The topic of service-learning received some recognition in the past month from The Chronicle of Higher Education. In some ways, the projects mentioned couldn’t be more different. One is an example of service-learning in an extreme urban setting while the other is an extreme rural example. However, both are significant in that they have extraordinarily profound and long-lasting impacts on their communities and on the students participating. Check out the links below!
Service-Learning in Urban Forestry and GIS
This story has a quick mention of the service-learning component of the MillionTreesNYC program. This program is working with University of Vermont GIS students to help the city meet its environmental goals by extensive, targeted tree-planting. Here’s the blurb: http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i13/13a00604.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en. Here’s more about the program: http://www.milliontreesnyc.org/.
Service-Learning in Rural Foodways and Sustainable Agriculture
This opinion piece by Howard Sacks focuses on his involvement in a powerful service-learning program that has helped create a sustainable local food market (and therefore sustainable agriculture) in the community of Kenyon College, a private, liberal arts college in rural Ohio. Check it out here: http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=bhyqz17mtflyryq0vydqdtcdtw85wmx6. And take a look at the program web site here: http://rurallife.kenyon.edu/FFT/index.html.