Thank You

A special thanks to all of our students, faculty, community partners, Service-Learning Teaching Assistants and Advisory Board members who contributed to another successful year of campus and community partnerships through Service-Learning. We would also like to acknowledge all of those providing behind the scenes support for the Service-Learning Program, including all of our colleagues in the Center of Community Service and City & Community Affairs. The extraordinary learning outcomes our students experience would not be possible without your dedication and support. 

Strategic Media Plans & Service-Learning

This spring semester two Service-Learning courses, Advanced Writing for the Technical Professions and Interpersonal Communication, partnered with HandsOn Tech Boston in order to develop social media plans. 

Who is HandsOn Tech - Boston?

HandsOn Tech is located at 281 Summer Street, right in downtown Boston. Their staff consist of three amazing AmeriCorps VISTAs Sam, Rachel, and Chelsea. Together this dynamic staff of three work to help small non-profits with technology development. HandsOn Tech provides a variety of services such as giving Salesforce trainings, providing volunteer engagement, and technology assistance. Their two project spearheads, Chelsea and Rachel, work as the liaisons between Northeastern Service-Learning students in these two courses and their clients, the Summer Fund and Healthworks Community Fitness.

From left to right: Chelsea, Sam, and Rachel 

Who are the clients?

Summer Fund - is an organization that provides grants and resources to nonprofits that offer summer camps and programs to underserved and low income youth in Greater Boston. Healthworks Community Fitness - is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing fitness opportunities and health education for women and children in low-income neighborhoods. Both organizations came to HandsOn Tech requesting assistance in creating a strong social media presence. 

What exactly is the student project? 

Students in the Service-Learning courses created strategic media plans for both the Summer Fund and Healthworks. Each course went about this in two distinct ways. The Interpersonal Communication  course worked on answering the questions, "What kind of relationship does the organization want to have with the client? and "How does one go about developing this relationship via social media?" The students went to Healthworks and interviewed the women there to learn exactly what they use social media for, what they want from the gym, and how they want to be engaged.  The Summer Fund students interviewed individuals who donate regularly to organizations. Based off the data they collected, students were able to write up recommendations on how the two organizations can maximize their social media presence with their clients.

The students in Advanced Writing for the Technical Professions wrote proposals for social media usage for both clients. Split into two groups, the students collaborated to research social media strategies, answering questions from "How should the organizations interact with their clients on social media?" to "What type of texts or fonts should one use for a post on Facebook?"

With their multi-page proposals, these groups showed the Summer Fund and Healthworks where they were lacking in their online presence. Students made suggestions for posting everyday, how to use a variety of posts to engage clients, or perhaps to even create a newsletter. Students did more than just make recommendations in a formal document; by developing a website, the students provided useful templates for Healthworks to use.  

Why Service-Learning?

Referring to the difference with this Service-Learning project and a typical project, Professor Akbari says, "...things get messy and you sort of have to fill those gaps based off what you know. Where as with an assignment it says do this, the third step is this so it is sort of pre-processed for you....So there will be some messy and that's good." And good it was indeed. By collaborating outside of class and using the infamous Google docs, students proved to be resourceful and innovative.  It is apparent that when students work with real-life clients they benefit greatly, especially with conflict resolution skills. By the end of their projects our Advanced Writing students were able to enhance their professional writing skills by creating these proposals; the Interpersonal Communication students were able to learn how communication facilitates positive relationships.

Professor Akbari
Course: Advanced Writing for Technical Professions
Q: What class do you wish had Service-Learning
when you were a student?
(giving a variety of suggestions) something with
translating literature for elementary students or
working with a professional theater program

Professor Speed
Course: Interpersonal Communications
Q: What class do you wish had Service-Learning
when you were a student?
It would have been nice to have a math class
with Service-Learning tutoring young girls.

Thank You to all our participants

Ask Caroline: April 2014

I am currently an S-L student and I just finished my service. I really think this is marketable for employment but am not sure if I should put Service-Learning on my resume. What should I do? Absolutely put Service-Learning on your resume! As a student, you can put Service-Learning under your volunteer experience, related experience, or professional experience depending on you target audience. Service-Learning is definitely marketable to employers; this experience is similar to a co-op where you are able to apply classroom concepts to a real life scenario. Great resources for including S-L on your resume include: career services, your co-op advisers, your S-LTA (if applicable), and the S-L program staff. 

"Spring is the time of plans and projects." - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

How do I become a Service-Learning Community Partner for Fall 2014? This is a very important question. Please e-mail service-learning@neu.edu. Your information will be added to the distribution list and you will receive the Request for Partnership when available in May.  

Anticipated Fall 2014 Service-Learning Courses

As we wrap-up another successful semester, we look to the future. While this list will likely grow throughout the summer months, you can look forward to service-learning in the following courses, or select sections of some of the following: 

Inquiries in Cell & Molecular Biology

Education in the Community

Social Movements Communication

Advocacy Writing

Consultation Skills

Advanced Writing in the Disciplines - Technical Professions

Introduction to Nutrition

Human Services Professions

Child Intervention & Treatment

Strategic Philanthropy and Nonprofit Management

Advanced Conversational Spanish

Psychosocial Aspects of Healthcare Seminar

Advanced Chinese 1 & 2

College Writing

Connections & Decisions

Global Experience 1

Engineering Design

Industrial Engineering Capstone 1

Ask Caroline

Q: It's been two days since I emailed my community partner and I haven't heard back. What should I do? 

A: Remember most of our community partners are small nonprofits with a small very busy staff. Patience is always key but when you are in need of an immediate response try using key signal words in your subject line. It is also okay to try calling but with the expectation they may be busy. Remember they don't operate on a student schedule.

Service-Learning at Adventure Challenge

Adventure Challenge, the volunteer site that I have worked at for the past semester and a half, is an organization that was founded in order to further assist children with special needs. Mentors (who are usually college students) are partnered with a child and their family, and both parties go through initial match meetings in order to see if the mentor is a good fit for the family, and vice versa. From there, the mentor and mentee establish a bond and work together to advance the child's social skills, as well as their physical activity. I started working at Adventure Challenge because I hoped to go on to become a pediatric occupational therapist, so I thought that this would be an experience that would help expose me to my target demographic. 

I enjoy working with not only my mentee, but his family as well, week after week. We have developed a special bond, and not only was I able to understand more about a life that is drastically different from my own, but I was able to apply my Service-Learning experience to my classroom learning. This semester I am taking the Human Services Professions course with Professor Gardinier, and I have been able to apply numerous course concepts such as civic responsibility, and self-determination to my Service-Learning experience. It has been a joy to have a very different Service-Learning partner than my classmates, because I realized that although we are all working with organizations that have very different aims, we all connect our work and learn form one another's experiences. 

-Akiera Gilbert 

B.S. Human Services, Class of 2018

Who are these S-LTA leaders?

The Service-Learning Team Manager (S-LTM) program is the newest addition to Service-Learning (S-L) at Northeastern. This pilot program was created with two goals in mind: (1) to more proactively support the growth of S-L at Northeastern, and (2) to provide additional leadership opportunities to our S-L teaching assistants. Each of the five S-LTMs have a strong background in S-L and leadership so that they can manage a small cohort of fellow S-L teaching assistants by acting as mentors to discuss individual needs, challenges, and successes. This collaborative arrangement allows for more efficient communication, more individualized attention, and more measurable course management for S-LTAs and S-L staff. 

Congratulations Kathleen Collins, Deb Pacella, Sydney Palinkas, Nicole Pantano, and Barak Soreff for being selected as the first Service-Learning Team Managers! 

Meet Our Service-Learning Team Managers

Deb Pacella
Major (s): Political Science & English
Class of 2014
S-LTA: Becoming a Global Leader

  

Kathleen Collins
Major (s): English & Education
Class of 2015
S-LTA: College Writing 

Sydney Palinkas
Major (s): Human Services & Sociology
Class of 2014
S-LTA: Human Services Professions

Barak Soreff
Major (s): Sociology
Class of 2014
S-LTA: Phonetics

Nicole Pantano
Major (s): Psychology
Class of 2014
S-LTA: Child Intervention & Treatment