Learn to serve with service learning
Service to the community, while being a requirement for graduation, is more than just an assignment, it’s about heart posture. This concept is what the Leonard Center desires the students of Lee University to recognize while getting their hours. With a vast list of possibilities available to everyone, there are always new ways to serve in the Cleveland community and beyond.
Dr. William Lamb, director of the Leonard Center, emphasized this focus on how he hopes students will approach this opportunity to serve.
“Service is more about the lifestyle commitment than it is a destination,” Lamb said. “To build a heritage, to build a resume, all of those variables are important.”
The outreach aspect of service learning does not take away from the fact that it is still a requirement, however, as it directly affects graduation requirements.
“Service learning is a graduation clearance item, there are a number of those. Your bill, your grades, parking tickets, all kinds of different things are indicators of cleared or not cleared. The Leonard Center is one of the items that has to be cleared,” Lamb said.
The deadline to turn in service hours for the fall semester is coming up for everyone returning for the spring semester. Service hour reflections are due Nov. 1. These hours can include service done during the semester, but also extend to service done during summer break. December graduates had an Oct. 6 deadline.
Lamb said service is divided between embedded courses on campus and student choice, to help students reach goals that may seem daunting at first.
“A typical freshman has 80 hours before they graduate. 10 hours in Gateway, 10 hours in Benevolence. A lot of our capstone courses are service embedded, so that could be [an additional] 10 hours in service embedded courses.” Lamb said. “When you think of it in the realm of 30 [hours] built into the system, it's very doable.”
Timmy Northcutt, benevolence student from Lee, serving at Hope 4 One. Photo credit: Emma Sargent
To fulfill the service hours are not embedded, there are plenty of opportunities in the area. There is a course for each student in their respective Moodle pages, directing them to all the information they need about service hours and how to correctly account for them. Included is access to a sharepoint page listing all service opportunities that have been put into the Leonard Center database. This list is updated as needed in partnership with those who contact the office with information regarding an opportunity.
“A lot of times a community partner will reach out and ask for volunteers and it's one of our primary recruitment methods," Lamb said. “If it's not listed as an ongoing project, [students] could just reach out to us at service@leeu.edu.”
While there is an extensive list provided for students to browse through, the Leonard Center also recognizes there are more opportunities for service in the area.
With the fall season come fall festivals and church events that could also count toward service hours. The Leonard Center asks students to check-in with them first, a pre-approval. This helps to prevent cases in which students serve, but cannot gain credits they need as the semesters tick down. Lamb explained that those approvals typically have a swift turnaround.
“Usually within 24 hours, typically. When that email comes in, we try to get those replied back to rather quickly,” Lamb said.
Lamb hopes students are encouraged to enjoy providing service to others.
“[There are] hundreds of stories of transformation experiences for students who have made an investment in the lives of someone else and it transforms [the person’s] life,” Lamb said. “ I've also seen it, on the flip side, where students have served someone else and those students were transformed.”
Each semester students have an opportunity to engage in service that may lead to transformation.
“Remember this is what we're called to do,” Lamb said.. “We're called to make caring, compassionate contributions to another and services in that line of ‘doing good always’ because it really really does matter.”
Lamb offers encouragement to anyone who might find themselves struggling to figure it all out.
“Let the Leonard Center help you if you're struggling with your completion of service hours…We will try our best to accommodate you and we'll help you,” Lamb said.
The Leonard Center at 1700 Parker Street. Photo credit: Lesley Bryant
For more information regarding service learning visit the Service Learning page on Lee University’s website. If you are ready to submit your hours, students are to use the Individual Service Forms. To access the database of service opportunities, check the brief lists below or check out the Sharepoint List available through your Moodle page.
