Service-learning courses erase boundaries between community and classroom
Undergraduate students in the Community Scholars Program, a one-year academic program that combines community service and opportunities for engaged learning, partnered last fall with local residents to canvass a south Madison neighborhood with information about the Bram’s Addition Neighborhood Association. Pictured here overcoming a language barrier, local resident Rick Flowers, at left, and student Aerin Spitz talk with resident Amaury Giron, second from right, using a mix of Spanish and English. Photo: Jeff Miller
A movement to offer service-learning opportunities to students is helping redefine the classroom at UW–Madison, where more than 80 such courses are now being offered annually.
Many faculty have adopted the model as a way to connect students with the community and integrate concepts with real- world experiences. Students get the opportunity to broaden their horizons and gain professional skills in off-campus service work. The typical service-learning format consists of two to three weekly classroom sessions and 25 hours of community work.
“Service learning allows students to make the ideas of the course their own by experiencing them,” says Michael Thornton, professor of Afro-American studies who is currently teaching Introduction to Contemporary Afro-American Society.
Thornton matches his 28 students with service work. This semester, volunteer options include working at CASPER, an after-school program in Madison for homeless kids, and tutoring at local elementary schools.
As a way to measure students’ personal and intellectual growth throughout the semester, Thornton requires students to maintain a journal.
“It’s a perpetual test of understanding and a place for personal insight,” says Thornton. “When reading journals, I am often forced to close my office door, for I’m crying like a baby — at least a grown-up baby. My tears are of joy, wonder, appreciation, with a bit of wish fulfillment thrown in for good measure. It revives my hope in humankind each time it happens.”
Spanish 319, an upper-level course in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, integrates undergraduates with the Spanish-speaking community of Madison.
In the classroom, undergraduates gain the linguistic and cultural tools necessary to facilitate communication between Spanish and English speakers, while the service component provides students with oral and written translation opportunities. The unique approach to teaching language requires students to practice vocabulary and grammar in their volunteer work.
In rigorous prerequisites, students develop proficiency in Spanish. This upper- level class emphasizes applying those skills off campus.
Each fall, professor Anna Gemrich teaches Spanish Language Practice: Medical Spanish, a course focusing on issues related to the medical profession. Gemrich explains her inspiration for the course.
“Eighty percent of what is said in a doctor’s visit is nonmedical, and doctors need to be able to communicate with patients,” says Gemrich. “Using an interpreter is often frustrating for a doctor. He might understand Spanish, but not language nuances.”
The course aims at teaching Spanish-language skills to pre-med students before working directly with patients.
“To become a good health care practitioner, one must be culturally knowledgeable,” says Gemrich. “With this kind of experience, students are much better equipped to enter the health care profession.”
Spanish 319 seeks to teach students a medical lexicon and tackles issues related to the language barrier and health care.
“In the classroom, we took out cultural information, which made us think in a health setting,” says Michelle Kramer, a former student of Medical Spanish. “One day we would talk about something and then I’d walk into the clinic and see it happen.”
The Morgridge Center for Public Service provides students with volunteer opportunities in Spanish language agencies. Service work often involves translation and interpretation between English and Spanish.
“One student worked with the AIDS Network and distributed condoms to the Latino community,” says Gemrich. “Others have served as family advocates at Red Cross.”
Kramer expanded on her role as a volunteer. “I worked at Madison Access Community Health Center and when translation services were needed, I would be called into the consultation room and translated for the patient,” says Kramer. “Knowing you can help a patient understand the doctor is a great feeling.”
Nona Mei, a former student of medical Spanish and a third-year student in the School of Medicine, says the terminology learned in the course expanded her postgraduate opportunities.
“The class helped me to understand the miscommunication between English-speaking doctors and Spanish-speaking patients,” says Mei. “Because of my Spanish-language background, I shadowed a Spanish-speaking doctor in med school, and I continue to work with that population.”
In the spring, Professor Veronica Egon offers another section of Spanish 319: Spanish for Social Services and Legal Professions, a course with a focus on cultural issues related to immigration, such as navigation of the court system, family law, workplace issues and housing.
Students of Legal Spanish perform a wide range of service work. “Most of the students do translations of documents,” says Egon. “Others teach English as a second language.”
Some students are more inventive with the service requirement and launch outreach programs in the community.
“One student developed and taught a computer course for Spanish speakers and helped them learn how to use computers,” says Egon.
Melissa Nehmer, a student currently enrolled in Legal Spanish, spends her volunteer hours working with the Neighborhood Law Project, a poverty law clinic that provides legal and advocacy services to low-income people in the communities surrounding the Law School.
“I’m translating a pamphlet on worker’s rights,” says Nehmer. “And the written translations in class help us understand the translation process. Often times words in English don’t correlate to Spanish, and in translating, I’ve learned how to change words and word order so they fit in different legal contexts.”