Skip to main content

Featured Service-Learning Courses & Partnerships


October 2009: Engaging in Environmental Ethics through Service-Learning!

Written by S-LTA Danielle Vesia

 

This fall is the first semester in which an environmentally focused course is utilizing Service-Learning (S-L) at Northeastern. Professor Ronald Sandler, teaching Environmental Ethics this semester, has offered students the opportunity to utilize S-L as a new way of engaging with the course material.

 

With the support of the S-L staff, I (Danielle) spent a great deal of time over the summer reaching out to organizations with interests relating to the course, and we entered September with four partnering organizations. Feeling confident for the semester to begin, we were still cautious since S-L is an option in the course.  The question we all had at the back of our minds was “how many students will choose this option?” The answer: 25 of the 38 students in the course signed on to participate! Since the number of students was higher than anticipated, we’ve reached out to three more organizations in order to accommodate all the interested students and to meet a diverse range of needs among community-based non-profit organizations that may not have known about partnering through S-L before.

 

We are very encouraged by the students’ enthusiasm to engage in S-L. Kathryn Barlet, who will be serving with The Food Project, recognized S-L as an opportunity to enhance her understanding of the course content and stated, “My goal is to be able to relate whatever I do to the course material and to use my service-learning experience to get as much out of the class as possible.”

 

For this great response from students and community partners, I have to thank Professor Sandler for his support in seamlessly incorporating S-L into the syllabus, and the S-L staff for their continued support in all aspects of the development of this course.

 

We’re looking forward to a fun and exciting semester in which we will continue developing our newfound partnerships with these environmental organizations, establishing S-L as a common feature of environmental courses on campus, and addressing students’ clear demand for more opportunities to bring the local environmental movement into our classrooms.

 

Previously Featured Service-Learning Courses & Partnerships: