Giving and Receiving: Service Learning in a 100-Level Business Communications Class

Transcription

1 Melinda L. Costello Mary Beth Dineen Siena College

2 Melinda L. Costello Mary Beth Dineen ABSTRACT This paper describes a service-learning project completed by students in a 100-level organizational communications class at Siena College a small Catholic liberal arts college, in upstate New York. Students worked closely with a non-profit organization which provides support for people who need assistance being placed in homeless shelters. The students revised four communications used by the organization and reported that the project gave them the opportunity to use their new skills to help others and make their learning real. An unintended consequence of the project was the sense of community it created in the classroom. This application shows that a service-learning project does not have to be elaborate to have a positive impact on a class.

3 INTRODUCTION In the fall 2009 semester, a 100-level Organizational and Business Communications class at Siena College partnered with Homeless and Travelers Aid Society (HATAS) in Albany, New York, in a service-learning project. Service learning requires students to apply course concepts to real-life situation in an effort to benefit students and recipients of the service equally [5]. Research has shown that service-learning projects positively influence students learning, personal, and social outcomes [1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7]. As a Catholic and Franciscan college, Siena promotes service-learning projects in classes and provides a structure to encourage and support such projects. For this class the instructor needed to find an organization that relied on a selection of written messages to communicate with stakeholders. In addition, a representative of the organization would need to be available to visit the class once during the semester to respond to questions about the communications. The students would review, revise, and, hopefully, improve the written communications for the community organization. The HATAS organization was identified with the help of the Siena Vista volunteers that help faculty locate appropriate community organizations for class service-learning projects. HATAS provides a support system for people who need assistance being placed in homeless shelters. Established in 1924, HATAS served an estimated 5,000 people in the Capital District in They provide services dealing with homelessness intervention, mental-health housing, and domestic violence 24-hours a day. HATAS relied upon a variety of letters to communicate with their donors and to solicit participation in fundraising efforts. PROJECT DESCRIPTION There were 20 students in the organizational communications class that included the service-learning project; the class met for two 80-minute classes each week. As a 100-level class, the students were primarily freshman. It was important that the selected messages would allow a group of students an opportunity to improve the messages in the process of developing their writing skills. The instructor traveled to the HATAS office (20 minutes from campus) to meet with a student intern who was helping HATAS with its marketing efforts. They discussed the types of communications that would be appropriate for the class project selecting four written messages (two thank-you notes and two letters seeking participation in fundraising activities) which would give students an opportunity to apply the following course learning goals: 1. Understand selected written- and oral-communication concepts and skills. 2. Write an effective message. 3. Explain why it is necessary to adapt to cultural, national, organizational, and personal differences in effective business communication. Early in the semester the class was given the packet of communications materials used by HATAS. The HATAS representative spent an hour with the class, and spoke about the organization s mission and the purpose for each communication. Prior to the visit, students had prepared questions based on what they had learned about determining the purpose of a communication and analyzing the audience. They worked in groups of three to prepare

4 questions and returned to these same groups when working on the HATAS communications throughout the semester. Students revised each letter individually as part of a series of homework assignments as they related to chapters in the textbook. The thank-you letters were revised as an assignment related to the chapter on goodwill communications, and the fundraising letters were revised as an assignment related to the chapter on persuasive communications. Students reviewed their peers letters in class, and they revised the assignment based on the feedback they received. The letters were graded by the instructor and returned to the students. Students compared their graded letters during class, and selected the best components of each letter. The instructor pointed out that the letters with the lower grades still included some strong components that should be considered for the final version. The instructor created an electronic compilation of the selected components, and one class member cut and pasted the projected image to create the final version of the letter. Another class member, whose letter had been voted as having the best format, volunteered to put the letter into the selected format. She sent the final version of the letter to the instructor and the other class members. The same process was followed for all letters. When the letters were completed, the students worked together in class to compose an to HATAS that summarized their revisions, presented the final versions of each document, and thanked the organization. The class received an from the HATAS representative thanking them for the work they had done and telling them that the revisions would be considered by HATAS. OUTCOMES The final exam asked students to prepare a brief report on the HATAS project that summarized what they learned and how the project could have been improved. As expected, the project enhanced students learning of organizational communications and gave more meaning to the skills they learned. The students anticipated the audience s reaction, worked with a real organization, and understood its mission. They put into practice what they read in the textbook about composing communications. They made an extra effort to assemble our best work because their revisions would be used by HATAS. They knew they were helping HATAS raise more money, appropriately thank their donors, and more effectively communicate with the people they serve. As illustrated in the following comments taken from their final exams, students were glad to have contributed to a worthy cause: It made me feel good to help out a good cause such as HATAS. Their letters needed help, and it made me feel good knowing that I made a difference. I worked hard on this project. I understood that our work may be used by HATAS and may affect the lives of many homeless and underprivileged people in Albany. My class enjoyed working on the project that benefited so many struggling families in the Capitol Region. An unintended result of the project, according to the students, was that it created a sense of community in the class. Students were willing to give and receive honest feedback from everyone in the class, and at the end of the semester they knew every student s name. The most touching comments about the experience were not just related to helping HATAS but referred to the camaraderie they felt with their classmates as a result of the experience.

5 LESSONS LEARNED The instructor will include a similar project in future communications classes; however, she will revise the project based on students comments. The students were clear that they wanted to have more direct contact with HATAS throughout the project. For instance, they wanted to travel to the HATAS offices. Although they understood that HATAS did not manage a homeless shelter, students wanted to meet the HATAS staff and volunteers and see where people in need interacted with the HATAS organization. They also wanted to meet with the HATAS representative to present their revised letters in person (which would give them an opportunity to practice another of the class learning outcomes giving oral presentations) and hear the representative s response. A few students wrote that they would have liked to attend one of the fundraisers which they wrote about in the letters. They also felt the project dragged on too long. Once they had gone through the process with one fundraising letter, they felt the process could have been shortened (not as many revision cycles) for the second fundraising letter. The instructor agreed with this criticism. In the future, when the students have completed the first letter following the process described above, the instructor will send the students the electronic compilation of the best components and ask the individuals to compose the final version. Class members can then select the best final version that will go to the client without the somewhat tedious process of composing the letter in front of the class as a whole. Overall, the instructor learned that a service-learning project can be seamlessly incorporated in a class if it clearly relates to the course content and learning goals. Throughout the communications class, HATAS served as an illustration of many of the concepts that were discussed in the text. It was helpful to have an example to refer to with which all students were familiar. The experience described in this paper shows that a service-learning project does not have to be elaborate to have a positive impact on student learning and a positive impact on the class as a learning community. REFERENCES 1 Eyler, J. S. & Giles, D. E. (1999). Where s the Learning in Service Learning? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2 Gallini, S. M. & Moely, B. E. (2003). Service learning and engagement, academic challenge, and retention. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning. 10 (1): Kronick, R. (2007). Service learning and the university student. College Student Journal, 41, Reinke, S. J. (2003). Making a difference: Does service-learning promote civic engagement in MPA students? Journal of Public Affairs Education. 9(2): Sigmon, R. L. & Pelletier, S. G. (1996). Journey to Service-Learning: Experiences from Independent Liberal Arts Colleges and Universities. (Eds). Washington, DC: Council of Independent Colleges. 6 Simons, L. & Cleary, B. (2006). The influence of service learning on students personal and social development. College Teaching, 54, Vogelgesang, L. J. & Astin, A. W. (2000). Comparing the effects of community service and service learning. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning. 7: