Service‐Learning: Getting Your Foot in the Door

Abstract

When I joined the faculty at Kalamazoo College, I knew that I wanted to give back to my community. But I was not sure how best to do that. In addition, connecting with the community in a meaningful service project seemed daunting. Service-learning, however, gave me a venue wherein to do so. Service-Learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities [http://www.servicelearning.org/what-service-learning]. As a black female chemistry professor I am especially interested in the proverbial “leaky pipeline” and in ways to stopper it. And so my goal was then and continues to be, to find ways to use service-learning to bring fun science to local public schools. This is an excellent way to engage college students in meaningful learning and to challenge them to mentor and teach the younger generation. The service-learning project that has been conducted with first year chemistry students at Kalamazoo College will be presented, and ideas will be laid out.