One of the latest surges on college campuses is a re-emphasis on public service as the core of students’ curricula.
While more college students than ever are participating in community service work, voter participation is at an all-time low, according to a New York Times article. This statistic has concerned the heads of educational institutions, causing them to develop curricula encouraging students to become more involved in the community.
GW human services, a major within the sociology department, is the only program at GW in which all core courses have service requirements, said Honey Nashman, the director of the human services department.
There are 55 students currently enrolled as human service majors and minors.
Senior Liz Roberto declared a human service major because she said she felt the classes and the focus of the major were in tune with the non-profit work she plans to do after graduation.
When human service majors graduate, they have completed more than 300 hours of community service outside the classroom, Roberto said. Within the classroom, students discuss issues such as homelessness, poverty and AIDS, said Nashman, who teaches one of the human services courses.
We talk about the whole gamut of human services, she said.
Nashman said the program’s courses are academically rigorous, even though there is an emphasis on outside experiences. Within the classes, there are still weekly assignments, readings and term papers.
Not only are students learning from the University inside the classroom but from the community while giving back to them as well, Nashman said.
The increase in awareness of the need for community service has encouraged many colleges and universities to offer classes that combine community service and classes.
It’s one thing to sit in a classroom and learn about welfare, but it’s more beneficial to take intakes in a welfare agency, where they are dealing with the issues every day, Roberto said.
Organizations such as Campus Compact partner with colleges to meet the demand of community service initiatives nationwide. GW, whose program is 25 years old, is not one of the 670 colleges and universities connected to Campus Compact.
Pierre Omidyar recently donated $10 million dollars to Tufts University, his alma mater, to initiate the University College of Citizenship and Public Service.
Omidyar said it is important that students are active in their communities.
It’s not something you put on your resum?, he said at last week’s Leadership Through Active Citizenship, a political science seminar, in The Times. It’s not something you do each morning before you go to work. It’s something you should think about throughout every day.
Omidyar is teaching one of the inaugural classes at Tufts.
It is not enough to provide a great education, said Judith Rodin, president of the University of Pennsylvania, at a guest lecture at Yale University, in The Times article. It is not enough to produce brilliant, imaginative doctors, lawyers, scholars and scientists if we do not also engage them in the larger issues of our day.
GW’s human services program has been available to GW students for 25 years. Students majoring in human service go into a variety of fields after they graduate; and many become teachers and social workers, or attend medical school, Nashman said.
