Service Learning program broadens scope of classroom

A forum in the Perkins Student Center on Aug. 11 includes presentations by this summer’s participating scholars.

3:56 p.m., Aug. 12, 2005--Allison Behrle, a UD senior from Manassas, Va., never imagined she’d spend a summer shopping and cooking for 50 hungry kids with distinct palates to please. A nutritional sciences major accustomed to the solo meals of college life, Behrle said the largest group she’d ever had to feed was a group of five--and that was a one-shot deal.

But, college life is full of surprises, and when the challenge to work with big groups presented itself, Behrle rose to the occasion with even bigger plans.

One of eight scholars chosen to participate in this summer’s inaugural Service-Learning Scholars project (an academically aligned outreach program initiated last September by UD’s Office of Service Learning), Behrle spent one day each week teaching groups of economically disadvantaged 8- to 12-year-olds about nutritional guidelines and sound eating habits. In the process, she said she learned more than she ever could have from simply sitting in class and reading about case studies.

“I visited community centers and day camps with the goal of teaching elementary school children about nutrition and the new food pyramid guidelines,” she said, “but I ended up learning a lot from my students as well, and my experience made me want to do more investigation in certain areas.”

Behrle said she learned that 8 percent of Delaware children live in poverty and that there’s a strong correlation between poverty, food insecurity and school performance. “I had no idea the problem was this big, and it made me understand certain problems a lot more,” she said. “For instance, many third-graders I worked with were unable to read simple sentences, and I found out this was because of the long-term effects of poor nutrition and hunger.”

Nancy Cotugna, professor of nutrition and dietetics, served as Behrle's faculty sponsor.

The service learning component in UD’s curricula got a boost on campus last September with the opening of the Office of Service Learning. Susan Serra serves as service learning coordinator.

Allison Behrle

This summer’s Service-Learning Scholars project, which is just one service-learning opportunity within UD’s overall program, paired eight academically promising sophomores and juniors with community partners. The selected students, besides getting the opportunity to design projects that paralleled their chosen fields of study, also got the chance to “test drive” their proposed careers and work on a course of independent reading and writing with faculty mentors.

Additionally, each participant got a scholarship to pursue his or her project full-time and received guidance from community sponsors. Sponsors ranged from the United Cerebral Palsy of Delaware’s Camp Lenape to Wilmington’s Latin American Community Center to the Rehoboth Art League, and projects ran the gamut from web site development to cross-cultural sorority development. All this summer's projects were discussed and synopsized in a wrap-up forum, held Thursday, Aug. 11, at the Perkins Student Center.

Attended by faculty mentors, community partners and campus administrators, the presentation forum also included remarks from Provost Dan Rich and Serra.

“Last year, we created the Service Learning Program, and it will continue to prosper and grow,” Rich said. “The students involved in this summer’s projects are pioneers, and it’s my goal that all students at UD will eventually get involved in service- and discovery-learning projects. What we do on campus should have an impact on and a benefit to the community.”

Serra said that the community partnerships created by this summer’s projects have benefited everyone involved.

“The Service Learning Program is a valuable way for students to see firsthand what a chosen field is really like before they graduate,” Serra said. “It’s good for the University as well. The outreach boosts UD’s presence in the community, and the momentum this creates means we can provide even more partnerships and educational programs in the future.”

Article by Becca Hutchinson
Photos by Kathy Atkinson

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