Experiential Learning at
Albany Preparatory Charter School
Albany Preparatory Charter School
A case study of creating volunteer
opportunities
for middle school children
for middle school children
Albany Preparatory Charter School started operation in
August, 2005. It provides educational services to over two hundred middle
school children. One of the school’s goals is to develop students who are
active and valued citizens. It encourages students to take responsibility for
themselves, their school, community, country, and their role in the global
community by learning to think critically about issues that affect them by
making participation in society while at school a regular activity.
In order for students to take responsibility in their role
in the global community Albany Preparatory believed students needed exposure
to a world beyond their neighborhood or street. Service learning would assist
in this process. As students volunteer at various charities, students will be
exposed to how society is addressing poverty, homelessness, hunger, various
illnesses, child abuse, animal cruelty, caring for the elderly and other
issues. The volunteer experience will possibly help each student identify a
future career. Additionally, the students will experience how they can impact
their world regardless of their age.
Importance of Service Learning
Experiential learning is a form of learning that provides
students the opportunities to go beyond textbooks and classrooms, and address
real-life issues. Service learning is one type of experiential learning. We
believed through service-based projects, our students could gain practical
life skills, cultivate a sense of compassion and citizenship, and thereby
learn to be contributing members of society. We wanted our students to be
actively engaged in their community and to make a positive difference in the
lives of others. We saw tremendous value in service learning, and our aim was
to incorporate community service and make it an important part of the
school’s culture.
Background of Service Learning at
Albany Preparatory
When the service learning component was first implemented
at Albany Preparatory Charter School, various teachers or administrators were
responsible for its coordination. Eventually, service learning became my
responsibility as the Dean of Students. To assist me in fulfilling the
service learning component, Albany Prep decided to enlist Pou Mok, a
Volunteer in Service to America (VISTA) Fellow, to coordinate the school’s
service learning initiative. Pou Mok was charged with assisting over seventy
children with identifying appropriate volunteer sites or activities. Pou’s efforts
helped accurately track the students’ efforts and quickly identify students
who needed more guidance in fulfilling the school’s requirement.
During school year 2009-2010 eighth graders were required
to complete four hours of community service to fulfill their graduation
requirements. During school year 2010-2011 eighth graders were required to
complete eight hours of community service. The volunteer hour requirement was
expanded to twenty hours during school year 2011-2012.
At the end of school year 2010-2011, the Dean of Students
met with seventh graders who would be admitted to eighth grade the next
school year. The Dean of Students explained the service learning initiative
and gave students ideas of how to fulfill the requirement.
Letters were also written to parents explaining service
learning and its importance. Parents were told that the Dean of Students met
with their child and explained expectations. After informing students and
parents, all stakeholders understood what the school wanted the students to
accomplish. The real test to ensure the success of the program was to deal
with challenges that would either discourage our students or prevent them
from volunteer experiences. These challenges included students’ lack of
motivation, age requirements that prevent middle school from volunteering,
guiding students to participate in volunteer assignments that fit their
personality, along with identifying and creating meaningful assignments.
VISTA
Fellow’s Role in Coordinating Service Learning
 The school’s history indicated that it needed a designated
person to monitor students and create volunteer possibilities. Pou Mok, VISTA
Fellow, was hired midway through the 2011-2012 school year as the
Experiential Learning Coordinator. He played a critical role to ensure the
program’s success.
Mok created a list of possible volunteer experiences that
students should consider. He became a clearing house of volunteer
possibilities for the students. Students and parents would consult with him
service learning opportunities
He also monitored students’ progress by
creating a spreadsheet to track their progress. He used this information to target
unmotivated students and would meet with those students to assess their
interests and create a service project that matched their interests.
Mok spent a great of time contacting non-profit agencies
to determine how to incorporate our middle school students in their agency’s
programs. He was successful at creating volunteer activities that matched the
agencies’ needs and students’ interests.
Challenges of Service Learning
Opportunities
For Middle School Students
The biggest challenge in coordinating a middle school
service learning program is establishing community partnerships that would
provide opportunities for this age group. Many non-profits require their
volunteers to be at least fourteen years old, which prevents most middle
school students from working at those sites. However, opportunities do exist,
and it takes time, effort and a bit of creativity to seek them out. What
makes potential partners hesitant is their concern of dealing with such a
young age group: lack of essential skills needed for the position and
immaturity to carry out certain functions. Middle school children will
require more guidance and supervision than a high school or college aged
student. Most agencies do not have the personnel to meet the challenges this
age group presents. In order to make the partnership work, the service
learning coordinator or a parent needs to personally supervise the students
during their volunteer activity. Further, the coordinator has to instill
teamwork and promote camaraderie. Often times this person has to set the tone
by guiding students into organizing themselves for the task and helping them
to stay focused to fulfill their responsibility.
 To overcome the age barrier, we focused on alternative
activities that would allow civic participation at a school-based or
home-based level. We recognized that some agencies did not need our students
as volunteers because they did not possess the skills or maturity needed.
As a result, we assisted students with planning and organizing
school-based events that raised funds and collected donations. For one
particular agency that the school adopted, our students routinely donated
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and various baked goods. Some students
collected stuff animals to give to an agency supporting women and children
who were being protected from abusive situations. School-based events that
worked for our students included school fund-raisers for a charity such as a
dance to raise money for breast cancer awareness, a bake sale raised funds
against hunger, bake-a-thon for a local shelter, dress-down day fund-raiser and
assisting a neighborhood tag sale raise funds for people who lost their
property due to a fire. These events brought our school and students much
closer to the community.
Importance of Parents in Recruiting
Students
Service learning was a new concept to the students in our
school; naturally many of the students did not understand the purpose or
value in community service. In order for them to develop an appreciation for
civic engagement, they had to be willing to give it a try. Parents played a
crucial role in motivating students. The coordinator and parents had
important roles in influencing the students. One identified community service
activities; the other had to make sure their child followed through and
provide transportation when needed to get to the site.
Apathetic parents impede students from participating in
service projects. If a parent is apathetic about a service project, the
student will be apathetic. Children need to perceive that both parent and
school have a sense of conviction about volunteering. We spent a lot of time
talking with parents about the importance of service learning. In one case
when we presented options about how a child can complete the volunteer hours,
the parent was rather obstinate. For example when told about making
sandwiches, the parent wanted to know who was going to pay for the sandwiches
and peanut butter. When given other options, the parent wanted to know how
her child was going to get to the location. The only factor that got the
parent from being so obstinate was when she was clearly told that it was a
graduation requirement. She made sure her daughter spent a Saturday helping
with a tag sale on behalf of victims of a fire.
Many parents were enthusiastic and strongly encouraged
their children. Some would inquire about the types of service learning their
child could do. Others found volunteer sites without seeking the
coordinator’s guidance. These parents were influential in getting their
children to volunteer at places that we could not. For example, several
children volunteered at local libraries. We were always told by the libraries
that volunteer positions were unavailable. However, we were always amazed
when students would provide us documentation signed by a librarian indicating
the student helped process books, shelve books and clean shelves.
Parents who worked at nursing homes were able to get their
children to volunteer at their job site assisting the elderly. Others got them
volunteering at their church. One boy, through his church, volunteered to
help victims of Hurricane Irene in Schoharie County. Others helped clean
their church or operate the sound system. A Latina mother, who had difficulty
speaking English, made sure her daughter got involved in community service
during their vacation to the Dominican Republic. Her daughter planted trees
in the Dominican National Forest.
After interviewing a student, discovering his or her
interests and a good volunteer match, parents were informed and asked if the
child could participate. Although some parents refused because they did not
consider service learning to be a valuable component of their child’s
education, the majority of parents consented. Those who agreed could be
enlisted to assist in supervising at the site or transporting their child to
the site or following up with a call to arrange a time for the child to go to
the site. When we referred a boy to a nature center, his parent immediately followed
up and got him volunteering on a weekly basis as a docent.
Available Resources
As stated earlier, most non-profits
would not accept our students due to their age. We had to search out
alternative ways of participating in service learning. These activities
required resources such as food or transportation to get to the site. We
researched activities that students could do at school or in their
neighborhood. We were successful in getting students to serve food at a
homeless shelter and at getting students to bake items for the city mission.
We even set up a bake-a-thon for students who needed more volunteer
experiences. Even so, some students were precluded because their parents did
not want to or did not have the resources to purchase the ingredients.
Although a boy and his father agreed to donating noodles to make a dish, the
boy arrived at the event empty handed. A bake sale required students and
their parents to bake or purchase items. Regardless of the donation we always
affirmed every student for their effort. We also supplement items from our
own personal resources.
Creating Enthusiasm by Recruiting
Friends
Students become enthusiastic about service learning when
we recruited students who were friends. This action fostered a team spirit. Placing
a group of friends in a service project not only boosted morale and
interests, but also helped the students feel more invested in their service
project, and more connected to the community. It also made the students feel
more accountable in following through with their commitment because their
friends were depending on them.
We witnessed the effectiveness of this model when asking a
group of friends to participate in a gift wrapping drive at a local mall on
behalf of the city mission. Three girls were enthusiastic about doing it and
suggested that we immediately call their parents for permission and
transportation. All parents agreed and one parent agreed to supervise them.
When they returned from the event, they were enthusiastic about spending four
hours at a kiosk wrapping presents.
We also saw the same enthusiasm when we identified an
opportunity to help prepare Thanksgiving meals on Thanksgiving Day and the
day after. Another group of friends agreed to participate and we were able to
enlist their fathers to supervise the activity. The girls enjoyed the
activity so much they wanted to do it again next year. They did not realize
there were so many poor people who could not enjoy a Thanksgiving meal
without assistance.
When a group of friends organized a dance to raise money
for breast cancer awareness, they purchased snacks, decorations and recruited
a peer to perform as de-jay. They held each other accountable for doing their
part.
Immediate Impact of their Service
When performing community service, it is important to
provide context to the work that they are doing. In other words, we let them
know and see for themselves the impact that they were making in community.
We were particularly successfully getting students to work
with agencies that focused on homelessness and poverty. One homeless shelter
allowed our students to use their facility to make meals for it guests. It
provided a great opportunity for students who enjoyed cooking to work as a
team and exercise their creativity in preparing the meal. They also served
the guests at the cafeteria, getting to witness how their service actually
met the needs of the community.
Some students had a chance to visit the city mission. The
tour made them aware of the issues related to homelessness. They witnessed an
agency that is not only feeding and housing people, but helping people learn
to become independent by providing job training as well as teaching them
household management.
 When students saw the immediate impact of their service,
whether they were cleaning a park or planting a tree or serving a meal at
homeless shelter, they became excited about being able to impact their world.
As a result we learned that just as in establishing community
partnerships, it is important to continually go back to the students, and
support them to take on new projects. Students’ enthusiasm motivated their
peers to want to participate. Continual service helped foster and
reinforce a sense of civic responsibility as well as an appreciation for
helping others.
.
Know Your Neighborhood
A great way to find out about the needs of the community
was to get to know the neighbors. In fact there was no better way to learn
about the issues facing the community than to talk to people who cared about
those issues. We scoured the neighborhood that the school was located to
identify potential volunteer opportunities. Working with the neighbors,
we were able to generate numerous projects for our students. They
helped clean up the neighborhood, planted flowers community parks and cleaned
up a park.
When a tragic fire occurred near our school, Mok got the
school involved in a fund-raiser to assist victims of the fire. Additionally,
several students volunteered at a neighborhood tag sale to assist victims of
the fire. Understanding that they were serving the people who lived within
blocks of our school, the students gained a broadened perspective of the
community, and felt more connected to the local area as well.
Conclusion
Service opportunities for middle school students might not
be readily available due to age constraints. Sometimes partnerships just do
not work out. Sometimes they fizzle out even after they have been
established. Despite the many challenges, we had to be persistent in reaching
out to the community. The needs are out there and charitable agencies will
embrace a middle school student’s assistance. We had to be creative with how
match the agency’s needs and requirements with our initiative. This included
setting up activities at the school such as fund-raisers for a particular
cause or having students make sandwiches or bake cookies for a homeless
shelter or bring in old sneakers for the GreenSneakers® project.
Most middle school students usually do not know about volunteer
possibilities. Expect resistance to the unknown. Service learning expands
their world-view to possibilities they never considered. If students have a
positive experience at the site, they will become enthusiastic about
volunteering. Numerous times students noted their initial resistance to
volunteering. After the experience they spoke of how much they enjoyed
participating. For example, an eighth grade boy stated when he discovered he
had to fulfill twenty hours of volunteer work: “…at first I thought it was a
terrible idea, but after the fact I had a lot of fun doing it. I volunteered
at the Pine Bush Discovery Center...I am a Junior Docent. I met a lot of cool
people. It helped my confidence in talking in front of people. So far I have
twenty-eight hours and will continue volunteering here.”
A designated person must be responsible for coordination
of the experiential learning program. This person helps generates enthusiasm,
becomes an in-house resource for students as well as tracks students’
progress. Additionally, the coordinator increases the student’s awareness of
potential volunteer opportunities and can assist with matching the right site
with the student’s interests.
Finally, always appreciate the important role parents play
in setting up service learning opportunities for middle school children. Parents
are not only needed to motivate and supervise and transport their child to
the sites, they are also needed to identify volunteer opportunities for their
child that we could not access. Mok or I could never set up a volunteer site
in the Dominican Republic or at a nursing home or have a middle school child
foster pit bulls or serve at the local library. Only parents could create
these wonderful opportunities! Parents are vital partners in making any
middle school’s service learning component successful.
Further study should be pursued to determine if the experiential learning program impacts middle school students learning. This study should track a random number of students from the beginning of the school year until the end to assess improvements in grades and/or classroom behavior. The study should also examine the impact of parental involvement.
Antonio Booth was Dean of Students at Albany Preparatory Charter School from 2010 to 2012.
He and Pou Mok was Experiential Learning Coordinator at Albany Preparatory Charter School from February 2012 until June 2012. Both were responsible for the experiential learning program. Pou Mok continues coordinating service learning at a girls charter school in Albany, NY. |
No comments:
Post a Comment