How to create intentional and transformative service learning projects

I’ve witnessed and participated in a fair amount of service projects, volunteering, and fundraising events. I wrote about one such experience for The Guardian and boy oh boy, did it get a lot of reactions.

The truth hurts, in my humble opinion.

That was years ago. Since then, I’ve worked in the education field in a variety of roles, and sadly, brace yourselves for another bitter dose of truth:

Student service projects tend to be superficial.

I’ve seen stressed-out students grudgingly selling store-bought cookies, tickets for a benefit dinner, or hunting for participants for a charity tournament. All proceeds of which go to ‘insert human disaster of your choice here.’ If these events happen to be well attended (which is the exception) the worthy cause is drowned out by the pomp and circumstance.

Before I get accused of overgeneralizing; This is not the case in all schools and the blame doesn’t fall squarely on teachers (and certainly not the students!).

It’s hard work building a robust curriculum that cultivates a spirit of life-long civic engagement, empathy, and critical reflection in students. Teachers face competing (and admittedly less lofty) concerns such as meeting standards and preparing students for exams. Students have competing anxieties like passing those exams or getting into their dream college.

So if a student has to go through the motions and hold a bake sale to get her last remaining credits for her IB diploma or start a club to spruce up her resume, I can’t hate her for it.

Is there any hope? Of course, there is. Here are three tips that teachers can implement to get students to think intentionally about service projects to make it a transformative experience.

Tip 1: Start locally

I once volunteered to be a judge that reviewed student service projects. I only remember one. He was a shy yet determined 15-year-old who started a cleanup project in his neighborhood park. He sparked a movement among his peers and made it cool to spend hours after school collecting trash. The park, the only green space in his poverty-stricken city, flourished.

A simple idea with a clear, direct impact on his community.

Does that mean students should ignore the global tragedies that seemingly increase with each passing year? Definitely not. Service learning is about connecting the local to the global. It’s about understanding that most of the world’s socio-economic-environmental challenges are microcosms of what is happening in our own backyards.

So the next time a student club wants to host a basketball tournament for Syrian refugees, how about brainstorming ideas on engaging with the refugee community in their city?

Tip 2: Practice what you preach

Ever been to one of those benefit dinners raising funds for famine victims and half the food goes to waste? Oh, the painful irony!

It’s extremely important that students exemplify the core values of service in all aspects of planning and executing projects and events. Values such as empathy, compassion, and sustainability should be internalized as part of a student’s identity. It should be who they are and not only what they do.

Practicing what you preach means that the values of service guide student action and behavior at home and in school. It means that students are conscientious about how they interact with those they serve.

Tip 3: Understand the needs of those you serve

I remember watching a video of a man who had been living on the streets for a few years. He had several water bottles given to him by people who were trying to help. But what the man needed was affordable housing. He didn’t want to see another water bottle again.

I’ve seen a fair share of student-run food/toy/hygiene item drives which are all well-intentioned but perhaps not as impactful as it could be. Teachers should guide students in conducting thorough needs assessments of the target community and avoid assumption making.

Sometimes the results of a needs assessment are far beyond what students can realistically do and doing something to help is better than taking no action.

But even in such cases, teachers can have students explore underlying institutional and structural causes of the problem and creatively incorporate that into their service projects. For example, students could run a clothing drive for the homeless and an awareness campaign on affordable housing to educate their peers.

Students are capable of doing more

We can’t get away from the fact that many students are motivated to engage in service projects for academic or professional reasons. But that shouldn’t prevent educators from guiding students to have transformative experiences when serving the community. These tips are just a few ways to get students to think deeper, act intentionally, and create a more tangible impact.