Center for Service-Learning
Active Minds Changing Lives
spring newsletter
Greetings from the Director
Tim Costello, Director
CSL student staff Katie Garner, Arcadia Trueheart,
Blake Westhoff, Emily Olsen, and Chelsea Jade Zibolsky
Goodbyes and Hellos: changes in
the CSL student staff
This quarter the CSL says a fond farewell to three fantastic
student staff as they pursue adventures outside of Western.
Emily Olsen, Whatcom Council of Nonprofits Program
Support staff, will earn a degree in Elementary Education
next fall after completing her final internship at Washington
Elementary. Blake Westhoff, Service-Learning Program
Assistant, will be graduating in June with a Human Services
degree and will continue dedicating his time to advancing
local non-profit organizations. Arcadia Trueheart, our
Community Service Peer Advisor and recipient of a 20132014 Adventure Learning Grant, will be traveling to Bolivia
to experience firsthand the arts in youth social movements.
We are happy to welcome Chelsea Jade Zibolsky and Katie
Garner to our team. Chelsea Jade, a Fairhaven and Dance
major, will be supporting the Whatcom Council of
Nonprofits. Katie, a prospective Human Service Major, will
serve as a Community Service Peer Advisor. Both Chelsea
Jade and Katie are already exceptional members of the
team, and CSL programs will continue its pursuit of
excellence with these new staff members.
The Center for Service-Learning would like to end this academic
year by thanking any and all of you for your support, especially the
sustained support of the Provost and the Vice Provost for
Undergraduate Education. We had a great year that included
spearheading Western’s effort to achieve the President’s (Obama)
Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction for
the third year in a row. We would like to thank Washington Campus
Compact, College Spark Washington and the Corporation for
National and Community Service for strengthening our programs.
We are excited to be joining Western Libraries Learning Commons
and look forward to new synergies next year. Thank you Carmen
Werder for your bold leadership and promotion of cross-disciplinary
teaching and learning that brought CSL and Writing Instruction
Support together in a working retreat to benefit 18 faculty
members. Please visit CIIA’s Innovative Teaching Showcase that
highlights three WWU faculty who are “Teaching Civic
Engagement.” We thank the Sociology Department and the Center
for International Studies for moving forward international education
at Western and for collaborating with our Kenya and Rwanda
programs.
And of course, the remarkable staff at the Center, Alex Allyne, April
McMurry, AmeriCorps/VISTA member Alyssa Jones; and our bright
and shiny work study students, Emily, Blake, Arcadia, Katie and
Chelsea Jade!
Have an outstanding restorative summer!
Faculty: please complete our annual survey to
report your service-learning course
Teaching a 2013/14 service-learning course? CSL is currently
collecting information about service-learning courses for academic
year 2013/14 through our annual faculty survey. Please take a few
minutes to complete this short survey. Your responses will guide us
in how to best support you, your students and your community
partnerships in the coming year. Collecting this information will also
help us tell the larger story of Western’s contributions to and with
the broader community.
Faculty: would you like to incorporate service-learning into a course?
The Center for Service-Learning and the Writing Instruction Support programs are partnering again this summer to put on
“Backwards by Design: A Working Retreat for Faculty Who Teach with Writing and/or Service-Learning.” Faculty interested in servicelearning will have the opportunity to work with CSL staff and other service-learning faculty to share ideas, revise syllabi, hear from
community partners, and design community-based projects that meet both course learning objectives and community needs. This
three-day professional development retreat will run Tuesday, August 27 through Thursday, August 29 at Western’s Shannon Point
Marine Center in Anacortes. All expenses for travel, lodging, food, and materials are covered. A stipend is available to participants
who complete a post-retreat survey and a brief write-up within the 2013-2014 academic year.
Visit our website for more information and email April McMurry to reserve your spot in the program.
516 High Street—Wilson Library 481—MS 9125
Bellingham, WA 98225
www.wwu.edu/csl
360.650-7542
Center for Service-Learning
Service Leaders pilot program finishing up its first year
When it rains it snows? That was the case this April when the Center for ServiceLearning’s cohort of Service Leaders met to learn and serve at WeGrow Garden. As
the rain began to freeze our students kept weeding, mulching and learning about a
vital community resource. Prepping gardens in the snow was just one of several
inspiring and challenging activities members of our Service Leader Program
engaged in this spring. They also attended a workshop focused on leadership and
positive communication with the Upfront Theatre. Students then volunteered at the
Max Higbee Center and learned about the career of Executive Director Hallie
Hemmingsen, a Western Alum. This month they had an exclusive opportunity to
participate in a brown-bag lunch and discussion with Tim Harris, a social
entrepreneur and founder of the Seattle nonprofit Real Change.
Impacts of the Service Leader Program are far reaching, from increasing members’
knowledge of community, both on and off campus, to influencing their career
direction. Eighty-seven percent of participants say that their time at Western has
been positively impacted because of the program. One Service Leader said,
“Without this service-learning program I do not think I would have pursued my
interest in community service during my academic career. I have loved seeing my
passions overlap in my academic, extracurricular, and professional careers.”
Katie Garner plants strawberries
at the WeGrow Garden
Next year the Service Leaders program will continue with a new cohort of first year
students. Many thanks to Washington Campus Compact and College Spark for
funding the Service Leaders pilot program this year.
Spring quarter service-learning
During spring quarter over 1500 students in 63 classes are participating in service-learning. One course, taught by Professor Hilary
Schwandt, is Fairhaven 336N: Topics in Science, Nutrition. In the course students learn the basics about nutrition through readings,
classroom discussion and service-learning projects.
Students in the course are partnering with the WSU Extension education program Food $ense to create aesthetically pleasing materials
for their target audience of adults on a budget and elementary-aged children. Students are also partnering with the Western FacultyLed Study Abroad program in Rwanda to research the history of kitchen gardens in Rwanda and a new effort by the government to
battle malnutrition. Dr. Schwandt’s students are making a practice kitchen garden in the Outback Garden at Fairhaven, documenting
the process, and making kitchen garden teaching aids for Western students to take to Rwanda. Finally, a third group of students is
working with the Bellingham Food Bank to help quantify food output using a more meaningful measurement than pounds, in support
of the Food Bank's efforts to include more locally grown produce for clients.
Community Partnership Highlight: Common Threads Farm
Where can you find baby turkeys, homemade pizza, rows of fresh arugula, preschoolers and
college students all in the same place? At Common Threads Farm! Through a community
farm, fourteen school garden activities, after school classes, summer camps, and
partnerships with other community agencies, Common Threads Farm is empowering youth
to grow and prepare nutritious food while developing an awareness of food justice and
environmental health.
Western students have collaborated with Common Threads this year through servicelearning courses in Management, Communication, and Engineering Technology; and
through internships, volunteer positions, and group work parties. Common Threads provides
Western students with an opportunity to grapple with community issues of health and
sustainability. After a recent work party with her Western tennis team, student Melissa
Vollmer said, “we love working [in the] community. It is always fun to do projects as a team
because it gives us a common goal to work towards.” Common Threads director, Laura
Plaut, shared that the organization “provides a good outlet for Western students to put their
ideas to work in a community setting.” The students’ desire to participate and learn directly
benefits Common Threads: “Western students bring strong backs, good brains, happy
smiles, strong convictions, and open minds,” says Laura Plaut. All of these qualities allow
Common Threads to continue bringing much-needed food and farm education to the youth
of Whatcom County.
Baby turkeys scratch for food, part of
Common Threads Farm’s seed-to-table
education program for youth.
Center for Service-Learning
A reflection about international service-learning in Kenya
Written by Alex Devereux, at the close of the Winter 2013 program
How do you explain a life-changing trip like this into a short, exciting, and concise narrative that the recipient is
looking for and wants to hear? How do you make someone feel for what you have felt? Or at least have them get
a basic understanding of what you have seen, learned, and experienced? Where do you even start? Do you tell
them what they want to hear? Do I discuss the easier topics with those who are curious about my adventures? Or
do I potentially risk changing the dynamics with people I am close with back at home by bringing up subjects
that could possibly be uncomfortable? How do I not reinforce stereotypes? Maybe by not mentioning working at
an orphanage on a beautiful mountain side during our last week in Rwanda, or my friends being caned, or my
ABBA buddy who is HIV positive. But is that me just suppressing real issues because I am afraid my trip will be
misinterpreted?
The majority of this trip was full of laughs and singing and stories. And it was 110% about relationships. I have
gotten used to big bugs and the orchestra of crickets at night. I have become comfortable with perpetually dirty
feet and unwashed clothes. I have not for one second taken for granted the fresh fruit we eat at every single
meal.
I want to go home and reiterate the fact that I was not in “Africa,” but that I was in Kochia, Kenya, and traveled
around Rwanda; that those are just two small countries on one large continent. People, including myself before I
came here, tend to over generalize a place. Traveling from Kenya to Rwanda has so greatly disproved this
thought; I could not even begin to compare the two.
When I think of Africa now, I do not think of AFRICA. I think of Dama. I think of the Ombogo girls’ bus driving
over pot-hole roads for miles. I think of Emmanuel and Sylvia. I think of live Kenyan music at the local bar and of
the girls singing at Sabbath. I think of how the people show so much ease at being themselves. I think of
Rwanda’s hills, getting sick from too much pineapple, and Victor’s speeches.
I will speak in stories; not in material possessions for the mind to chew on. I want to go home and share things I
have learned about politics, about life, about love.
This trip is too big not to have an impact on the rest of my life, and I do not want it to ever go to waste. I am
going to go home and instead of searching for stories to tell, I am going to let the stories find me. I am going to
focus on living in the moment and put what I have learned to use. I might not be able to explain my trip very
well, but I know that others will see a change in me, and from there they might gain insight and an understanding
of why a trip like this has such an impact on someone’s life story; and why you cannot just explain it in a few
simple words. My whole being will be different and people will be able to see that we are all the world. That I am
Kenyan as much as I am an American as much as I am a Bellingham-ite as a musician, an artist, a friend, a
daughter. And my hope is that they will be able to realize that of themselves, too.
For more reflections from the 2013 program, visit http://wwuineastafrica.wordpress.com/.
The CSL is now inviting applications for the Winter 2014 Kenya program. Please direct interested students to the program website
for more information, dates for upcoming information sessions, and the application.