Service learning: building campus-community ties

Blogging and bonding with little kids were a big part of a group of SFU health sciences undergrads' lives during the 2010 fall semester.
The SFU students experienced a blend of academic and real world learning in "Community and Health Service", a three-hour, once a week course - the first of its kind at SFU - which was held alternately at SFU's Blusson Hall on Burnaby Mountain and at Central Community Elementary School in Port Coquitlam.
In addition to attending lectures about community health promotion, the SFU students put in a minimum four hours weekly of volunteered service work that applied their academic learning at the elementary school. They also had to provide their classmates with reflections about their development of projects that applied their academic learning in a community setting.
Central school principal Nadine Tambellini notes that the students spent far more time on their volunteered service work than required. She adds: "Our kids love the university students and, because of their connections with their SFU friends, many of our kids have experienced successes in their school lives and healthy habits that could have taken longer to achieve."