Service Learning
CU Boulder is a campus committed to service learning, including creating a designation for students interested in taking such courses. I was very intrigued by the concept, having been required to do an activist project in a Women's Studies course in graduate school. The Program for Writing and Rhetoric has an entire committee devoted to service learning, with a great deal of resources for teachers interested in pursuing it. Most composition instructors use service learning as a way to pair students with an organization and create documents with real-world application. Another aspect of service learning is the "service" aspect, where students are asked to write for and about a non-profit organization, using the skills learned in the class to benefit them.
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While I hope to one-day incorporate the former, I began by wading in, partly because of time restraints. I taught the Advanced First Year Composition course and had students volunteer at the organization of their choice and then write all of their papers either about, or for, the organization. This class was very successful, so the next step will be for me to establish a relationship with a few organizations to have the class work with more closely.
In the meantime, I had found the "service bug," so I have applied the philosophies to other courses. In my Humor Studies course, students were asked to create a project or performance that would benefit a charity or movement that they cared about, demonstrating how humor can help intice interest, donations, and activism in people. I had students make a video for the "Quit Smoking" campaign, for a local pet shelter, and an infographic for local food awareness. Students worked with the organizations, interviewed staff and volunteers, came up with a plan, and created their texts using humor, visual rhetoric, and research.
In my Gender, Sexuality & New Media course, students are asked to pick a topic related to gender and activism and focus all of their projects on that campaign. I have had students advocate for eliminating the rape kit backlog, providing menstruation materials to girls in India and Africa, gender and sexuality sensitivity in sex ed classes, the responsibility of the NFL to deal with athletes who beat their partners and much, much more. They are required to write a research paper about the topic and then develop an activist website advocating for change. Each website usually also contains a blog and a video created by the students. See student work for some examples.
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