It is exciting to finally have time to do something other than attend lectures or write assignments. Aside from a little holiday shopping, I will be mostly spending this holiday season preparing for our spring fundraisers for Busolwe Mango Grove Junior School with my colleagues Stephanie Sammartino and Hannali Popoca Fehr. Many of my blog posts about my service in rural Uganda can be found under the tag “Africa”.
Though our fundraising initiative is no bigger than a few schools each year, depending on our connections, it is meaningful for us to share our story with the students at those schools. With the support of a few schools, this rural school has grown from just these students to 200+ students in K-6 taught by 9 teachers.
In my third of university, I have several times found myself researching more spontaneously. I am thinking of my courses with a researcher’s perspective, and it’s always encouraging to realize that I am much better at finding articles and reading through them critically compared to first year.
During the Go Global orientation session, our advisor gave us a background on the concept of Service Learning. It is an example of experiencial learning, which is a theory of education well represented by educators and philosophers such as John Dewey, Daniel Kolb, and Jean Piaget. Service learning is a combination of pedagogy and philosophy, acting as a model for community engagement and development. One of the most important things she explained to us, and the most memorable one in my mind, is the “act, reflect, learn” model. Service learning, and other forms of experiencial learning, is a continuous cycle of engaging with the community, using analytical skills and participating in thematic discussions to learn new perspectives and community issues.
I did a quick research on John Dewey who was a philosopher, educational reformist, and also a psychologist. He was one of the main supporters of experiential learning which supported his argument that civic and community engagement by youth and adults are crucial lessons only fully learned through hands-on engagement.
Being a psych major, this research is incredibly eye-opening and inspirational… to see that as I work towards my BA I will eventually tune in to the ongoing discussions of the important themes of education. I hope to do more reflection and further research on the background of service learning, and to understand and appreciate the themes that will enrich my experience in Uganda next summer.
