In fall of 2020, 95 students are participating in the Service Learning program offered through our faculties in Career and Experiential Learning, a department within Student Affairs and Services. With 15 Community Partners offering virtual placements for students, students will apply what they learn in the classroom to support local organizations.
Virtual placements and projects this term included:
Mapping different species of eelgrass photographed throughout Nova Scotia.
Collecting cherished watermark stories from Maritimers about their favourite waterfront memories.
Helping a local organization to create new business plans and a rebrand strategy.
Creating an App to support clients at a local non-profit organization.
Creating virtual events for long term care facilities, such as fundraising events, virtual trivia games and auctions.
Mentoring and supporting young students at a virtual capacity through tutoring and reading support.
Providing social media and website support to organizations.
Service learning planning is underway for winter 2021, and there is still time to incorporate service learning into your course. Whether a course is taught online, or using a blended model, service learning can help apply course content to community-based learning.
Faculty interested in learning more about service learning for winter 2021 can email service.learning@smu.ca to sign-up for access to a Service Learning Brightspace course. This resource covers everything from incorporating service-learning into your course to providing peer-reviewed research about service-learning.