I've discovered that service learning is a win-win situation for both college students and community nonprofit agencies. At the semester's end, the students have a writing portfolio or PR plan that they can show to future employers, and the community agencies receive brochures, web sites, news releases, or other PR writing materials. I began to incorporate service learning into my public relations courses at the University at Buffalo, and I have continued that more formally at Buffalo State, working with our Volunteer and Service-Learning Center (VSLC).
In May 2006, I received a service learning faculty fellowship from VSLC to convert my COM 308 Public Relations Writing class to a service learning format; students in my fall 2006 and spring 2007 COM 308 classes wrote news releases and other materials for a nonprofit agency in Buffalo.
Fall 2006 nonprofit clients included Journey's End Refugee Services, Jericho Road Ministries, the National Statler Center, the Olmsted Center for the Visually Impaired, West Side Neighborhood Housing Services, Baker Victory Services, the Volunteer and Service-Learning Center, and ReStore Buffalo. Spring 2007 nonprofit clients included the Morlock Foundation, Jericho Road Ministries, the American Red Cross (Greater Buffalo Chapter), First Hand Learning, Concerned Ecumenical Ministries, the Western New York Service-Learning Coalition, the Center for Sustainable Communities and Civic Engagement, and the Buffalo Urban League.
My spring 2007 graduate students in COM 630 Public Relations Management also were engaged in service learning; working in teams, they prepared a public relations plan for a nonprofit client as their final project. Participating nonprofit organizations included Journey's End Refugee Services, the American Red Cross (Greater Buffalo Chapter), the Western New York Service-Learning Coalition, Studio Arena, and St. John's Lutheran Church.
In May 2007, I received a second service learning faculty fellowship - this one from the Western New York Service-Learning Coalition - to revise my fall 2007 COM 301 Public Relations and Advertising course to include a service learning component.