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   from the issue of February 24, 2005

     
 
Research Service-Learning connects students with communities

 BY KIM HACHIYA, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

Take a typical sophomore whose interests are wide-ranging and entice her to enroll in a pilot class on civic engagement. The following summer, she interns at a shelter for battered Latinas in Chicago and does some research on their child care needs. Back at school, she takes a course exploring domestic violence, and interns with a local agency serving battered women. Following graduation, she has a year-long fellowship in India working on domestic violence issues. She returns to her university to head up that fellowship program.

That was Laura Thornhill's experience as part of Duke University's Research Service Learning program. She was one of four from Duke to visit UNL Feb. 17 to talk about Duke's innovative program in a series of sessions sponsored by UNL's Office of Undergraduate Studies.

Thornhill entered Duke with a vague goal of attending law school, she said. She still is aiming for law school, but with a focused purpose of working to end domestic violence.

Duke's program, now in its seventh year, boasts lots of stories like Thornhill's, said Elizabeth Kiss, director of Duke's Kenan Institute for Ethics and one of the RSL program's founders. "This is a student-driven program and the students push the envelop of how we develop the program," she said.

Research service learning, said Robert Thompson, connects service-learning with the mission of research universities to create new knowledge. Thompson is vice provost for undergraduate education at Duke. Students work with faculty and community partners to conduct research as part of their service learning experience and the research outcomes help the partner agency make decisions.

Since the project's founding, it has grown from one course with 43 students, 14 partner agencies and four faculty to 22 courses, 437 students, 72 community partners and 24 faculty. Data collected on the students indicate they find the courses more intellectually challenging than the average course and that the courses helped them apply concepts and synthesize knowledge, Thompson said. Agencies also reported finding the research done by the students to be useful. Students must write an honors-type thesis on their research and present it publicly to the agency.

The program helps students connect higher education with communities and shows students how they can make a difference, Thompson said. Students have always been interested in service learning, he said, but this project helps align that interest with academic scholarship, theory and practice.

Thompson said he was particularly interested in seeing how the project could work in a land grant institution like UNL. "Land grant schools have always had a fundamental idea of outreach as a societal obligation," he said. "It's part of your mission. It answers the question of why society should invest in a Research 1 institution because it connects you to society as you benefit the society.

"It makes the contract more explicit. You are teaching students how to translate knowledge into service to society," he said.

UNL faculty Joy Ritchie, Susan Fritz and Tim Wentz related examples of research service learning they are incorporating into their teaching. Wentz told of a class he teaches in construction management where students helped an inner city church with a major renovation project. The church received invaluable technical assistance, he said, and the students were able to apply what they were learning to help the congregation.

"It's a lot more fun to teach this way," he said. "It's more work, but it's worth it."


GO TO: ISSUE OF FEBRUARY 24

NEWS HEADLINES FOR FEBRUARY 24

Shapiro's stories about American Jews basis for film
Real Nebraska night at the movies March 3
Research Service-Learning connects students with communities
A Piece of University History
Celebration of Graduate Student Work is March 4
Eating Disorders Awareness Week
Symposium looks at collectors, museums and artists

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