Essay On Service Learning

I decided to take this class due to the service aspect of the course. I came from a high school in the Philadelphia suburbs that encouraged service to the community. Students were required to log service hours by themselves and during school service days. During my time in high school, I had logged over 300 hours of community service both locally and through the class sponsored trip to the Dominican Republic.
One of my favorite locations that I served was a senior assisted living community that we visited once a year. As a senior in college, I look back at my last four years and realize that I have done little to serve my community at school or at home. I see this course as an opportunity to give back and do something that I enjoy during my final year at Michigan. On a personal level, my grandpa passed away last January, and I saw the joy that came from having young company around him even if it was just watching TV or listening to others talk. The presence of family made him extremely happy. Many elderly people are not as fortunate to be surrounded by family or good company, so I am hoping that my service can bring some happiness.
In my experience, service
Service learning leaves a more positive social impact on the individuals involved and the community compared to traditional volunteering. For example, let’s consider the act of cleaning up a park as community service. In traditional volunteering, a group will arrive, work for a few hours picking up trash, and then leave. In service learning, the group will do the same, but after the work is done, they will meet and discuss. The benefit that comes from discussing could spark new ideas about how to improve the community and create a lasting change in the park. The critical service learning programs help students see themselves as agents of social change to respond to injustice in the community (Mitchell, 2008, p.