A Service-Learning Coordinator’s Conundrum: so many needs, and so little time
USU faculty member Scot Allgood directs incoming Connections students in a service-learning project at Hyrum State Park. Utah State University took service-learning to a new level in developing an academic Service-Learning Scholars program in 2004 and hiring a faculty Service-Learning Coordinator in 2005 (me). As with other campuses, the development of an official service-learning program did not “invent” community-based teaching and research at USU. A significant number of our faculty already had been incorporating some form of service-learning in their courses, integrating course content with community action and reflection. USU students on a spring service trip preparing a pond for taro planting in Hawaii. As I matured as a university professor, I shifted over time to a problem-based learning pedagogy, and was introduced to a refined version at a campus workshop on “service-learning” sponsored by a coalition of students, faculty, and administrators. I ...