Four-way partnership benefits all

Indiana Campus Compact grant provides a 'win-win' strategy

Amy Lockwood(far left) and Ann Kuehn-Ball work on projects for Ceramics 1. Lab Director Jim McClure (right) waters plants in the greenhouse.
Photos by Chris Meyer

A grant from Indiana Campus Compact has allowed the partners to hire Ann Cottongim as a service learning coordinator (SLC) to recruit student volunteers from the two colleges for Girls Inc. and Boys Club and to work with the volunteers to make their service experience a good one. The result has been a "win-win" situation.

• The community partners benefit: In the first year of the partnership, volunteer hours contributed by IU East and Earlham students increased over 600 hours from the previous year.

• The student volunteers benefit: In an evaluation of their service experience, 80 percent of the students in IU East classes working with the SLC reported a high level of satisfaction with the training and supervision they received. Only 40 percent of the students in those same classes who worked at agencies without a service learning coordinator indicated a high level of satisfaction with their training and supervision.

• IU East and Earlham benefit: Faculty on both campuses interested in integrating service learning into their courses have received a real boost. Cottongim serves as a liaison between faculty and the community organizations and provides training and supervision for the students, which considerably reduces the administrative burden of offering a service learning course.

Related Link:
http://www.iue.indiana.edu/

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