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Service learning
Educator and theologian Steven Garber said, “When students are able to touch the world with their learning, they see why ideas matter.” Theories and ideas from books—along with class lectures and discussions with professors—become more real when students see how their learning is a foundation for responding to the world around us.
Using the resource of service learning, Northwestern seeks to enhance the academic experience of students and to support faculty efforts, while at the same time providing benefits to the partnering community agency or organization.
What does service learning look like at NWC? Students in classes with a service-learning emphasis read, study and discuss ideas and issues. Then they are connected with a partner organization that enables them to put their learning into practice. So Spanish students translate company policies and forms for Hispanic employees at Advance Brands, Orange City. Club members from Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) volunteer at area public schools to teach a course in business ethics. And student accountants work at the Center for Financial Education in nearby Sioux Center, filing income tax returns for low-income families. Then they return to class to read, study and discuss some more—gaining not just knowledge, but wisdom.
After working at the Center for Financial Education, a student in the Federal Tax I accounting course wrote: “I found it really fun to be able to use class knowledge in such a practical way … [helping] relieve stress for people who know virtually nothing about the tax system …. I also learned that I enjoy helping people in a very relational way.”
Contact Marlon Haverdink, director of service learning, for more information about how to take learning beyond the classroom.
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 Campus ministry |
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