You learn something new every day. In the case of Campbell's service learning staff, we learned a lot of new things yesterday.
Three professors and I attended the annual PACE (Pathways to Achieving Civic Engagement) Conference at Elon University. It's an opportunity for service learning professionals at NC Campus Compact member schools and their VISTAS to come together and share ideas about service learning. Think of it as a one-day think tank about service learning in higher education.
Leaders in higher education and service learning veterans shared remarkable words on the future of higher eduation and how vital service is to its survival. We heard a lot of anecdotes, statistics, and goals, but what I took away from the day was this: each student at each school is a piece of the pie. Pie is just a metaphor because I think everyone likes pie, but what I really mean is that each student at each school has a part to play in making the world a better place. I don't mean a fuzzy wuzzy "better place" where everyone hugs everyone for no reason and we all color before going to work in the morning. I mean a "better place" that accomplishes social justice, feeds all of its kids every day before school, and has recycling bins at each restaurant.
We learned about service efforts (service learning and community service) from different independent universities, public universities, and community colleges. Some concepts are working for them that we might practice, just as we're doing a few things they might benefit from. Everything in history started with someone testing out an idea.
I help myself understand concepts with pictures, so during one of the speeches I decided that the results of service function as the ripples in a pond. An act of service lives far beyond the time we spend serving, its legacy working outwards away from the person who first performed the act of service. If you've seen the tear jerker "Pay It Forward," you know what I'm talking about.
For someone with a lot of compassion or zeal to help others, wondering where to start can be daunting. Natural volunteers might want to fix everything with their efforts but realistically can only help one breath at a time. So, where does one start? Where you're most needed. Serving food at a shelter or reading to at-risk third graders isn't going to alleviate world poverty or put a plug in the O-zone between now and lunch time tomorrow, but those acts of service will start a powerful ripple effect that will pulsate through you and those who see and experience your service. Maybe some day your actions will lead to solving global issues. You have to start somewhere.
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| What act of service will start your ripple effect? |
RFK Sayeth:
ReplyDelete"Give me a place to stand," said Archimedes, "and I will move the world." These men moved the world, and so can we all. Few will have the greatness to bend history, but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and then the total -- all of these acts -- will be written in the history of this generation.
Thousands of Peace Corps volunteers are making a difference in the isolated villages and the city slums of dozens of countries. Thousands of unknown men and women in Europe resisted the occupation of the Nazis and many died, but all added to the ultimate strength and freedom of their countries. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage such as these that the belief that human history is thus shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
-- Day of Affirmation Address
Cape Town, South Africa
1966