Allegheny College Students in the Context of Community Development

Anderson, Brian

Allegheny College Students in the Context of Community Development

Persistent URL

http://hdl.handle.net/10456/34344

Author(s)

Anderson, Brian

Date Issued

April 1, 2013

Abstract

At a local, national, and global level Allegheny College students actively participate in the communities that they live in. College sponsored service-learning opportunities provide students with the ability to engage in community development work, from a single day to multiple years. However, this student engagement has different levels of efficacy and impact, especially when one considers how the identity of a college student can be interpreted through multiple lenses. As a result, this project used individual interviews to examine how well Allegheny students were prepared to participate in community development work and what their experiences were. From these interviews, it became evident that students felt adequately prepared to do professional tasks and think critically, but did not feel well-equipped to face issues of global identity and to create structural social change. By combining interview results with the wider realm of academic research on service-learning, a series of recommendations was provided to Allegheny College’s Center for Experiential Learning (ACCEL) along with two training modules. These modules address preparatory gaps in global identity and social change.

Honors

Environmental Science, 2013

First Reader(s)

Neff, Mark