3/1/2014

1

The Hunger ProjectMobilizing First-Year Students in

Service Learning Around the Issue of Food Insecurity

33rd Annual Conference on the First Year Experience

San Diego, CA – February 16, 2014

Contacts:Kerry Priest (presenter) - kerryp@k-state.eduMike Finnegan (presenter) – mikefinn@k-state.eduTamara Bauer – tamara@k-state.eduLeigh Fine – fine@k-state.edu

103 Leadership Studies BuildingManhattan, KS 66506785-532-6085https://www.k-state.edu/leadership

Developing knowledgeable, ethical, caring and inclusive leaders for a diverse and changing world.

3/1/2014

2

LEAD 212: Introduction to Leadership

LEAD 212 serves multiple purposes for the benefit of our students, our School, and K-State, and the local community.

• Leader development

• First-year experience

• Introduction to the academic minor and programs

A History of Service:10 years of Food

Collection

2,903 2,7493,500

6,500

11,130 11,085

9,688

13,860

15,498

12,384

15,811

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

18,000

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

3/1/2014

3

Past Perspectives … 2006

Changing Paradigms

• Exercising socially responsible leadership …

– Leadership for what?

– Leadership with who?

The Social Change Model of Leadership(HERI, 1996)

3/1/2014

4

Distinctions Among Service Programs

Recipient BENEFICIARY

Service FOCUS Learning

Service-Learning

Source: Furco, A. (1996) Service-learning: A balanced Approach to Experiential Education. In B. Taylor (Ed.), Expanding Boundaries: Serving and Learning (pp. 2-6). Washington DC: Corporation for National Service.

Provider

Community Service Field Education

Volunteerism Internship

3/1/2014

5

From community service to service-learning

• Leadership for social change is oftenbest-learned through service (HERI, 1996)

• Service-learning invites you to bring who you are, what you know, and what you can do into the classroom and the world beyond (the wall-less classroom) in applying your whole self to creating community change(Rietenaur, 2005)

• Putting who you are and what you know into practice will change who you are and what you know and enlarge your understanding of yourself and the world of others who are both different from and similar to you (Rietenaur, 2005)

Preparation

Action

Reflection

Evaluation

PARE Model of Service Learning(UMD, 1999)

What is the Hunger Project?

Working as a team with your Learning Community, you will plan and execute a group project related to hunger in the Manhattan community though a seven week service-learning experience.

• Purpose:

– Start to answer the question of “Leadership for what?” in relation to your own personal purpose and values.

– Engage deeply with the core concepts of leadership we have learned in our class.

– Exercise leadership within your Learning Community.

3/1/2014

6

Why Hunger?

Hunger is an oftentimes invisible tragedy. Hunger in America exists for over 50 million people. That is 1 in 6 of the U.S. population – including more than 1 in 5 children. (Feeding America Website)

Our purpose is to not become experts on hunger, but on analyzing this challenge through a leadership lens.

It’s about the process …

•Individual Study (Research on Hunger)

•Group Study (Hunger Tree, Set Learning Goals, Talk about Team Strengths, Identify Plan of Action/Timeline)

Preparation

•Cats for Cans – Mobilizing Can Collection in Neighborhoods

•Drop off bags and flyers, pick up donation, deliver and sort at Flint Hills Breadbasket

•Other?

Action

•After-action review (worksheet)

•Group reflection in learning communityReflection

• Group evaluation to articulate learning (in form of your choice, e.g., portfolio, presentation, video, etc.)

• Group meeting with Instructor for evaluation

•Hint: Do P-A-R well … E will be a natural overflow of your learning!

Evaluation

Weeks 6-8

Weeks 9-12

Weeks 11-12

Weeks 13 (Draft)Final Meeting After Thanksgiving

3/1/2014

7

Preparation Stage: Learning about Hunger

• Outside “Lecture” (Documentary)

• Individual research• Group preparation guide

and discussion about hunger– Hunger Tree (see World Food

Programme Resources)

– Hunger Continuum (How familiar are you with issue?)

– Goal Setting (Academic, Civic, Personal)

– Team Strengths Grid (Gallup Strengthsfinder)

Academic

PersonalCivic

Action Stage: Community Food Collection

• Prep bags/flyers to deliver in neighborhoods (announcing food collection)

• Return to neighborhoods to collect food

– Partnership with City for use of Online Mapping

• Take collected food to Breadbasket

• Sort food

• Assist in food “basket” assembly and distribution

3/1/2014

8

Reflection StageCritical reflection with your Learning Community

is an opportunity to … think critically about your experience;

understand the complexity of your service

experience and put it in a larger context;

challenge your own attitudes, beliefs, assumptions,

privileges, prejudices, and stereotypes; and

transform a single project into further involvement

and/or broader issue awareness (Ash & Clayton, 2004)

Reflection: Using DEAL model

• Describe the experience

• Examine the experience through personal growth, academic content, or civic responsibility

• Then, articulate the learning

Ash & Clayton, 2009

3/1/2014

9

Evaluation: Articulation of Learning

YOU Decide How!As a learning community, you will engage with the following five questions, which come from the DEAL model of articulating learning (Ash & Clayton, 2009):

• What did we learn from the Hunger Project?• How did we learn it?• Why does it (the learning) matter?• What will I (the individual members of our group) do as a result of the Hunger

Project?• What will we (the entire group) do as a result of the Hunger Project?

As long as your group engages in some manner with these five questions, the group is free to dictate the expression of the answers in whatever mater it chooses. Again, the purpose of this assignment is to evaluate your experience –your group should take the freedom offered to here to explore the questions in a way that is authentic to everyone in the group.

Some Common Themes of Learning

• Using strengths• Servant leadership• Inclusive Leadership• Transactional vs. transformational leadership• “More than a project for class”• Connection to Manhattan community• “Making a difference” through simple acts of

serving• Awareness of the issue of hunger• Challenges of working as a group

3/1/2014

10

Evaluation Example - Video

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHAhgK4exEk&feature=youtu.be

Implications of the Hunger Project

• Service-learning enhances student engagement and leadership development in a large, first-year class

• Multiple stakeholders and systems are involved in this kind of project; consideration of resources is important when engaging in the high impact practice of service learning (Kuh, 2008)

• This type of project supports educational needs of 21st century: educating for civic engagement, preparation for a life in diverse society; a time of profound change (Levine & Dean, 2012)

3/1/2014

11

Question for Discussion

• What issues are important to our community (that could frame service learning?)

• How does your university utilize service learning/critical reflection in your first-year courses?

• What might be some obstacles to incorporating service learning?

• How do you meaningfully assess learning?

References/Resources

Ash, S. L., & Clayton, P. H. (2004). The articulated learning: An approach to reflection and assessment. Innovative Higher Education, 29, 137-154.

Ash, S. L., & Clayton. P. H. (2009). Generating, deepening, and documenting learning: The power of critical reflection in applied learning. Journal of Applied Learning in Higher Education, 1, 25-48.

Feeding America. (n. d.) Hunger in America. http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america.aspx

Furco, A. (1996) Service-learning: A balanced Approach to Experiential Education. In B. Taylor (Ed.), Expanding Boundaries: Serving and Learning(pp. 2-6). Washington DC: Corporation for National Service.

Gallup (n. d.) StrengthsQuest team talent map. Retrieved from: http://www.strengthsquest.com/content/141422/Team-Development.aspx

Higher Education Research Institute [HERI]. (1996). A social change model of leadership development. Los Angeles: University of California Los Angeles, HERI.

Jacobson, K. (Producer, Director), & Silverbush, L. (Producer, Director). (2013). A Place at the Table [Documentary). USA: Magnolia Pictures.

3/1/2014

12

Kuh, G. (2008). High impact educational practices: What they are, who has access to them, and why they matter. Washington, DC: AAC&U Press.

Levine, A., & Dean, . D. R. (2012). Generation on a tightrope: A portrait of today’s college student. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Reitenaur, V. L. (2005). Becoming Community: Moving from I to we. In C.M. Cress, P. J. Collier, V. L. Reitenauer (eds.), Learning through serving: A guidebook for service-learning across the disciplines (pp. 33-42). Sterling, VA: Stylus.

Saltmarsch, J. Hartley, M., & Clayton, P. (2009). Democratic engagement white paper. Boston, MA: New England Resource Center for Higher Education. Retrieved from: http://futureofengagement.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/democratic-engagement-white-paper-2_13_09.pdf

University of Maryland [UMD]. (1999). Faculty handbook for service-learning. College Park, MD: Author. Retrieved from: http://www.snc.edu/sturzlcenter/docs/UMD_service_learning_faculty_handbook.pdf

World Food Programme (n. d.). The hunger tree. Lesson plan retrieved from http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/webcontent/wfp202399.pdf