Service Learning Helps
Migrant Teens Excel
Service learning projects are an important part of the Student Leadership
Program (SLP) and represented an important culmination to the recent Lower
Yakima Valley SLP in Sunnyside.
"The projects were great, and the students and staff were excited about their accomplishments," says David Rodriguez, program facilitator for the Secondary Education for Migrant Youth (SEMY) organization, which puts on the SLP conferences. "We have received numerous calls thanking us for our work."
The 54 students from Granger, Grandview, Sunnyside, Prosser and Mabton High Schools planned and completed three service projects at the conference.
The highlight service project was painting a mural on an outside wall of the Radio KDNA building in Granger. Gabriel Martinez, manager of the Spanish-language radio station, says the project was "very successful."
"The reaction we are
getting from our community is very positive," Mr. Martinez says. "The mural has
the U.S. flag and Mexican flag. It's very patriotic. It reflects our bilingual
culture of the Yakima Valley. The idea to have it take a cultural theme really
came across."
The project created so much interest that local students in Granger now want to participate and do another mural on another wall of the building with the same general theme. Mr. Martinez also took a photo of the project, which people are encouraging him to make into a postcard.
Another project was putting together hundreds of packets with candy and an anti-drug message for the Red Ribbon Campaign of the Sunnyside Youth Coalition. Program Director Carlos Maya says the students exceeded his expectations. Not only did they prepare the packets, they also made numerous anti-drug posters to place around the community.
And a third project was cleaning up a greenway between the railroad tracks
and S. 4th Street in Sunnyside. Code enforcement officer Bill
Eikenbary says this was the hardest-working group of kids he has every worked
with.
"They cleaned it up the best I've ever had any group do it. They did just super," he says. "They were well organized and fun to be with."
"The projects give the students the opportunity to take charge and implement the skills they learn, not to mention the sense of community pride they feel," says Mr. Rodriguez. "They get the opportunity to work with individuals in the community that they wouldn't meet otherwise. And there is great team-building, problem-solving and action planning that goes into the service learning."
The Learn and Serve Program of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) provides about $350,000 to support service learning projects developed by 15-20 school districts around the state each year. SLP funding comes through the Sunnyside School District but is spent on projects all around the state.
OSPI
Program Specialist Nasue Nishida says service learning projects "connect
real-world application with in-class concepts." It also helps students see that
they "can contribute back to the community that helped raised them, and helps
"pass down an ethic of service" -- encouraging them to become good citizens.
Ms. Nishida says service learning diversifies learning to appeal to "students who don't do as well in a classroom setting." Such students frequently excel at hands-on projects "beyond the four walls of the classroom."
"Service learning has turned students from passive learners to active participants," says Ken Crawford, assistant superintendent of Lynden School District. "Students don't just learn for learning's sake, but have a reason for learning."
This concept is considered so important that Skagit/Whatcom SLP planners are
now "doing their own thing" and launching their service learning projects well
ahead of their second self-directed conference so students can get more involved
in the planning and can carry out even more meaningful projects. Students from
each of four school districts will then present their project to all 80 students
scheduled to attend the conference, according to SEMY program facilitator
Patricia Eastwood.
Teresita Tobon, coordinator of the migrant bilingual program at Mount Baker Middle School in Mount Vernon, says selected students will meet before Christmas to begin planning their service project to be accomplished before the conference May 1-2.
"I want the kids to really do a good job and learn a lot about leadership," says Ms. Tobon. Starting this far in advance, "we will be able to organize and develop a lot of skills you can't accomplish in just two days," she adds. "We will look for a project that really benefits the community."
The Skagit/Whatcom SLP conference has been adopted by Western Washington University, which donates the meeting space. Teachers and students in the university's Education Department also serve as facilitators, providing the college students with a powerful service-learning experience of their own.
Educational researcher Alfie Kohn says students should be more involved in decision-making in many aspects of their education -- not just in service learning. Additional benefits, he cites, as noted in OSPI's ServiceLine newsletter (Summer 2001 edition) include:
Overall,
according to Mr. Rodriguez, the Lower Yakima Valley SLP "was a great conference,
and exceeded expectations."
SEMY puts on a statewide SLP in Ellensburg each spring, plus several regional SLP conferences each year. A new effort by SEMY is to put the training materials in the hands of every school district involved with SEMY-directed regional SLP conferences in the past with the hopes that each district or region might opt to do as Skagit/Whatcom and Wenatchee educators are doing -- organizing their own annual SLP.
"Our efforts to have schools replicate their own is so that we can reach many more students," Mr. Rodriguez says, "and so we can build leadership capacity in all the communities.
"This will also give these at-risk students the sense of belonging," he predicts.