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Service Learning Programs
Interdisciplinary Seminar
Service Courses
Contact Information
The central idea with service-learning is that students are testing the concepts of their courses (e.g. in the humanities) or practicing the skills of a course (e.g. languages or sciences) through experience in the community. This experience is in service to an underrepresented or marginalized group. Thus, service-learning ought to benefit both the student who learns course materials through additional methods, exposure and experience, and the community agency where the student volunteers his/her time.
All placements in service agencies are arranged through the Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice (frm. the Community Service Program) where an affiliate network has already been established in the community. The Center aids students in finding a site appropriate to a particular course and establishing contact for volunteer placement.
Currently, Fordham has service-learning initiatives across the disciplines in a variety of forms, including:
Interdisciplinary Seminar
Aligned with Fordham’s mission as a Jesuit university, service-learning aims to form students in a “well-educated solidarity” (Jesuit Conference 2002, “Communal Reflection on the Jesuit Mission in Higher Education”) and to provide an opportunity to apply academic resources to the work of social justice. The Service-Learning Interdisciplinary Seminar brings together community service, reflection and course work.
To become a participant of the service-learning program for Spring 2010, a student must:
1. Pre-register for SERV-0099, choose the section for your home campus.
2. Choose the course and service agency with which you would like to partner (Service-Learning staff assists in each student's placement at an agency).
3. Pick up a service-learning agreement from the Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice in McGinley 101.
4. Discuss connections between service and the course with a Service-Learning staff member.
5. Discuss connections between service and the course with instructor: get instructor's approval and have the instructor sign the agreement. (E-mail a copy of the syllabus to Service-Learning Staff)
6. Discuss the agreement with the agency supervisor, who must also sign the agreement.
7. Make a copy of the agreement for your own records and return the original to the Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice.
REQUIREMENTS
Students in the Interdisciplinary Seminar volunteer in the local community and connect this to the work of a course in which they are enrolled. The faculty member teaching this course serves as their service-learning mentor, while students across the disciplines come together at the Interdisciplinary Seminar meetings organized through the Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice.
Requirements include:
• 3-5 hours of community service a week, totally at least 30 hours a semester
• Five interdisciplinary seminar meetings which take place on Thursdays throughout the semester
• Service-learning Luncheon
• 2 integrative essays
• Seminar readings and reflections (via Blackboard)
• Any other requirements added by your professor.
Within the seminar, students examine the following topics:
Seminar 1: Jesuit Education as Justice Education
Seminar 2: Introduction to the Bronx and Lincoln Center Community in Historical Perspective
Seminar 3: A Structural Look at the Systems in Society
Seminar 4: The Practice of Justice
Seminar 5: The Two feet of Social Action
Rose Hill Service Agreement Spring 2011
Lincoln Center Service Agreement Spring 2011
Integrated Service Courses
In this form of service-learning, the course is listed in the catalogue as a ‘service’ course, and students understand in advance that service hours in the community are required. Thus, the service experience can be fully integrated into the methods of learning in the course and enhance classroom discussions. Generally, faculty members structure the course load so that service is balanced with reading and writing assignments.
Benefits:
Analysis and discussion of the service experience can be facilitated within the classroom
Connection between curriculum and service experience can be continuously fostered
Students are able to closely examine the realities and issues of community residents on a weekly basis
Course is advertised as service inclusive course in the course book.
For a list of current Service-Learning Integrated Classes, click here
Contact Information
We are interested in developing these initiatives and expanding the opportunities for service-learning at Fordham. If you would like to be part of the conversation or have questions about taking part in one of the initiatives currently in place, please contact us:
Maureen O'Connell, (Service-learning Interim Faculty Director, Theology Department), mhoconnell@gmail.com
Sandra Lobo Jost, (Center for Service and Justice Director), lobo@fordham.edu
Justin Freitas (Associate Coordinator at Rose Hill, x4510), freitas@fordham.edu
Kate Cavanagh (Associate Coordinator at Lincoln Center, x7464), cavanagh@fordham.edu
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