Place-Making, Identity, and Service Learning Among First-Year College Students

Abstract

Place-making is the set of social, political and material processes by which people create and recreate experienced geographies. In the case of immigrant experience, the physical space provides an environment in which memories, traditions, and evolution of identity can occur. In this case study, I examine the results of a service-learning project with first-year Honors students in a public, regional university. In the course design, community-engaged activities, and assignments, I shaped the experiences of the students as if they were translocals and the college campus were the receiving community. Although not explicitly detailed to the students, their project was framed as an immigrant community that had the opportunity to transform space for the betterment of both groups. The assignment -- to improve access and quality of the campus food pantry -- created new socio-spatial relationships and enabled the student to remain connected to places left behind while forging new place ties. As they explored the data about food insecurity among college students, institutional structure, and interacted with diverse groups on campus, they formed new social and cultural connections, resulting in a hybrid identity and a sense of agency in their new community.