Service-Learning
Sudanese
Refugee Service-Learning Project
In the spring of 2008,
a class of Millsaps College students under the direction of Greg Miller,
professor of English, created an extensive web site featuring stories
of Sudanese refugees presented in video and text. The course was a service-learning
offering supported by the Faith & Work Initiative. The material can
be accessed at http://www.millsaps.edu/faithwrk/sudan.htm.
This project followed
upon a
successful service-learning course in 2003 that produced a collection
of stories from Sudanese refugees. The booklet, which garnered national
attention, is entitled The Long Journey: Sudanese Refugees in Mississippi
Tell Their Stories. It is available for download
or limited copies can be obtained by contacting the Faith & Work Initiative.
Why engage
in service-learning?
Dozens of studies on student learning demonstrate that hands-on projects
enhance student mastery of course content, not merely in the sciences,
where laboratory work has long been based on this recognition, but in
other academic areas as well. Service-learning projects are one form of
hands-on learning. They challenge students to connect in-class and text-based
learning with practical experiences in real-world laboratories.
Colleges and universities
are part of larger communities and have a responsibility to be good
citizens of those larger communities. Service-learning projects
offer colleges and universities opportunities to forge partnerships
with community agencies and to contribute to the common good by
supporting the work of these agencies.
Students who engage
in service-learning projects within the context of academic courses are
challenged to connect theory with practice and to consider service to
others as one piece of the mature intellectual life. Service-learning
projects help students make connections between their academic development
and their character development; put differently, it helps them bridge
the gap between academic affairs and student affairs, offering them a
holistic model of human development.
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