Connecting Knowledge:
A Case Study of The George
Washington University’s
Human Services Program
Drs. Michelle Kelso and Emily Morrison
The George Washington University
September 25, 2012
IARSLCE International Conference 2012
What is Human Services?

What is the purpose of Human Services as a discipline?

The purpose is to “meet human needs through an
interdisciplinary knowledge base, focusing on prevention
as well as remediation of problems, and maintaining a
commitment to improving the overall quality of life of
service populations. The Human Services profession is
one which promotes improved service delivery systems
by addressing not only the quality of direct services, but
also by seeking to improve accessibility, accountability,
and coordination among professionals and agencies in
service delivery. …The primary purpose of the human
service worker is to assist individuals and communities to
function as effectively as possible in the major domains of
living.”
http://www.nationalhumanservices.org/what-is-human-services
What is Human Services at GW?

GW’s Human Services Mission:
 “Prepares undergraduate students to assume effective
roles in not-for-profit agencies supporting or serving
people and communities who are experiencing need;”

Provides academic knowledge and opportunities for
course application through service-learning;

Cultivates empathy, social consciousness, ethical
action, and a commitment to social justice; and,

Fosters respect of diversity, sense of community, and
global perspectives.
What is Human Services at GW?

Human Services at GW Continued:



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Academic program with a major and minor
located in the Sociology Department
494 graduates since 1982
74 current students
• 63 students previous year
6 faculty (2 FT, 4 PT)
All courses in HMSR use service-learning
Human Services Student Organization
What is Human Services at GW?
What do we want students to know and be able to do?
 Knowledge of human cultures and the physical and
natural world

Intellectual and practical skills

Personal and social responsibility

Integrative and applied learning
Overall outcome: Knowledgeable, caring, ethical,
and engaged human services scholarpractitioners
Research Questions
Four overarching questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
What is the student SL experience?
How has the coursework deepened student
knowledge and skills?
To what extent has the curriculum prepared
students to meet the professional
standards?
After graduation, how are students drawing
upon the KSAs for their life trajectories?
Methodology

Case study approach (Sjoberg et al.1991)
 Participatory action framework (Hale
2008)
 Qualitative methods (Patton 1980, 2001;
Barbour 2008)
 Grounded Theory for analysis (Strauss
and Corbin 1998)

Assessment of the program in Spring 2011
and 2012
Data

Individual interviews
Alumni of the program (14)
 Faculty (7)
 Current students (16)

Graduating senior exit interviews (16)
 Faculty course review
 Focus groups


2 student groups (10 total)
Findings – Overview

Alumni data suggest positive
experiences with the program, overall
deepening of knowledge and skills from
coursework, and preparedness for
professional tracks after graduation.
Findings – Overview

Student exit interviews revealed that
the service-learning was the most
meaningful part of their coursework,
citing: real world experience, getting
beyond the “Foggy Bottom bubble”
and becoming part of the DC
community, developing skills, getting
to know faculty, and making contacts.
Findings – Thematic Overview

Themes included:
 Coursework
 Motivation for joining the program
 Skills
 Preparedness for post-graduation
 Networking
 Community engagement
 “Real-world” experience
Coursework - General

“I think the ability to every semester sort of put on a
different hat, work with a different group of people, work
in a different type of job really helped me figure out the
path I wanted to go down…. I think people
underestimate the value of having those program
evaluations and grant applications and things on your
resume. My resume when I graduated was loaded with
internships that I also got human services credit for, and
it gives you a huge leg up over the kid who is graduating
with ‘I worked at Bertucci’s on my resume’. I also
worked at Bertucci’s [laughing] but it gives a big leg up
that I think a lot of people don’t have when they leave
school.”
Coursework - General
“We never wrote a paper about something that we didn’t
care about, ever. Each paper that I wrote was about
like, an issue or about a nonprofit that I was directly
working for, about something that I needed to help fix
right away. So it was current and it was real and it
mattered that I did a good job. When I was doing my
project for grant writing, if I did a bad job I was letting
down RAINN, the organization I’d been volunteering
[with] for a year. It wasn’t just like my other classes
where I’d write a paper the night before, and it wouldn’t
be my best, but it would be good enough that it would
give me the grade I wanted. I actually had to put in the
effort to do well in those [Human Services] classes.”
Preparedness

“…the HS program is a challenging one in
terms of time commitment and expectations.
With the full course load, required internships,
and professors who held their students up to
high standards, I felt really prepared for life
after college. Being challenged like that in
undergraduate helped me so much later on,
in terms of prioritizing, being able to work well
under stress and pressure, etc.”
Preparedness

“I was exposed to countless nonprofits around the
city and was able to learn from professionals in the
field – such a great way to apply what we were
learning in the classroom! Also, having those
experiences on my resume helped me get accepted
into both my AmeriCorps programs, as well as my
graduate school. I think something else that the
Human Services program helped with was just
allowing me to explore what I wanted from an
education and from a profession. It helped me to
cultivate the skills and passions I already had, and
helped me learn how to apply them.”
“Real-world” experience

“Service-learning is extremely well-integrated,
involved in more of the classes than I expected.
It is easiest and particularly interesting to tie the
experience in with the Issues class (3152).”

“The HMSR Program is what made it worthwhile
to me-to find deeper meaning and really
become part of the DC community. Being out on
the streets of DC takes your learning to a
different level. You are not walled up in a
traditional program.”
“Real-world” experience

“That was useful because being in a working
environment from 9 to 3, working that many
hours that often gives you a type of experience
that you don’t get from working five hours a week
at an internship, which is what you have to do to
make your hours for a lot of classes. But really
working all day every day for two months at a
nonprofit gives you an experience, like a day to
day reference point for what it’s like to be in a
professional environment and I think that’s
invaluable.”
Analysis: Kuh’s (2008) High-Impact
Practices
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First-year experiences
Learning communities
Writing-intensive courses *
Collaborative assignments and projects *
Undergraduate research *
Diversity/global learning *
Service-learning *
Internships *
Capstone courses and projects *
* Currently in GW’s Human Services Program to some degree.
Kuh, G. D. 2008. High-impact educational practices: What they are, who has access to
them, and why they matter. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges
and Universities.
Essential Qualities of HighImpact Practices (Kuh, 2008)
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They are effortful.
They help students build substantive
relationships. (i.e., faculty, staff, peers, community
leaders, mentors)
They help students engage across differences.
They provide students with rich feedback.
They help students apply and test what they are
learning in new situations.
They provide opportunities for students to reflect
on the people they are becoming.
Kuh, G. D. (2008). High-impact educational practices: What they are, who has access to
them, and why they matter. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and
Universities.
O’Neill, N. (2010). Internships as a high-impact practice: Some reflections on quality.”
PeerReview, 12, 4.
Analysis of data

In analyzing our data through the lens
of the essential qualities of high
impact practices (Kuh, 2008; O’Neill,
2010), all six essential qualities were
evident in the experiences cited by
students and alumni.
Kuh, G. D. (2008). High-impact educational practices: What they are, who has access
to them, and why they matter. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges
and Universities.
O’Neill, N. (2010). Internships as a high-impact practice: Some reflections on quality.”
PeerReview, 12, 4.
What’s next?


Develop strategic plan
Course mapping
• Assess and align pedagogy (incl. high-impact
practices), courses, and program goals with
desired outcomes (incl. college and university
outcomes)

Curricular revision
• Review learning objectives for all courses, see
areas for development, and sequence courses
• Pilot new courses

Program assessment and outreach
• Cultivating community partnerships
• Alumni giving, mentoring, and placements
Course mapping with content area
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Course
KSAA
Content Area
Level
Implicit/Explicit
Rationale: Assignments
Rationale: Learning Objectives
Rationale: Service Learning
High-Impact Practice
Course
KSAA
Content Area
Level Imp/ Exp
Rationale:
Assignments
Rationale: Learning
Objectives
HMSR 1198:
The Role of
NGOs in
International
Humanitarian
Assistance
Teamwork,
Written and
oral comm,
intercultural
knowledge,
critical
thinking,
civic
knowledge
and
engagement
Global
F&S
Perspectives;
Humanities;
Non-profit
structure; Social
Justice
5-Exp.
Case Study,
Entire course is
22 hours of Service- focused on
Learning
humanitarian aid from
a global perspective;
involves looking at
global efforts and
atrocities in placed like
Rwanda and Darfur as
well as organizations
like OXFAM and
Doctors Without
Borders that work
globally
HMSR 3152:
Issues in
Human
Services
Written and
oral
communicat
ion, ethical
reasoning,
critical
thinking,
quant. &
scientific
reasoning
Conducting
M
Research; Civic
knowledge and
engagement
5-Exp.
Conduct literature
review, interviews
with community
members, and data
analysis
Research paper
including empirical
articles, articles coming
from refereed journals,
and articles drawing
from at least 3
disciplines
Rationale:
Service
Learning
High Impact
Practice
To understand Servicehow NGOs
Learning,
deliver
Writing
humanitarian Intensive,
assistance to Diversity and
populations/ Global
communities in Learning
need
Writing
intensive,
Undergraduate
Research
Ongoing Plan for Action
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Reflect, clarify, and re-contextualize
Human Services Program’s:
 Mission, vision, and goals.
Identify learning outcomes for early, mid,
and final academic experiences
Align curricular and co-curricular
experiences with individual and
programmatic outcomes
Develop a culture of ongoing assessment