Stone Center Faculty Affairs: Post-Katrina Information

Please read the following note addressed to Tulane faculty from Vincent Ilustre, Director of the Office of Service Learning at Tulane University:

Dear Faculty Members,

We hope this letter finds you and your loved ones safe. As we turn our thoughts to the city’s reopening in the coming months, Tulane’s Office of Service Learning (OSL) seeks to help leverage the university’s resources to assist with rebuilding New Orleans. To that end, we ask you to consider teaching a service learning course.

For those of you unfamiliar with service learning, it has been described as “learning by doing.” This form of experiential education combines academic learning with a structured service experience in the community. Service learning will provide students with the opportunity to make a direct impact on the redevelopment efforts in New Orleans this spring, while also enhancing students’ understanding of academic material. To learn more about service learning, please visit our temporary website at http://www.tulaneservicelearning.org. The “Other Resources” section contains links to sites with more information about service learning.

Given the widespread devastation of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, many of our community partner sites will not be operational this spring. This is especially true of the local public schools, most of which are not slated to open until the fall. As soon as we can return to the city, we will complete a needs assessment of community partners to discern how we can best assist them. We will communicate this information to interested faculty members. If applicable, please send us the names of community-based agencies, a contact person’s name, and contact information for organizations with which you are interested in partnering this spring.

The needs of the New Orleans community are great. Given the unique circumstances, we ask that faculty members interested in teaching a service learning course this spring be flexible in terms of students’ activities. Our goal is to place students where they are needed most, in assignments aligned with course goals as much as possible. The OSL normally accommodates approximately 35 courses each semester, providing services to students, faculty members, and community partners. However, we will gladly assist with additional service learning courses this spring. It will be a challenging semester, but one that we think will have a lasting impact on the city.

We are committed to assisting all faculty members in their efforts to incorporate service learning into their courses. OSL staff members coordinate student placement and logistics, training and reflection activities for students, grant opportunities for faculty and community partner collaborations, and semester-long faculty seminars focused on creating a new service learning course.

If you are interested in teaching a service learning course this spring or would like more information, please email Vincent Ilustre, Associate Director of the Office of Service Learning, at VNLIlustre@aol.com. We plan to hold a day long workshop sometime in December. In the morning, we will hold a Service Learning 101 workshop for faculty members new to service learning. A luncheon will follow for all interested faculty members (current and new) to talk with each other about service learning and hear from community partners about their post-Katrina needs and how service learners can assist in the process. Please email Vincent if you would like to attend.

Best wishes,
OSL Staff

The Stone Center is committed to incorporating Service Learing into its introductory LAST 101/102 courses, and we encourage all Latin Americanist Faculty to consider incorporating Service Learning into their own courses.