College Misericordia (Dallas, PA)
The
Service Leadership Center
Summary
During a recent assessment of the institution and its history, the College
decided to focus its energy in three strategic areas: quality education,
service leadership, and professional preparation. To advance service leadership,
an academically based service-learning office was established. Over 500
students participate yearly in providing community service to 87 agencies
through credit bearing courses.
The Practice
The development of College Misericordia’s strategic plan led to
a focus on service leadership, which is defined as transforming service
activity to active leadership. This focus resulted in the establishment
of the Service Leadership Center in 2000.
The Service Leadership Center, which reports to the Vice President of
Academic Affairs, is staffed to offer a variety of services including
faculty development, student and community orientation, transportation,
student placements, coordination of agency requirements (health records,
criminal background checks), grant writing, publicity, and coordination
of evaluation. A Service Learning Associate Program provides faculty with
a student assistant who helps them implement academically based service-learning.
Service-learning associates assist faculty with the preparation and organization
of class materials. The associate’s role will expand in the future
to provide (1) assistance in locating appropriate sites for service-learning
placements; (2) lead in-class or review written reflection assignments;
and (3) act as a liaison between the faculty member and site supervisor.
Faculty members who participate in service-learning are educated in the
pedagogy by Center staff. To have a course designated as service-learning,
faculty must demonstrate three integral components: the service must be
related to course objectives; the service must meet a real community need
as identified by community partners; and the course must have a reflection
component that provides students with the opportunity to explore their
role as community citizens. All faculty members who design or redesign
a course to include service-learning are rewarded monetarily.
The community partners are selected based on mutual goals. They are provided
with the opportunity to share their expertise in a variety of ways. For
example, the Service Leadership Council is comprised of community members
who meet twice yearly. Members advocate and support service-learning activities
in the community, act as community spokespersons for the College and the
Service Leadership Center, and assist the Center staff with developing
programs that better meet their needs.
Students who participate in service-learning are recognized through a
series of graduated acknowledgements including letters of recognition,
bookmarks, and t-shirts. All students receive certificates documenting
the number of service hours provided, and their transcripts denote those
courses with a service-learning component.
As for the College’s strategic plan, the president has charged
all units with demonstrating how they can supplement the service leadership
activities on campus. As such, each department or division must develop
annual goals reflective of the strategic initiatives of the College of
which service leadership is one. The College continues to explore ways
to expand service leadership campus-wide.
Effectiveness
As part of the ongoing assessment of the effectiveness of the Center and
its work, specific accountability measures have been established. For
instance, the Center set as one of its measures of effectiveness the percent
of full-time faculty participating in service-learning. In the past three
years, faculty participation has increased from 13 percent to 30 percent
representing 12 departments. As a by-product of establishing a goal for
faculty participation, 84 percent of our students who participated in
service-learning report that they think more courses should include service-learning.
Our comprehensive evaluation has also identified that 85 percent of our
students state that they are likely to continue community related activities
after graduation as a result of participating in service-learning and
91 percent report that service-learning has helped them better understand
their role as a resource to the community and the community as a resource
to them. One hundred percent of our faculty report satisfaction with service-learning
and 87 percent plan to continue teaching a service-learning course.
Our community partners also report 100 percent satisfaction with our
partnership. Seventy-six percent of our community partners report being
part of planning for service activities. Each semester we ask our partners
to rate whether they would continue their participation in the future.
Ninety-nine percent of the 87 agencies we have queried state that they
would.
Extensive qualitative and quantitative assessments are completed each
semester with all constituents. These data are used to refine and advance
the goals of the Center.
Resources
More information about Service Leadership at College Misericordia can
be found on the College’s website.
Contact Information
Helen J. Speziale, Ed.D.
Director
Service Leadership Center
College Misericordia
301 Lake Street
Dallas, PA 18612
Phone: 570-674-6203
hspezial@misericordia.edu
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Effective
Practices Exchange
