Courses that participated in Service Learning during spring semester 2008:
AR 325: Painting II
AR131: Design: Two Dimensional
CH 107: Chemistry of Daily Life
CS 359: Computer and Information Sciences Senior Project
FS 179: First Year Seminar
GCSE 637: Methods of Instruction and Assessment
IT 204: Intermediate Italian II
ND 400: Honors Seminar
PHIL 215: Ethics
RS 119: Exploring Religious Meaning
Example:PHIL 215
Attempting to answer the question: "How should I live?" students ground themselves in an analysis of the most important philosophical thinkers of the Western Tradition. Gaining a deeper understanding on Aristotle's and St. Benedict's view on what it is to be a good person through the modes of service and humility, students spent time preparing and eating a meal at the Union Mission as well as participated in group discussions with the men. Upon returning to the class, students discussed their experiences as well as completed a graded response to multiple questions.
Example: FS 179
First Year Seminar is designed to welcome students into the SVC Learning Community on academic, social, and cultural levels. As part of the SVC Community extends beyond the classroom, students presented a "Generation Project", which was a type of biography based on a partner a given student was paired up and spent considerable time with at Green Meadows assisted living facility. The biography also encompassed information on the decade a given resident was born as well as journals that define each student. In the end each resident was presented with their own copy of the biography, which they joyfully received and will be able to share with their families for many years to come .
Example: CS 359
Samir Raut completed his senior project for the Greater Latrobe Community Network. Samir learned new programming languages for the web based front end database which will enable hundreds of businesses and non profits in the Latrobe area to be located on one centralized site for the first time ever.
Technological innovations foster a deeper sense of community, which was both an objective of his project as well as a pillar of Benedictine education.
Using HTML, PHP and A MYSQL database, Nathan Jara completed an original computer and information sciences senior thesis service learning project. "Give to get" is an online fund raiser for local churches that enables individuals to donate as well as purchase used spiritual items. After shipping costs, all proceeds will benefit local churches in need.
"This experience has been invaluable for my preparation for full time employment." -Nathan
Example RS 119
The Union Mission of Latrobe, which is a Christian rehabilitation program for men seeking shelter as well as Clelian Heights, which is a Catholic school for exceptional children who are developmentally challenged were the two sites the students taking Exploring Religious Meaning would spend over 400 hours serving and learning at.
As the purpose of the course is to acquaint freshman students with the academic approach to religion, students can be both challenged and reaffirmed in the positions of their own faith. Some of these objectives were met through predisposing topics in the classroom and then by seeing (or attempting) to see these truths though an option of 18 hours of community based service learning.
Example: AR 325