First-Year Civic Engagement: Sound Foundations for College ...

Behavioral assessment predicted students’ future actions. Samplecomments: “I have enjoyed the CARES program so much, I willprobably volunteer again.” “As we taught the students, we learnedmuch more about how to communicate. We will try to show moresensitivity to people who are different from us.” “We as communitymembers need to be sensitive to the differences in others andtheir different upbringings.”Students also practiced critical thinking, analysis and application,as these comments show: “Recognizing ethnocentrism is justthe beginning. Collaboration is required to reconcile the differencesin culture and language to produce understanding betweenpeople. One girl tried to teach [a student] some words in Spanish.Most often the kids would just speak English, but in an ideal situation,we would all be working together for competent communication.We have learned that cultural relativism is better thanethnocentrism. We can acknowledge the fact that some culturesare different from - not better than - other cultures.”Work Cited:Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: CollierBooks.I. Contributor’s Name and Contact InformationColleen Garside, Ph.D.Assistant ProfessorWeber State University Communication Department1605 University CircleOgden, UT 84408-1605Phone: 801-626-6256Fax: 801-626-7975Email: cgarside@weber.eduII. Institutional Descriptiona. Weber State University, Ogden, UTb. Four-year undergraduate teaching institutionc. Publicd. Commuter campuse. 15,841 FTE undergraduate students6,178 first-year studentsf. 1,314 residential students16,828 commuter studentsDroge, D. & Ortega-Murphy, B. (1999). Voices of strong democracy:Concepts and models for service learning in communicationstudies. Washington, D.C.: American Association for HigherEducation.Eyler, J., Giles, D.E., & Schmiede, A. (1996). A practitioner’sguide to reflection in service learning: Student voices and reflections.Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University.Gray, M., Ondaatje, E., Fricker, R., & Geschwind, S. (2000).Assessing student learning: The benefits of service learning forstudents. Change, 32, 2, 30-41.Isaacson, R., Dorries, B., & Brown, K. (2001). Service learningin communication studies: A handbook. Ontario, Canada:Wadsworth.Morreale, S. (2003). Communicating common ground: Projectoverview. Retrieved September 27, 2003, fromhttp://www.natcomm.org/instruction/CCG/projectdescription.htm.Welch, M. (2002, October). A collaborative round table discussionon developing a multi-institutional research agenda using a guidedreflection rubric. Paper presented at the 2nd InternationalConference on Service Learning Research, VanderbiltUniversity, Nashville, TN.