Civic-Engagement Learning
 Peter Harris, Colby’s Zacamy Professor of English, defines service learning as the combination of rigorous intellectual content with service to society in courses throughout the curriculum. In dozens of courses that incorporate service learning, Colby students engage the world person-to-person. They don’t just learn how to make a difference. They are out in the world making a difference every week. In 2001 Harris’s students’ research revealed that mentoring—“just paying attention”—is “the most effective thing you can do for a kid,” he said. So students launched a mentors program that grew into Colby Cares About Kids, and now more than 200 Colby students are proving that hypothesis every week, meeting one-on-one with children in area schools and youth centers. |
 In 2004-05 the Goldfarb Center listed 18 courses formally involving service learning, while other courses incorporated elements of service as well. Among them, theater and dance students produced the children’s story Millions of Cats for about two dozen Maine elementary schools last winter, presenting dance workshops and performances. And education courses placed Colby students in area classrooms, with special needs children, and in youth and teen centers mentoring adolescent girls. |
|
