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

and debrief the service activities, and serve as recruiters for additionalstudent participation, particularly for students willingto continue with their service assignments beyond the requiredamount.Community-Engaged Learning DaysCommunity-Engaged Learning (CEL) days provide opportunitiesfor groups of students (25 to 45) who live on the same floorto decide how they will learn, serve, and reflect together as partof a democratic community. TCNJ Bonner Scholars and BonnerPeer Advisors take the lead in every phrase of the program. Theycompile educational, reflection, and community-based researchmaterials; act as crew leaders of each small group of first-year studentsas they work on their service project; help identify reflectionquestions; and lead small group sessions occurring when the workis done.For first-year students, the initial step occurs when they attendcivic engagement floor meetings early in the fall. At this time, theCEL calendar becomes a ballot and students rank their top threechoices. Based on results, entire floors or significant clusters ofstudents residing together on a floor are “assigned” to a specificCEL date on the calendar. Significantly, this initial democraticexperience — as well as others described below — is led by other,more “senior,” Bonner students. They do so in two key stages:In the organizing stage, these Bonners form two-person teamswho organize (via emails, posters, etc.) and conduct 25 separatefloor meetings under the guidance of staff. Staff members sendout email reminders and register the bulk of the students from afloor. During the mobilizing stage, these Bonners conduct two“floor sweeps” three days prior to any CEL day to sign up studentswho have not yet confirmed their attendance. All the organizingleads to the actual CEL day, which has five main components:education, action, reflection, sustainability, and curricularwork. The goal is to provide context for the service and linkagesto ongoing co-curricular and curricular engagement.On the day of the CEL event, first-year students receive aneducational packet that includes articles covering the nature andscope of the problem and programs or policies that aim to havean impact on that social issue. The CEL day’s program beginswith a speaker addressing the issue in an educational and inspirationalway. After the talk, group members spend approximatelyfive hours together working on a meaningful project. After thatwork, they hold small-group discussions and reflection sessions.These first-year students are then asked if they are interested insustaining their involvement by working under the guidance of theBonners Scholars. They are also introduced to options for the secondtier of their civic engagement graduation requirement (whichmust be satisfied in their last three academic years) with examplesof community-based research and course-related projects from arange of institutions.In an alternate model, small teams of students from specificfloors (usually 8-10) are given the chance to complete a onedayshift at one of the community organizations where BonnerScholar Teams serve (e.g., Habitat for Humanity). The Bonnersite leader is responsible for working with the staff to shape, supervise,and transport first-year students on such dates — as wellas build in the same components described above that pertain toeducation, action and sustained involvement.AssessmentSurveys on learning outcomes from civic engagement in priorservice-learning programs and in the new First Seminar andthe First-Year Experience’s CEL days have shown high levels ofagreement that civic engagement advanced student understandingand appreciation of issues. Students’ reflective journals and focusgroup interviews confirm this.All first-year students complete a simple survey at the beginningand end of each CEL day. This tool attempts to measurepotential changes in their dispositions and levels of knowledge orawareness. For example, it aims to capture whether or not theybelieve that individuals working as part of a group can make adifference in their communities and whether or not they feelthat they themselves can have an impact. In addition, the surveystrives to determine if the students know a little more about aparticular social problem as well as existing policies/programs dueto their experience.The survey also addresses process and past participation. Forexample, students are asked how many times during the previousmonths they had an opportunity to meet (in a co-curricularsetting) with their peers to discuss an issue and hold a votethat actually mattered, and how frequently they interacted withsomeone passionate about their work on the unmet needs of thecommunity. The goal is to determine the significance of the floormeetings and educational portions of the program.Most importantly, at the conclusion of each CEL day, thestudents provide a grade for their experience and may completea Bonner Volunteer form if they wish to continue serving theircommunity. A quick review of early data on this new programshows some promising results. The lowest grade on the day thatfocused on developmental disabilities, for example, was a B+;a substantial number of students are completing the volunteerforms and want to receive additional invitations to serve.Finally, our community partners have expressed their strongsupport for this model. It provides students with pre-service contextsand understanding before their arrival into the community,and it helps some students to find their passion and stay involved.This increases the capacity of these agencies to achieve their objectives,as it develops students’ civic learning.Supplemental MaterialsWeb site for Liberal Learning Program:http://www.tcnj.edu/~liberal/