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Show THE FORUM - MARCH 5 21,2012 I T ervice options tor busy students Laine Krassner Staff Reporter j ": Y t ( Jj ; r j -- J 1 :u Jr X A. f tT A Students working in the campus greenhouse. E-Portf- olio Brendan Wasser options easy, but they can also be picked to suit ones interests. Jerika Michel, a senior psychology major, thinks its a great idea to pick a project or organization that seems interesting. You can use service to better understand the career you might want to get into, says Michel. For example, many nursing students like to volunteer at hospitals. Those studying environmental science might like working in a garden or for- a local sustainability organization. Some students come up with projects they would like to start in the community and can apply for grants to make it happen. Westminsters Center for I ' eeetaX Have you wanted to get involved with community service but dont have any time? There are plenty of options for people with busy schedules. Civic Engagement makes finding an organization or project to get involved with easy. Director of the Center for Civic Engagement Julie Tille welcomes students to come see her. We exist to be a resource for students, said Tille. Tille also points out that it doesnt matter why you want to get involved. She says plenty of students come in to do mandatory community service hours, as well as those who just want to help out. Kayla Whidden, a senior accounting major, is involved with the Center for Civic Engagement. She thinks service is a good way to get out and meet people while helping the community. There are easy things to do that have a big impact, says Whidden. Not only are many service - S.L.I.C.E. is an club that helps support on-camp- us students in their community service endeavors. S.L.I.C.E., which stands for Student Leaders in Civic Engagement, offers applicants up to 500 dollars in budget money. See SERVICE on Page 15 unites students with learning goals Staff Reporter Its common for students to stress when it comes to building a portfolio during their senior year of college, often losing assignments and projects in a mess of computer files and unorganized notebooks. The presidents new program aims to solve that very problem with a bit of an academic twist. Beginning with the class of 2015, all incoming Westminster students will create an to demonstrate maslearning tery of college-wid- e goals throughout their college experience. President Michael Bassis said, What you do is select something you have done that reflects your achievement of a certain learning goal, we call them artifacts, and then you write a reflection on that and you talk about the connection between this artifact and the learning goal to explain why achieved you think you have your goal. To show his enthusiasm and support for the new program, President Bassis has decided to create his own us- ing the software Foliotek. As the first school to inteinto its grate the learning goals, Westminster is setting the trend among small colleges. For those who dont know, the following are Westminsters current college-wid- e learning goals: Critical, analytical and integrative thinking; Creative and reflective capacities; Leadership, collaboration, and teamwork; Writing, and other communication skills and Global consciousness, social responsibility and ethical awareness. Education professor Peter Ingle said, Weve had these college-wid- e learning goals for 8 or 9 years and we never really had a good way to tell whether the students were able to meet them. Ninety percent of the students didnt know that they were. The whole idea began with the need for students, by the end of their career at Westminster, to have mastered specific learning goals. Not just for the college, but for each individual program. Ingle said, We needed a way to help students think about critical thinking not just in a class but across the whole of college experience. Many programs at Westminster have already implemented the to help skills certain perfect important to their programs goals. Every student in the Education program has to build one and many other programs such as English, Nursing and Aviaas a tion use the senior capstone project. Unlike a portfolio built to demonstrate your best work, the aims to demonstrate work that shows evidence of college-wid- e learning goals. Instead of just said, Ingle saying, heres my stuff its, heres my best stuff that shows Im a critical thinker. The student will learn about their skills through the reflection used to examine each piece. Over time students will President Bassis implemented the for the class of 2015. figure out which ones to work on and which ones to highlight. The incoming freshmen last fall learned about the at orientation. to freshman According Jonathon Chandler, They are cool if you are new at using programs, but if you know your stuff you can make something a whole lot more cool and in- Portfolio will be a quick and easy way to compile my academic accomplishments into a visually appealing and sharable novative. Foliotek is designed to be user friendly to accommodate all skill sets and The easy-to-u- se majors. Chandler also said, My E- - masterpiece! Despite the hint of sarcasm, Chandler said he did see merit in the system and is optimistic for how it will help him throughout his college career. As President Bassis last change to the school, he hopes as a to leave the legacy of sorts to show his commitment to the learning goals of the school and the mastery of such goals by the students. |