At the Engage Upstate Premier Fair table this year, our VISTAs talked with over 75 students about Service Learning and Community Engagement here on campus. With our newly refreshed table setup, many students stopped to learn more about Engage Upstate, collect SLCE gear, and/or take the survey that we designed specifically for the event. Despite the heat, students were eager to see what awaited them at the Premier Fair and at our table.
Below is a recap of our Premier Fair survey results, compiled from 23 respondents who took the survey. Students who applied were entered in a giveaway to win a bear from the bookstore, and one lucky winner walked away with a new friend for their dorm!
Survey Results
- Out of our survey respondents that indicated progress toward graduation, 5 were upperclassmen and 14 were underclassmen.
- 36% of respondents indicated that they had heard about Service Learning prior to the Premier Fair, but 64% indicated that they had not.
- Out of those students who did not know about Service Learning before, half indicated that they were now interested in taking a Service Learning course after learning more about them.
- Students who knew about Service Learning indicated that they heard about it a few different ways, with “Heard from a professor” being the highest indicated response, followed by “Heard from my advisor.” This demonstrates the importance of our faculty and advisors in sharing their excitement about Service Learning to their students!
- A majority of respondents indicated that the meanings of the “SL,” “SE” and “CE” course designations during registration are not communicated as clearly as they could be.
- All of our respondents expressed equal interest in all four benefits we listed for Service Learning, which were as follows: 1. Students who participate in SL attain more academic success; 2. SLCE courses are great resume builders; 3. The courses provide practical degree-related experience; and 4. They provide a way for students to give back to their communities (i.e. serve) which can be hard otherwise to find time for between academic commitments.
In summary…
Engage Upstate will use this small sample of information to develop further methods of assessing student knowledge about Service Learning on campus. The most important takeaway is that students need to first know about Service Learning before they can get excited about it, but once they understand the benefits, they become more likely to select a SLCE designation during registration!
Our goal is to increase general campus awareness regarding Service Learning and Community Engagement so that by the time students reach their junior year, they know all about SLCE and have already taken a course (or several!)
While Advisors and faculty, you are an instrumental part of our students’ understanding about SLCE on campus, and so we continue to encourage you to continue talking to students about SLCE on campus.
Additionally, initiatives such as our Engaging Green project this semester will plant the important seeds of awareness about SLCE in our Service Engaged general education course sections this semester, which totals over 300 students across 15 sections.
With many exciting happenings in the Engage Upstate world this semester, it’s only UP from here!
<Thanks to Dr. Walter Lee for use of “It’s only UP from here!”>