Community College Service-Learning Programs: A New Source of Museum Volunteers By Cheryl Kessler
On the surface, the volunteer program at the Arizona Science Center (ASC), in downtown Phoenix, seems like a typical museum program. ASC relies heavily on a large pool of volunteers to assist in the many programs they offer. Teens and adults help out on the exhibit floor, conduct behind-the-scenes research, and represent the museum through community outreach programs. What makes ASC's program different is the source of some of its volunteers: local community college service-learning programs.
In 1999, ASC established cooperative partnerships with several community colleges in the Maricopa County Community College District. Since Congress passed the National and Community Service Act of 1990, service-learning programs have become a staple in undergraduate education. Service-learning is a form of experiential learning that requires students to apply their academic studies to real-world situations in their own communities. Service-learning differs from internships in that service is linked directly to specific course curriculum and requires reflection on the experience as an integral part of that curriculum. The mission of service-learning is to connect students with their community so that they will learn about and develop a lifelong interest in community affairs, community responsibility and a greater sense of belonging.
Sheila Kirsch has involved thirty-three community college service-learners for outreach programs, visitor studies and research projects since becoming Volunteer Coordinator at ASC in the Fall of 2001. One school that uses ASC as a site for service-learning is Paradise Valley Community College (PVCC). Kirsch's counterpart at the college is Paula Vaughn, Program Coordinator for Service-Learning. According to Vaughn, about seventy-five percent of students at PVCC who are offered the option of service-learning take it. Her relationship with ASC began when she was approached by science and math students looking to do service some place "different." Kirsch confirmed that most service-learners at ASC come primarily from the sciences, but said she has also worked with students from other disciplines such as psychology, education, communications, and event planning.
Kirsch sees her relationship with service-learners differently from her relationship with interns, who she expects to know enough about a particular subject to work independently on projects. Similar to a mentor, Kirsch provides service-learners with a substantial amount of one-on-one training and learning of concepts and skills. Likewise, because PVCC service-learners are usually in their thirties, they often have a higher skill level than teen volunteers and make strong role models for younger volunteers who are curious about the college experience.
In 2002, as part of my museum studies master's project at John F. Kennedy University, I distributed surveys to over 100 museums and 28 community college service-learning programs in eight Western states to identify museums that are-or have been-sites for service-learning. Of the 30 museums that responded, 16 reported that community college students volunteered at their institutions. Fourteen of the 30 responding institutions had been sites for service-learning, but only 6 of those 14 had participated in a community college service-learning program.
This emerging link between museums and community colleges in general, and service-learning in particular, can impact museums in at least two areas: diversity and civic engagement. Community colleges attract the culturally diverse and historically under-represented audiences that many museums are interested in serving. At the end of the twentieth century, community colleges enrolled 10.4 million students, which accounted for approximately 44 percent of all undergraduates in the nation. In 1997, of all the students enrolled in higher education in the United States, 46 percent of African Americans, 55 percent of Hispanics, 46 percent of Asian/Pacific Islanders, and 55 percent of Native Americans were enrolled in community colleges. Thirty-two percent of community college students are over 30 years old. In his book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Robert Putnam notes that the over-thirty age group (thirty to fifty-five, to be exact) is the only segment of the population who is not participating in the one type of civic engagement that has not severely declined in the past thirty years: volunteering.
According to Putnam, volunteering, in any venue, is on the rise and nearly all of those volunteering are either over the age of 65 or are "twenty-somethings." Yet people between the ages of 30 and 59 are actually volunteering less today than people between those ages did 30 years ago. While the total number of community college students that participate in service-learning is unknown, with over 50% of the 1200 community colleges in the United States offering service-learning, there seems a fairly good chance that, at some point in their college career, this over-thirty population will have an opportunity to serve. Through service-learning, museums have the opportunity to engage this declining segment of volunteers, bring diverse populations into the fold, and recruit a new generation of paid and unpaid workers.
Service-learning's strong emphasis on civic engagement is promising for museums interested in partnering with non-traditional agencies and organizations. In the recently published Mastering Civic Engagement: A Challenge to Museums, Ellen Hirzy notes that museums should recognize and target "more than the 'usual suspects' for community relationships." Given the many public school programs museums provide, educational institutions may seem like one of those usual suspects, but not all educational institutions are sought out equally. Community colleges are often misunderstood and under-used by museums.
Charlene Mano, Director of Education and Public Programs at the Wing Luke Asian Museum, works with service-learners from Seattle Central Community College who are enrolled in American ethnic studies or American history courses. Mano felt that students who worked on the If Tired Hands Could Talk: Stories of Asian Garment Workers probably had a mother, aunt, or grandmother who worked in the garment industry. By working on such an exhibit, these students could apply the theories and concepts learned in the context of academia to the real-life experiences of garment workers, which had a direct bearing on their own families and, in turn, on their community. Other service-learners from Seattle Central Community College restore classic boats and construct replicas of traditional boats at the Center for Wooden Boats, a "direct experience museum." Dick Wagner, Founding Director, noted that the kind of hands-on projects his institution offers are "a long lasting means of learning," especially for students who come from Native American, African American, and Pacific Islanders cultures, which traditionally transmit knowledge through storytelling and/or by experience but not through written word.
Service-learning is not without its opponents. Many educators have challenged the reported profound effects on student learning based on the relatively short service time required for credit. There are also concerns about the potential watering-down of curriculum to allow students time to reflect, and a belief by some that time spent volunteering is better spent studying. However, recent studies by educators Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles point out that the personal connection established through service-learning does give relevance to academic learning and, therefore, allows students to apply better what they learn in school to real world situations. Likewise, most museums are simply unfamiliar with and/or confused by the term "service-learning." Limited time requirements for performing service and frequent changes in students' schedules may make it hard for museums to provide meaningful projects. That said, there are a number of museums and community colleges in the Western United States that successfully partner through service-learning. It is important to note here that service-learning programs are implemented informally, consisting of one or two instructors who offer service-learning as an alternative to other course assignments, formally, employing a program coordinator who provides faculty and student orientation meetings, materials, and some level of evaluation, and somewhere in between, allowing instructors the optional use of service-learning in classes.
Museum and community college missions intersect in areas such as community building, informal educational programming, and civic engagement. Both institutions have materials, personnel, and facilities that could be useful to one another. On-campus and/or traveling exhibitions, community college lecturers at the museum or museum educators in the classroom are just a few ways that museums and community colleges might plant the seeds for a service-learning partnership. Reflection assignments can be a useful evaluation tool in from a thoughtful insider/outsider viewpoint, and I believe, could result in fresh perspectives for museum exhibits, programs, and culture. Mary Jane Dobson, Professor of Sociology and Human Services at Leeward Community College in Pearl City, Hawaii, wonders if using some of the many local cultural institutions as sites for service-learning might eventually lead to the creation of a docent training certificate program at her institution.
To accomplish any of the above suggestions, museums need to build a solid relationship with their local community college and, after clarifying the museum's needs, identify and contact the key players at the community college. It may take a bit of work to find the correct person to speak with - via the website often Student Services - but don't give up! The cross-pollination of ideas and experiences from service-learning partnerships-through journal articles and/or conference presentations-will serve to cultivate new partnerships while strengthening existing associations between museums and community colleges and promote museums as sites for service-learning, as well as service-learning as a vehicle for civic engagement in museums.
Cheryl Kessler is a Research Associate at the Institute for Learning Innovation in Annapolis, Maryland. The information reported in this article is the result of research done 2002 for her Museum Studies master's project, entitled "Serving and Learning: Museums as Sites for Community College-Based Service-Learning Projects," at John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, California.
Resources
To
learn more about community colleges and service-learning check out the following
resources:
"101
Ideas for Combining Service & Learning."
Big Dummy's Guide to Service Learning: 27 Good Answers to Questions on Faculty,
Programmatic, Student, Administration & Non-Profit Issues.
http://www.fiu.edu/~time4chg/Library/ideas.html.
Campus
Compact National Center for Community Colleges.
http://www.mcweb.mc.maricopa.edu/organizations/community/compact/.
Eyler,
Janet, and Dwight E. Giles, Jr. Where's
the Learning in Service-Learning? San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999.
Jacoby,
Barbara. Service-Learning
in Higher Education: Concepts and Practices. San Francisco:Jossey-Bass, 1996.
Learning
In Deed: Service Learning In Action.http://www.learningindeed.org/.
Links
to community colleges across the nation can be found at http://www.utexas.edu/world/comcol/state.
National
Service-Learning Clearinghouse.http://www.servicelearning.org.
Robinson,
Gail. "Stepping Into Our Destiny: Service Learning in
Community Colleges." Community
College Journal (January 2000): 8-12.
For
information on adult learning and museum programming, consult:
Sachatello-Sawyer,
Bonnie, et. al., A National Study of Adult
Museum Programs. Bozeman,
Montana: Museum of the Rockies 2001. http//www.realexperiencesinc.com/.
Endnotes
[1]There
are six museums on PVCC's service-learning agency list:
Arizona Science Museum, Desert Botanical Gardens, Heard Museum, Phoenix
Art Museum, Phoenix Zoo, and Deer Valley Rock Art Center.
2American
Association of Community Colleges. "All
About Community Colleges: National Community College Snapshot."
http://www.aacc.nche.edu/allaboutcc/snapshot.html.
Based on 1996-1997 school year.
3Ibid.
5
Robert Putnam. Bowling Alone: The
Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster,
2000).
6 Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer, et. al. A National Study of Adult Museum Programs. Bozeman, Montana: Museum of the Rockies, 2001. http//www.realexperiencesinc.com/researchfindings6.html. 1 June 2002.
6American
Association of Community Colleges. Horizons
Service Learning Project http://www.aacc.nche..edu/Content/NavigationMenu/ResourceCenter/Projects_Partnerships/Current/HorizonServiceLearningProject.htm.
11 August 2002.
8American
Association of Museums, Mastering Civic
Engagement: A Challenge to Museums (Washington, D.C.: American Association
of Museums, 2002).
9Dick
Wagner, Founding Director, Center for Wooden Boats, Seattle, Washington.
Survey response. 25 Mar. 2002.
10Dick
Wagner. Email correspondence “Re: Museums and Service-Learning Survey
Follow-up.” (6 June 2002)
11 Service requirements vary from program-to-program but generally fall somewhere between five to twenty hours per eighteen week semester.
12Janet
Eyler and Dwight E. Giles, Jr., Where’s
the Learning In Service-Learning"
(San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,