Service Learning

Teacher Candidates Travel to Underrepresented Communities in Jamaica

Service and leadership are learned over a lifetime, as both CEHS faculty and students demonstrated on a recent service learning trip to Petersfield, Jamaica. The goal of the trip was to support teacher education candidates enriching their training by working with under-represented communities in need, but the experience proved a learning opportunity for everyone involved.

“Traveling with the faculty and students of Teacher Education to rural Jamaica was a life transformative experience to engage in servant leadership,” said Shippensburg University Associate Professor Dr. Linwood G. Vereen. “The students and faculty embraced the opportunity to learn from our gracious hosts and other professional teachers in the community and school settings. The students also displayed a high level of skill and competence when teaching and providing lesson plans in various schools. I was proud to watch them gracefully and professionally represent the Shippensburg University community.”

Due to the lack of educational materials and academic manipulatives, math activities are minimal in Jamaican classrooms. Without hands-on math activities, children do not have a developmentally strong number sense that is aligned with young children’s understanding. This is where Shippensburg University teacher candidates, staff, and faculty were able to showcase their educational talents and expertise. After researching best practices in early math development, teacher education candidates created lessons relating to mathematical content for children in 1st and 2nd grades. Not only did teacher candidates provide the math curriculum, but they brought along the educational supplies for four different Jamaican schools. However, the lack of resources still made lesson planning more challenging than originally expected. Extra suitcases had to be packed to ensure materials were provided for the students, and consideration had to be made for transporting materials, as well as plans put in place in the event the materials were broken in transport.

I am so thankful I had the opportunity to travel to Jamaica on the service learning trip. Being able to travel with a team of future educators enhanced my college career by allowing me to step out of my comfort zone. It allowed me to experience a different way of life in a caring and accepting community.

Madelyn Snyder, Early Childhood Education, Senior

The beauty of service learning in Jamaica isn’t just about how Shippensburg University students can impact Petersfield, Jamaica, but how Petersfield has impacted our students. I get to watch firsthand how our students transform from teacher candidates to a teacher leader. I get to see how they apply the skills they have learned from our courses in the most rural parts of a Jamaican school.

Dr. Andrea Malmont, Associate Professor

Teacher education candidates said that the joy on the students’ faces when they received manipulatives and other materials to help them learn was remarkable. Learning was fun for the students and the manipulatives helped them grasp the concepts quicker. “The experience helped me to realize I can do whatever I put my mind to as long as I work for it,” said Makayla Smiley, Early Childhood Education, Senior.

The teacher education candidates were humbled by their experiences working with the Jamaican teachers. They exclaimed that working with the children was life changing, but having teachers who have been teaching for many years ask for advice, teaching strategies, and lesson ideas was a humbling experience. “I witnessed them teaching both the students and the teachers traditional strategies applied in the United States while being respectful and culturally sensitive to the differences that ultimately united us all as one,” said Dr. Andrea Malmont, Associate Professor in Teacher Education. Teacher education candidates felt grateful for the education they have received at Shippensburg University. “The service learning trip to Jamaica provided me with the ability to take my capabilities across borders to schools that are stricken with poverty and a lack of quality education. The trip opened my eyes to what education looks like internationally and strategies that I can bring into my own classroom next school year. The trip motivated me to become the role model that so many students need,” said Mackenzie Livingston, Early Childhood Education, Senior.

Not only did the teacher candidates have the experience of creating curriculum, but they were also fortunate enough to travel to another country, experience another culture, and teach in diverse classrooms.

As the phrase goes, ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ at least while we were together, it certainly felt as if we were all in this together, united as one,” said Dr. Malmont.

The lessons, both educational and personal that I learned during my time in Jamaica, are ones which I will use and remember throughout my future both in and out of the classroom.

Makayla Smiley, Early Childhood Education, Senior