City College of San Francisco - California Competes

THEME III
needs of both. As a result of these dialogs, students have participated in redefining both the structure and
content of the class. Other outcomes of the discussions between students, the GGNPC, and the instructor
are an in-class module tailored to provide a larger context to the service learning experience, a new course
offering—an ecology laboratory with a service learning component—and a more local emphasis in the
Biology 20 course. Several instructors in the Biology Department are now participating in this program
with the GGNPC. Since establishment of the program over the past seven years, approximately 1,000 students
have spent 4,500 hours of service-related work. The experience also promotes community building
among the students. Frequently students share in group discussions and in their journals their feelings
about how unique and important it was for them to spend time together and get to know other students
better, something they cannot do in the classroom. Students also recognize self-growth and other benefits
of the experience by journal entries such as this one: “Throughout the semester, we have been focusing on
how to save and protect our environment, but it was this experience (habitat restoration service learning)
that has made me realize that it takes only a little effort to help save our parks and how important that is
for years to come” (Michelle Yee, Fall 2004).
Another service learning project is Project SHINE, started in 1997 with collaboration between City College
of San Francisco and San Francisco State University to address the needs of elderly immigrant students
studying for citizenship and to help build intergenerational relationships. About 150 CCSF credit students
per year participate in SHINE and serve more than 200 immigrant/noncredit ESL students from all over the
world. At the end of a semester/year, students reflect on and discuss pre- and post-survey comments about
their learning experiences. One example of an outcome of these reflective discussions was student interest
in the development of a leadership program. They appealed to the Project SHINE staff, who then applied
for a grant to fund the leadership program. With grant funding, they began collaborating with Coro
Northern California, an institution offering experiential leadership training. Although Coro’s focus had
been on business leadership, as a result of several discussions with Project SHINE’s staff, it tailored a
training program focusing on the needs of CCSF students. This program is designed to provide students
with ethical and effective leadership skills they can apply in college, the community, and the workplace.
A component of the leadership training reinforces communication skills through group discussions and
problem-solving activities.
Student government is an important voice in institutional dialogs. In order to strengthen this voice,
several years ago the Associated Students worked with administrators and student groups on various
campuses to improve their governance structure and elections process. With the merger of the credit and
noncredit divisions between 1990 and 1992, one institutional issue that had remained unresolved was
the student governance structure. During the Spring 2001 semester at the Ocean Avenue Campus, student
elections had a ballot initiative for all campuses, and it included the ballot of officers for the Ocean
Avenue Campus. The students at the Ocean Avenue Campus contested the ballot distribution, contending
that officers should only be elected on the Ocean Avenue Campus. The ballot boxes and ballots were
withdrawn from the campuses and the students from the other campuses challenged the overall election
process for the District. The issue was brought to the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees. The Chancellor
initiated a Student Governance Study Group that was charged with reviewing the entire area of student
governance and to make reports to him and the Board of Trustees regarding the progress. The Student
Governance Task group was composed of Associated Students Council representatives from five campuses,
four faculty, a dean from one of the campuses, the Dean of Student Affairs, the Associate Dean of Student
Activities, and the Board’s Student Trustee. The study group reviewed District policy, education code, and
Associated Students Constitution and by-laws, meeting frequently in the 2001-02 and 2002-03 academic
years. The study group progressed from dialogs of misperceptions and issue clarification to discussions that
were better informed and structured. Subgroups were formed in which discussions addressed specific topics
such as the student trustee election, state guidelines for the legality in collecting the student representation
fee, and the overall structure of student representation in College governance.
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