Through CSL students connect classroom study to community service.  Historic African American women educators used experiential education to transform colleges and communities. The resurgence of pedagogies of engagement in the late 1960s and early 1990s are encouraging, and are useful for improving town/gown relationships. However, students and CSL practitioners must consider their own cultural identity (including  race, class, and gender) and learn about historical developments in complex community/institutional relationships. In my CSL classes, students  connect with local agencies based on their own academic and personal interests. The combination of applied and theoretical training prepares them for graduate school and professional development while also offering them life skills useful after their college career.

COMMUNITY PARTNERS PAGE

 

Dr. EVANS' REPORT TO FLORIDA STATE LEGISLATURE REVIEW BOARD
  "Why Women's Studies and Community Service-Learning?" 

 

FEMINIST TEACHER JOURNAL ARTICLE
  "Major Service: Combining Academic Disciplines and Service-Learning in Women's Studies"

 

CSL COURSES CREATED

In both women's studies and African American studies, I have incorporated applied and experiential learning. Specifically, I have added the pedagogy of community service-learning (CSL) to the Mentoring At-Risk Youth and Interdisciplinary Perspectives of Women course.

Working with the Center for Leadership and Service (formally Office of Community Service), I have established partnerships with local community agencies, particularly with after school programs for youth 8-18 years of age (Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Cluband Gainesville Housing Authority's Reichert House and PACEprograms for example) for the mentoring class.

For the women's studies classes, students choose from almost 100 Gainesville and Alachua County agencies that have pre-existing partnerships with UF. Students must choose a site that relates to their academic major and they consider their experiences at the agency through a gendered lens. In each class, students are challenged to incorporate their academic interests, theories from their disciplinary majors, and interdisciplinary frameworks in an applied setting.

As service-learning researchers assert, the CSL classes provide excellent opportunities for critical thinking while assisting local agencies in meeting specific needs of community development.