Social Justice Scavenger Hunt in Community Learning

Contributed by Faculty Member Julie Miller

On Saturday, September 13, approximately 70 students from 10 the Community Learning cours sections (formerly known as Global Experience) in The American Classroom program participated in the 3rd Annual Social Justice Scavenger Hunt. Peace through Play, a student organization on campus, led fun and interactive games with students. Then, faculty members Julie Miller, Daryl Morazzini, and Lisa Roe, along with several undergraduate Service-Learning Teaching Assistants, sent students out on the town! Students were given a list of local sites to visit and students were tasked with finding these sites, describing how they relate to social justice, and then taking creative group photos. Here are some of the photos from the event!

 

 

Let's take a closer look at what happens in the classroom of Community Learning! 
Contributed by Service-Learning Teaching Assistant Nikki Makwinski

In class, students are learning about building communities, working as part of a team, and cross-cultural communication through interactive lessons and challenges. In one class section students learned about what it means to be part of a community by playing games like Connection! in which they have to find things they have in common, and activities like The Human Knot which required the students to work as one unit to untangle themselves into one circle. Most recently, students in this section of Community Learning experienced cross-cultural communication by having to first organize themselves in order of birthday without using verbal or written communication, and then by working in a team for a tower-building competition.

These activities that may seem silly to do in class, but have sparked rich discussion and reflections about how the Community Learning students might feel in the new communities that they live and are serving with. Students have had to think creatively and are able to bring that creativity and the lessons they have learned to their community partner organizations.

 

This is the first time that 10 sections of Community Learning have happened in the same semester. Lead faculty member Julie Miller brought on Francis Griffin, Charline Melon, Michelle Matuszak, Daryl Morazzini, and Lisa Roe to teach other sections of the course.