially in striking a balance between thorough research and clear communication, helped in improve myself both academically and personally. This project has demonstrated how service-learning can successfully close the knowledge gap and establish a significant connection between education and volunteering in the community. 

Service learning series Lessons from the Ananth’s Adventures Project – 1 If you know one individual with autism, you know one individual with autism. We have all heard some version of this saying. This saying is worth questioning as it results in a mindset that can keep parents with years of experience from helping other parents. After all, since your child is so different from mine, I cannot…