Members of the UALR campus community participate this week in the second annual UALR Service-Learning Academy for faculty at the Bailey Alumni and Friends Center, home to the UALR Office of Community Engagement (OCE).

The academy, which will run through Thursday, assists UALR professors in integrating service learning into their courses. The theory is that students will learn more effectively and thoroughly when they are engaged in a service-learning course that connects community-based learning with classroom learning. They enhance each other, especially when the service portion helps the student better understand course content and the discipline as a whole.

The content and approaches of individual service learning courses are unique, but all service learning courses offer meaningful service to the community and a clear connection between course objectives and service activities. Structured opportunities for reflection must be present.

Betsy Hart, coordinator of Office of Community Engagement, and Dr. David Sink, OCE faculty liaison, lead the academy.  Speakers this week include Jan Shoemaker, director of Louisiana State University’s Center for Community Engagement, Learning and Leadership. The Academy will also feature a panel by current faculty doing service-learning and also a panel of community partners.  This year’s participants are:

Professors participating in this year’s academy include Kwasi Boateng, mass communications; Paula Casey, law; Jeannette Clausen, international and second language studies; Lynn Foster, law; Karen Frost, first-year Experience; Andrea Hermann, rhetoric and writing; Donna Kelly, audiology and speech pathology; Krista Lewis, anthropology; Kristen McIntyre, speech communication; Suzanne Penn, law; Tom Sullivan, law; Lillian Wichinsky, social work; and Leah Wilkinson, international and second language studies.

For more information about service learning, contact Betsy Hart at 501.569.3424.