Service-Learning at Tusculum College

At Tusculum, Service is an integral part of the curriculum. Many courses include service components.  In addition, as part of the Commons Core Curriculum, all students have the opportunity for practical experience outside the classroom and a chance to serve the community. Students acquire valuable skills in areas such as leadership, collective decision making, communication, working in groups, and public problem solving.  Most important, students gain knowledge of their ability to work together in order to make a difference.

Service in the Curriculum The Tusculum Experience Throughout their college career, students will engage in community- building exercises and build interpersonal skills. They will be encouraged to use reflection to identify personal strengths and weaknesses, and identify educational and career goals. They will also participate in a community service project. Service Across the Curriculum Non-service learning courses may also include service. Faculty members are encouraged to include service learning in course content, and this practice continues to grow in popularity.

Service-Learning Requirement              2 to 4 hours

SVLN 351
Service Learning Practicum
2 semester hours

This option is available during the summer and may be carried out in the student's home community or elsewhere. Students will get experience putting the civic arts into practice by working at least 50 hours in service roles with non-profit community organizations. Class sessions held in Block 8, writing assignments and regular contact with the instructor will help students prepare for and learn from their service placements.

SVLN 352
Advanced Service Learning Practicum
2 semester hours. Prerequiste: SVLN 351

Independently, students will build on their service-learning experience by completing at least 50 additional hours of service, either continuing a service placement or undertaking a new placement. Service placements may be on campus, in the surrounding region, in student's home communities, or in other national or international areas. In addition, students will keep a journal of their service experience, attend sessions scheduled through the Service-Learning Center for reflection on that experience, and conduct research into the issues addressed by their service placement. Enrollment in the course occurs after a service-learning agreement is signed by the site supervisor for the placement.

Credit is granted upon satisfactory completion of the service hours, the final evaluation, the final essay, and the objectives mutually established at the beginning of the placement. SVLN 352 may be completed within a block or over the semester.

SVLN 354
Service Learning Local Concentration
4 semester hours

Students may engage in a variety of service activities in Greeneville/Greene County, involving issues of social justice, economic opportunity, environmental protection or restoration, education, or health and wellness. They may use participatory action research techniques to identify community needs and help accomplish community goals. Readings, class sessions, journals and writing assignments will help the students learn from their service experiences.  GIS mapping may be incorporated in conjunction with Community-based Research. 

SVLN 355
Civic Arts Project
4 semester hours

The Project allows students to put the Civic Arts into practice, providing practical experience with the kind of public problem solving required by active and responsible citizenship. Independently, students will go through a process of

• Identifying a community need
• Engaging in practical deliberation or problem solving discussion with community members
  
• Working with those members to design and carry out a project that addresses the need.

SVLN 356
Service Learning Immersion
4 semester hours

This course centers on travel to a setting outside Greene County, where students will be immersed in a service experience. Travel may be to sites involving another culture either within or outside the U.S. Working through a host organization, students will put in 70-100 hours of service. The service needed may involve issues of social justice, economic opportunity, environmental protection or restoration, education, or health and wellness.

Some examples of the trips taken include:

• Gulfport, MS - Hurricane Katrina relief, "mucking out" people's homes
• Washington D.C. - worked with the homeless and homebound
• Navajo Reservation in AZ - chopped wood for the elders, helped with the therapeutic riding program
• New Orleans - students rehabed a house for volunteers in the Lower 9th Ward
• Belize - students worked at at school tutoring and mentoring students
  

Readings and research before and after the trip will help students understand the issues they confront and the setting where they are offering service. Discussion and writing assignments will help students reflect on and learn from their service experiences. The process of living and working together and making collective decisions will be a laboratory for the practice of civility. Participation in this course is determined through an application process.

                                                          (New Orleans)

SVLN 450
Independent Study in Service Learning
4 semester hours. Prerequites: SVLN 354, SVLN 355, SVLN 356

This course provides additional in-depth experience in service-learning and/or the opportunity to research issues raised by the previous service-learning course. This offers a good opportunity for students interested in achieving honors level in the competencies addressed. Advance arrangements should be made with the instructor. Offered as needed.

Civic Engagement Minor

This minor is designed to strengthen and enhance the development of strong citizenship qualities and the habits of practical wisdom that are at the heart of Tusculum College’s Civic Arts emphasis. Through the Civic Engagement minor, students will develop community- based research skills, increase their knowledge of public policy, and discover the connections between their major field of study and community interests and public policy.
 
This minor is open to all students in any major and is an excellent choice for students with interest in social action, civic responsibility, and/or public policy as well as students seeking to broaden their experience and scope of potential career opportunities within their major. The minor will be an expectation of students in the Bonner Leader program if their course schedules allow. In the program, students will gain an understanding of various methods of civic engagement, including the use of mapping technologies (GPS & GIS); participate in the democratic process; explore the dynamics of communities and the process of change; develop and implement a research project to address a social issue; and examine the issues of poverty, diversity, and social justice and reflect on the impact of these issues on  themselves, the community, and society.

Requirements                  20 semester hours

For more information, see the 2007-2008 Tusculum College Catalog.

Service Learning & Study Abroad
Volunteer with Tusculum College:
Students may receive their SVLN credit while studying abroad through the International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership. This is a program of academic study for credit united with volunteer service.  Contact Robin Fife for  more information about volunteering abroad.