Service Learning

This was my second experience with Service Learning. My first class with Service Learning was with Linguistic Anthropology 105. When I signed up for the class I had no idea what service learning was or that the class required it. I had to take the class because it was a requirement for my Anthropology major. There were a couple different options for service learning in that class, the one that I picked was working with the Milwaukee Literacy Services. For that I would go to the Milwaukee Literacy Services Center and I would tutor people who were learning English. I tutored people who spoke English fluently and were just illiterate and people who were illiterate and non-English speakers. At first I was very uncomfortable with tutoring people because I wasn't sure how well I would be able to teach them and how willing they were to learn. All of the students at MLS were there voluntarily and they all really wanted to learn how to read and write. Also, because more of the people there have a reading level below a 3rd Grade average, having a high school diploma is way more than necessary to teach someone how to get through basic English exercises.


My experiences with Film 150 and JPNA were considerably different. For one, I knew before taking the class that I would have to do service learning. I took the class in order to get my Cultures and Communities Certificate. Working with JPNA was a lot different than working with MLS. When I was working with MLS, I was the one tutoring the students and I was firsthand making the changes in people's lives. With JPNA, there were other people making changes in people's lives but I was just observing that happening. I'm sure there were opportunities for me to make direct changes in people's lives, but either they were irrelevant to my project or I wouldn't be able to attend those opportunities. My JPNA experience was more of an learning experience of how community organizations work while my MLS experience was more of what it is like actually being part of a community organization.

First picture is from http://image.volunteersolutions.org/images/cache/000/010/233/893/10233893698.jpg
Second picture is from http://sub.resilientcities.org/content/Portals/0/Johnsons%20Park/Sketch.%20JP%20Entrance%20Bright.JPG