LODI & RUTHERFORD, NJ—Felician College is looking to partner with organizations in and around Bergen County as it prepares to integrate service learning into its core curriculum for the Fall of 2001.

“Community-based learning has immense benefits to both the student and the organization involved,” said Sister Patricia Morris, Vice President for Academic Affairs. “It establishes a reciprocal experience whereby organizations can share their expertise and students can help on projects where help is needed. Dr. Donna Barron, who oversees those community-based initiatives which are undertaken by the Teacher Education Division, said the success of such a relationship has been demonstrated in a handful of existing partnerships between the college and organizations in the community.

One such example, offered through the college’s special education program, is “Exceptionalities in the Home, School and Community” where students assist parents of handicapped children, help them in finding services for their children, and participate in parent support groups. Students also offer tutoring services to sixth, seventh and eighth graders once a week at the Maria Varisco Charter School in Newark. For the past two years, students and faculty in the division of Teacher Education have completed a service learning project in two Catholic schools on the Island of St. Croix. Paying their own way, faculty provided faculty development workshops while students worked in classrooms assisting teachers and children. They also assisted in renovation projects and worked in shelters and soup kitchens.

Service learning has also been a key component of the college’s honors program for the past ten years. According to Dr. Maria Vecchio, Director of the Honors Program, honor students are required to volunteer for projects in the community and then relate their experiences to coursework. Through this program, students have volunteered as tutors in the college’s writing labs and neighborhood schools, and they have worked in local animal shelters, hospitals and community centers.

“The service component has always been a part of Felician College’s mission. By incorporating it into the core curriculum, every student will now have the opportunity to benefit from it,” noted Barron. “Community-based learning is a natural extension to the education that happens in the classroom. No traditional classroom setting can compare to the real-world learning that takes place when students immerse themselves in an organization’s culture and become a part of furthering its mission, whether that mission be to provide a service, sell a product, or care for those in need,” she explained.

For information on how your organization or business can partner with Felician College and benefit from service learning, please call 201-559-6105. Partnerships with all divisions of Arts and Sciences, Teacher Education and Health Sciences will be welcomed.

Felician College is a coeducational, liberal arts, Catholic college, founded in the Franciscan tradition by the Felician Sisters in 1942. Located on two campuses in Lodi and Rutherford, NJ, Felician College enrolls 1400 students in 40 undergraduate and graduate programs in the arts and sciences, health sciences, and teacher education.