Civic Engagement
Many of my courses have an "experiential" component that requires students to participate in their community and critically reflect on their experience. Such community collaboration is called many things, including service-learning, experiential learning, and civic engagement. Following, the National Women's Studies Association's Teagle Foundation White Paper (authored by Catherine Orr), I prefer the term "civic engagement" because my goal is to help develop citizens who participate regularly in their community, and who can advocate for themselves and others in social and political arenas. My students are not merely serving or volunteering, they are changing themselves and the world around them.
Many of my courses have an "experiential" component that requires students to participate in their community and critically reflect on their experience. Such community collaboration is called many things, including service-learning, experiential learning, and civic engagement. Following, the National Women's Studies Association's Teagle Foundation White Paper (authored by Catherine Orr), I prefer the term "civic engagement" because my goal is to help develop citizens who participate regularly in their community, and who can advocate for themselves and others in social and political arenas. My students are not merely serving or volunteering, they are changing themselves and the world around them.
Here are some examples of civic engagement projects I have developed with students:
- Girls Empowerment Conference for 7th-10th grade girls. As part of the "Gender, Race, and Culture For Community Based Practice" course, students organize, promote, and put on a 1-day conference with workshops about media literacy, self-defense, sexual health, and college preparation.
- As part of a "Lesbian Cultures" course, students collecting oral histories of local lesbian women to be archived in the Gay Ohio History Initiative.
- 100 Acts of Service! Following a community education model, students in "Critical Pedagogy for Feminist and Anti-Racist Leadership" worked with local teens to make fleece tie-blankets (for area homeless), recycled cat toys and cat houses (for the humane shelter), and paper cranes (which were donated to a cancer society). Students in the course taught their peers and teens how to make the items, fostering skill development and community.