Academic Service-Learning and First-Year Writing Programs: Striving for a Fruitful Fusion
Marianallet Mendez (Academic Service-Learning: A Transformative Experience?), Sean Murray (Academic-Service-Learning and Composition: A Promising Synergy), and Elizabeth Weaver (Academic Service-Learning Ideals v. Realities: Possible Disaster? Possible Opportunity?), Institute for Writing Studies, Institute for Core Studies
Abstract
During the fall 2008 semester, members of the recently established Institute for Writing Studies at St. John’s University agreed to work with the Academic Service-Learning office to foster the development of community service and reflective/recursive writing among entering first-year students. The goals of institutionalized academic service-learning, with its emphasis on the praxis of community outreach and reflection, and the goals of a university writing program speak respectively (thought not mutually exclusive) to the transformative power of both experience and writing. This panel presents some of the preliminary results from our experience, as we attempt to implement academic service-learning and assess the impact it has on our students as writers.