Laying the Foundation for Lifelong Learning and Community in the - PDF document

Laying the Foundation for Lifelong Learning and Community in the First Year Program ABILENE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIBLE, MISSIONS, AND MINISTRY The significance of learning communities for first year students is a topic of discussion in colleges and universities worldwide. This session explores the development of a majors’ learning community in the Department of Bible, Missions, and Ministry (DBMM) at Abilene Christian University (ACU), which began in 1999 and has grown stronger through the years. The Learning Community consists of three University Seminar classes connected with two Communication classes, and one large section of a required Bible class. The DBMM focuses on laying a foundation for learning and community that begins in students’ first year and continues throughout their tenure at the university, and into their professional lives. Yearly evaluations in various forms are an integral part of the First Year Program at ACU. Each University Seminar professor is assessed individually and the entire Learning Community is evaluated by all participants. These individual assessments, plus those gathered from all courses taught by a given professor, are reviewed by the department and the Learning Community data is used by the team to determine who will teach and how the course will be shaped. Three key elements of the Learning Community to be examined in this poster session are: 1) The University’s emphasis on service-learning and how it is incorporated into the Learning Community; 2) Cooperation with Residence Life to form a Living/Learning community among our majors; and 3) Departmental efforts to build community which begin in the first year and carry through their professional lives. University Emphasis: Service Learning The mission of Abilene Christian University is to educate students for Christian service and leadership throughout the world . It is no surprise, then, that there is a great emphasis on service-learning throughout the university. Each first year student is placed in a University Seminar course of approximately 20 students. These groups meet to participate in a variety of activities at Welcome Week, prior to the beginning of school. They are lead by a team of upperclassmen and women, one of whom will serve as their peer leader in the U100 course throughout the first semester at ACU. A central feature of these experiences is a service-learning project at the end of the week, in which students canvas neighborhoods throughout Abilene to see how they might serve them. The DBMM Learning Community requires 8-10 hours, including those done at Welcome Week. Professors, peer leaders, and first year students work together to serve the assigned neighborhood or to participate in other service projects supported by the

2 university. At the end of the semester, students in the three DBMM U100 courses are asked to present a Power Point presentation as if they are interviewing for a summer internship in their chosen field. One element of this presentation is what they have done in their service and how it has shaped them. In 2005, during their canvassing, several students in the DBMM Learning Community noticed several children playing in the streets, seemingly unattended. These young men and women met the families of the children and asked permission to come and “hang out” with them periodically. The parents granted permission and soon the ACU students were gathering every week to spend valuable time mentoring, serving, and playing with these children. Several times they borrowed grills from professors and had a neighborhood cookout. The relationships formed in this arena continued throughout the school year. What was intended to be a seed planted for greater service in the future took deep root in these students and grew almost immediately, with great results. Residence Life: Living/Learning Community In 2003 ACU’s Residence Life office implemented Living/Learning communities that connected what students were doing in the classroom with their living arrangements. The majors in DBMM and in the College of Business Administration (COBA) were offered placement together in one of the men’s and one of the women’s dormitories. Several students took advantage of this new development, and feedback at the end of the year provided not only areas for improvement, but the encouragement to continue the arrangement. At the end of the second year, 2004-05, several of the men who had participated in the Living/Learning Community petitioned the Residence Life Office to allow them to remain in this arrangement as sophomores with the freshman students. The petition was granted and the students were placed in a larger dorm with pods of three students. Interestingly, sophomore students who had petitioned to live in this arrangement also accepted the more restrictive freshman curfew in order to remain in the community. These students made a DVD of their experiences, sharing what it was about the community that shaped their lives. The DVD includes reflection on a 30-hour fast done in community; service projects implemented through it; and deepening of relationships throughout the year. Departmental Events: Freshman Blessing The Department of Bible, Missions, and Ministry is very intentional in not only creating community with students in their first year, but in continuing it throughout their tenure there. Majors sections of all required General Education Bible classes offer a means to keep students connected with each other and with the faculty. Two capstone courses, one in their second semester junior year and the other in the first semester of their senior year, bookend a required summer internship in their field of study and allow opportunities for deep mentoring and learning. A Senior Blessing their last semester allows for a time of reflection and community building that is unparalleled in the university.

3 A few years ago, it became obvious that although the faculty was doing a good job of bringing first year students into community, there was often a letdown in the second semester. A luncheon was planned to encourage faculty and students to develop and maintain closer ties and perhaps form mentoring relationships. The endeavor, however, met with only moderate success. It was held on campus in a noisy venue and students were prone to come and go as needed to meet their demanding schedules. This semester, a faculty committee developed a Freshman Blessing that was a half day event off campus and through which students were placed in mentoring groups with faculty members. Although areas of improvement are already recognized, the efforts made hold real promise to keep the community formed in the first semester much more consistent through the second. Perhaps reflection on community in this context will be cause for another poster session in the future. Dr. Jeanene Reese Dr. Jerry Taylor Dr. Rodney Ashlock Associate Professor Assistant Professor Assist. Prof. & Assoc. Chair 237 Biblical Studies Building 237 Biblical Studies Building 237 Biblical Studies Building ACU Box 29436 ACU Box 29454 ACU Box 29418 Abilene, TX 79699 Abilene, TX 79699 Abilene, TX 79699 (325) 674-3794 (325) 674-3760 (325) 674-3787 reesej@bible.acu.edu taylor@bible.acu.edu ashlockr@acu.edu