The Service-Learner
The Voice of Students, Faculty and Community
Issue VI, Volume II
Fall 2015
Annual Partnership Breakfast
Academic Service-Learning awarded
its first Community Partnership Award
to Saratoga Family Inn at the annual
Academic Service-Learning
Partnership Breakfast on June 3,
2015. The OASL recognized
Saratoga Family Inn for seven
consecutive years of partnership in
service-learning. Since 2008, faculty
from eight different academic
departments have collaborated with
Saratoga on projects for Saratoga’s
parents, children and staff.
College President Dr. Diane B. Call
delivered keynote remarks and Vice
President Rosemary Zins welcomed
attendees and thanked the attending
faculty, partners and QCC staff for
their continuing interest in and
L to R: Dr. Diane B. Call, QCC President; Dr. Sharon Ellerton, Department of Biological Sciences
support for service-learning at QCC.
and Geology and OASL Faculty Liaison, presenting Community Partnership Award to Tinnycua
Students are the heart of serviceWilliams, Director of Programs, Homes for the Homeless, which serves homeless families
through its American Family Inns; Shalina Akoko, formerly Education Programs Coordinator,
learning, as they continually
Saratoga Family Inn; Rosemary Zins, QCC Vice President for Institutional Advancement
demonstrate, through writing and
action, how they are transformed by
service-learning. This year, Student Leadership Awards were awarded to four students nominated by faculty in the
Departments of Academic Literacy and Business: Xuewen Fang, nominated by Prof. David Rothman; Jessica
Ferrara, nominated by Prof. Christine Mooney; Seth Johnson, nominated by Prof. Sebastian Murolo; and Edgar
Millan, nominated by Prof. Sebastian Murolo.
Recap of Spring 2015 Semester
Spring 2015 was another successful semester for Academic Service-Learning.
We welcomed nine new faculty as well as eight new community partners (see
box to the right). As our network continues to grow, we look forward to sustained
relationships with both faculty and community partners.
Participation in and results of the OASL’s end-of-semester survey remain
strong. As Table 1 shows, of CTE students enrolled in Fall 2014, those who had
a service-learning experience had a half-year persistence rate of 84.4%, 11.9
percentage points higher than those who did not participate in service-learning
(72.5%). Similarly, of non-CTE students enrolled in Fall 2014, those who
participated in service-learning had a half-year persistence rate of 81.8%, 16.9
percentage points higher than those who did not participate in service-learning
(64.9%). Similar positive results were obtained for students who were surveyed
in Spring 2015. (Continued on p. 2)
NEW FACULTY Sp ‘15:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Rezan Akpinar (Massage Therapy)
Kathleen Alves (English)
Derek Bruzewicz (Chemistry)
Joanne Chang (Music)
Eugene Desepoli (Massage Therapy)
Steven Kulawy (Biology)
Lin Lu (Engineering Technology)
Eladia Raya (Foreign Languages) Weier Ye (Academic Literacy)
NEW COMMUNITY PARTNERS Sp ‘15:
•
•
•
•
•
North Shore–LIJ Health System
St. Agnes High School
Entrepreneur Space
Grameen VidaSana
Zone 126
PAGE 2
VOLUME VI, ISSUE II
In Spring 2015, 75% of students surveyed reported positive gains in skills such as
completing projects on time, comparing problem solving approaches, communicating
with people from different backgrounds, respecting the opinions of others who
disagreed with them, and understanding values of people different from them.
Spring ’15 Recap (Cont’d)
The OASL is continually refining student reflection activities, to help students think more critically about the learning that
occurs during their participation in academic service-learning, i.e. how their project relates to their course content,
perspectives they have gained concerning their ability to make a difference to the community partner and in community,
as well as gains in workplace skills. In Spring 2015, the OASL refined the pre-project and post-project reflection prompts
for students and revised the scoring rubric for the post-project reflections. While the post-project reflection prompts use
generalized wording, faculty were encouraged to tailor the wording to refer to their specific issue, partner and project.
The OASL also refined delivery of student orientations to emphasize the community issue that would be addressed by
the project.
Our partner High Schools continue to value the experiences available to their students through service-learning at
QCC. During Spring 2015:
•
ESL students from Bayside High School worked with Prof. Ye’s Advanced ESL Composition students on
writing essays in the style required on the CATW exam
•
Two groups of students visited from BTECH High School—one group visited Prof. Schwartz’s ComputerAided Analysis for Electrical Engineers students to learn about solving engineering problems using
software called MATLAB, and the other group discussed design and delivery of Powerpoint presentations
with Prof. Kolios’s Microcomputer Applications students
•
Prof. Manzo’s Accounting I and Accounting II students visited BTECH and delivered workshops on
financial literacy, personal budgeting and investing
•
Students from World Journalism Preparatory School (WJPS) visited the QCC Foreign Language Lab
and worked with Prof. Raya’s Elementary Spanish II students on ordering a meal in Spanish
•
Prof. Hemraj-Benny brought chemistry students from several classes to WJPS where they led 10th grade
chemistry students in a study of the gas laws using marshmallows, heat and pressure
•
Girls from St. Agnes High School built and tested robots with students in Prof. Namdar’s Electrical
Control Systems class
Finally, the OASL supported faculty participation on June 18, 2015 in the Academic Service-Learning Institute,
sponsored by New York Campus Compact and St. John’s University and held on the St. John’s University
campus.
Table 1
Comparison of Spring 2015 Enrollment Outcomes between Fall 2014 Students with and without Service-Learning Experiences
AND Comparison of Preliminary Fall 2015 Enrollment Outcomes between Spring 2015 Students with and without ServiceLearning Experiences
Fall
Persisted in
Graduated in Transfered within Spring Persisted in
Graduated in
‘14
Spring ’15*
Spring ’15†
CUNY Spg. ’15
’15
Fall ’15*
Spring ’15†
N
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
N
%
N
%
Service-Learning
CTE
Non-CTE
No Service-Learning
CTE
Non-CTE
358
412
302
337
84.4%
81.8%
69
37
19.3%
9.0%
11
23
3.1%
5.6%
6,196
9,329
4,491
6,054
72.5%
64.9%
560
578
9.0%
6.2%
303
483
4.9%
5.2%
* = persistence at QCC
✝= Graduated from QCC
276
226
206
170
74.6%
75.2%
44
24
15.9%
10.6%
6,032 4,105
8,933 5,039
68.1%
54.6%
558
575
9.3%
6.4%
CTE = Career and Technical Education
VOLUME VI, ISSUE II
PAGE 3
Writers Helping Writers in Community
BY PROF. WEIER YE, DEPARTMENT OF ACADEMIC LITERACY
Students in Dr.
Weier Ye’s
the essays, and the
Advanced
partners shared ideas
Composition for
and strategies for
ESL Students
writing a passing
course partnered
essay. Together they
with Ms. Dayana
were able to assess
Jedretic’s ESL
the elements of a
students at
passing essay as well
Bayside High
as a failing one.
School to compose
The Bayside students
an analytical
expressed gratitude
reading response
for the help they
essay. This skill is
received from their
important to
QCC partners. The
success on the
QCC students had a
CUNY Assessment
very positive
Test in Writing
experience as well.
(CATW). The QCC
Some students
students tutored
QCC AND BAYSIDE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
explained how the
the high school
pressure of the task
students using methods they
motivated them to perform
were learning in class: start
their best. In fact, 58% of the class passed the
with a strong summary, move to a significant idea,
challenging CATW exam, and all the remainder
explain its significance, and end with a conclusion.
The Bayside and QCC students met and worked
together twice at QCC. In preparation for their first
meeting, both classes read the article “Hang it Up”
by Jessica Scaccia, and each Bayside student
prepared a summary paragraph of the piece. The
aim was to compose a strong summary that
conveyed the author’s main point and major
supporting details, demonstrating how well the
writer understood and organized the author’s key
ideas using appropriate transitions.
The Bayside students brought their summaries to
the first meeting. QCC and Bayside students
collaborated on the summary paragraphs,
discussing paraphrasing and summarizing skills in what was a successful
collaboration. Before they left the campus, the
Bayside students met with Dr. Jennifer Maloy from
the Department of Academic Literacy, who
discussed college admissions and provided tips for
approaching the CATW exam.
In preparation for their second meeting, the
Bayside students wrote analytical reading-response
essays in response to a real test passage. When they met, the QCC students analyzed and edited “58% of the class passed the
challenging CATW exam,
and all the remainder were
within a few percentage
points of passing. For the
ESL population, this is an
unusual achievement.”
were within a few percentage points of passing. For
the ESL population, this is an unusual achievement.
The students demonstrated their commitment to
participate actively in this “Writers Helping Writers
in Community” project. The results clearly indicate
that academic service-learning is a promising
pedagogical approach. Congratulations to all!
PAGE 4
VOLUME VI, ISSUE II
My Academic Service-Learning Experience
BY FRANCESCA CHARLOTTE PLOWRIGHT
In Spring 2015, when I walked in for an interview at
the Office of Academic Service-Learning, I thought it
would be a regular administrative job that required
me to file some paper work, organize the office—
simple things that a normal college assistant does.
lifted off my shoulders. This journey was going to be
new for us all. The community-based organization we
worked with was "Hour Children"; their mission is “to
help incarcerated and formerly-incarcerated women
and their children successfully rejoin the community,
reunify with their families, and build healthy,
independent and secure lives.” As part of their
mission, Hour Children operates three thrift shops in
order “to provide employment and training for Hour
Children program participants.” The class project was
to update Hour Children’s website and social media
sources such as Facebook, create ads on Amazon for
the vintage pieces donated to the thrift stores, and
create company events to showcase the amazing work
that Hour Children does.
“This experience helped me to
realize the power of communication
skills, team work and time
management skills - all of which I
can apply in the future.”
FRANCESCA PLOWRIGHT, FAR RIGHT, WITH
STUDENTS OUTSIDE ONE OF
HOUR CHILDREN’S THRIFT SHOPS
Little did I know how far from the truth I was. I
worked with Professor Mooney in Elements of
Marketing class here at Queensborough Community
College. At first I was extremely nervous, due to the
simple fact that I was currently taking marketing that
same semester with another professor. I didn’t feel
knowledgeable enough to help.
Once I stepped inside the classroom and met with
Professor Mooney and the students that I would be
working with through the semester, a weight was
After the warm introduction the class received from
the Hour Children staff, the next step was to
coordinate a visit to one of the three thrift store sites
in Astoria. Professor Mooney allowed me to be the
point person for student attendance as well as the
liaison between the students, the Office of Academic
Service-Learning and Hour Children. All this experience working with students in a college
setting while simultaneously working with an amazing
not-for-profit organization helped me to realize the
power of communication skills, team work and time
management skills - all of which I can apply in any
field I choose to go into in the future.
QCC Office of Academic Service-Learning
222-05 56th Avenue, Humanities Building, Room 246, Bayside, NY 11364
718.281.5612 - servicelearning@qcc.cuny.edu - www.qcc.cuny.edu/servicelearning
Support for the development and production of this material was provided by a grant under the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 administered by the NYSED.
Chair, Academic Service-Learning Advisory Board: Josephine Pantaleo
Faculty Liaison: Dr. Sharon Ellerton
Perkins Project Coordinators: Arlene Kemmerer, Mary Bandziukas, Valerie Smosna,
Diana Silvestri, Farah Chandu, Jennifer Williams