Seeking Knowledge in the Service of Humanity An Ignatian Service Learning Pilot Program for Loyola Academy Juniors and Seniors SERVICE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A VITAL PART of a Loyola Academy education. Each year, hundreds of Ramblers serve others through our Arrupe Service Program and at summer service sites throughout the country and around the world. Our Ignatian Service Learning Pilot Program takes the service experience into the classroom — enabling students to learn about social justice issues in academic courses across the curriculum, apply their new knowledge to real-life situations through community service and then engage in reflective exercises, discussions and projects to process the experience. During the 2014-2015 academic year, we will be piloting four Ignatian service-learning courses for Loyola juniors and seniors:
• Honors Environmental Science • Justice Seminar
• Sociology • Spanish 4
How does service learning happen? Here’s one example: Ramblers study U.S. immigration trends in a social studies class and engage in direct service with immigrant families resettling in the Chicago area. The students reflect on their service experience and create a short documentary film about the social issues that these families faced in their countries of origin and as “strangers in a strange land.” This integration of classroom learning, direct service, reflection and synthesis projects helps students process what they’ve learned on a deeper level, so that they have a better grasp of the course content and a more personal, nuanced understanding of social justice issues in the world today. In short, Ignatian Service Learning engages our students’ hearts and minds, creating a profound and unforgettable learning experience that will change the way they think about the world.
What is service learning and how does it work? Service learning is a teaching methodology that combines Course Content classroom instruction Class readings, with meaningful and concepts, theory and relevant community knowledge service. It enhances Synthesis the academic rigor Projects of our curriculum, Community Projects that helps meet critical Context integrate course Learning experiences community needs content with with community and encourages community context, partners challenging students Ramblers to assume to apply what they’ve leadership roles in learned to the goals academic and civic Reflection of our community endeavors while Ongoing reflection partners living out their call about course content, to be women and men community context and for others. the Jesuit concept of a faith that does justice
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My service learning experience with StandUp For Kids, which helps runaways and at-risk teens, has opened up a whole new world for me. Before this experience, I never would have known that an epidemic of homelessness was occurring just 13 miles away from Loyola Academy. I learned about real-life issues and helped solve realworld problems. I really connected with these kids, even though I was afraid we’d have nothing
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in common.
— Madison McCarthy ’14
Service Learning Outcomes • Students participate in quality learning
experiences in sustained community partnerships that address community goals and needs
• Students analyze community needs through the lens of course content emphasizing social inequality
• Students complete a proposal or project that meets the needs of a local community
• Students engage in ongoing reflection about
their service learning experience in the context of an Ignatian-centered “faith that does justice”
• Our Service Learning Team evaluates
students’ progress toward meaningful lives of leadership and service
From the Classroom to the Community Experiential Learning with an Emphasis on Social Justice
Our Partners Students will be serving at these and other community organizations during the 2014-2015 academic year:
OUR VISION FOR EVERY RAMBLER at Loyola Academy is rooted in the Jesuit tradition of forming women and men for others who will use their gifts and talents to meet the world’s most pressing needs. Through our service learning pilot program, Loyola juniors and seniors will have an opportunity to deepen their experience of the school’s Ignatian mission by engaging in a minimum of eight service experiences per semester at partner organizations throughout the Chicago area. By serving as an extension of the classroom, our community partners will provide an experiential context for learning that: • enhances comprehension and retention of course content • makes course content more meaningful • enables students to apply academic theories to real-life situations • promotes learning in ways that are impossible to replicate in a classroom • fosters leadership and civic responsibility • provides a lived experience of social justice issues • supports the goals and missions of partner organizations
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The happiest people I have known are those who gave of themselves with little concern about expectations, but did their uttermost to mitigate the miseries of others. This is a hard lesson to teach anyone, but we have witnessed this weekly with the Loyola seniors who worked with our homeless teens. The rewards flow from both sides: the experiences cannot be created in a classroom, but are certainly supported and enhanced by it.”
A Just Harvest Beacon Place Centro Romero Connections for the Homeless Friends of the Chicago River Labre Ministry Madonna Mission New Life Shelter North Branch Restoration Northside Housing Pan-African Association StandUp For Kids-Chicago
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— Brian Russell Executive Director, StandUp For Kids-Chicago
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Learning that Leads to Transformation According to the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm, transformative learning is situated in a specific context, rooted in previous experience and enhanced by new learning experiences, dependent on and deepened by reflection about those experiences, made more meaningful when new knowledge is put into action and reinforced by evaluation to determine the effectiveness of a chosen action and the degree to which learning has occurred. The Ignatian Service Learning model incorporates all of these elements into its methodology. Through journaling and seminars, students are given opportunities to reflect on the course content, their community service experience and wider issues of social justice. The model also allows the dissonance and challenges that may emerge from the community experience to transform the learner and the learning experience. Students will also complete synthesis projects, which are designed to help them make meaningful connections between their classroom learning and community experiences. These projects will address the goals and needs of our community partners as students use their problemsolving, collaborative and creative skills to address real-world issues. Synthesis projects can take many different forms, from oral narratives, demographic analyses and research projects to film-making for public relations and educational purposes.
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WILMETTE, ILLINOIS 60091–1089
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TELEPHONE 847.256.1100
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FAX 847.251.4031
SERVICE LEARNING EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Kathryn M. Baal, PhD Loyola Academy Principal Jeffrey A. Dees Social Studies Department Chair Timothy J. Martin, PhD Director of Ignatian Service Learning and Chair of the Service Learning Team Gary A. Marando Vice President for Mission and Ministry Timothy J. Wesley Assistant Principal for Academics
SERVICE LEARNING TEAM Priya S. Amin Social Studies Teacher Erin Shea Hauri Spanish Teacher Timothy M. Mitchell Theology Teacher/Justice Seminar Jennifer L. Snyder Environmental Science Teacher For more information, please contact Timothy J. Martin at 847.920.2671 or tmartin@loy.org.
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