Service-Learning is on youtube now. Check out our first video, featuring the Conte Elementary School Spanish and Garden Program kids singing the song that Spanish student, Patrick, taught them. Listen as they sing a song to introduce themselves to others!
Every Tuesday, the Harvest Table Project feeds over 100 people that might otherwise be unable to enjoy a homecooked meal. Ed, a culinary arts student, and Josephine, a sociology student, work together to cook the meal and serve it up. This month, Ed was in charge of creating the menu. Follow the link to see a copy of what is to be expected in the month ahead.
Ed and Josephine work together to serve the meal
Service-Learning student, Greg, interviews Carlos, a from Manos Unidas about his life in America and his county of origin: El Salvador.
On October 31st, Service-Learning Spanish 101 student, Greg, met with Carlos, a representative of Manos Unidas, to practice speaking and writing in Spanish. They are sharing life experiences in a spirit of cross cultural exchange that will result an article written in Spanish and English for an upcoming edition of Common Borders. Common Borders is a local bilingual multicultural newspaper created by, of and for the people. It is a project of Manos Unidas, a multicultural organization in the Berkshires.
Conte Student writes in Spanish!
On Thursday, October 27th, students in Conte Community School enjoyed the first snow fall of the season and a lesson different from any other. The Service-Learning Students taught the kids a new song to remember how to introduce themselves in rudimentary Conversational Spanish. Additionally, they drew self-portraits and wrote the phrases to introduce themselves in Spanish.
Service-Learning is expanding to include new issue areas and geographic locations this semester!
Kris, a criminal justice major, started work with the Morningside and Westside Neighborhood Initiatives. She is assisting community members in making progress toward their goal of creating a Neighborhood Crime Watch. Both are programs of the Community Development Office for the City of Pittsfield.
A second student, Alex, began serving at Greylock Elementary School in North Adams for a Service-Learning project in Human Growth and Development. Alex will be busy assisting a Kindergarten class and actively learning about stages of development in young children. Alex attended Greylock Elementary as a child and, interestingly enough, he had the same teacher for Kindergarten!
Greg is practicing both written and spoken Spanish with a native speaker, Carlos, from El Salvador. This is a collaborative service-learning project for Spanish 101. Greg and Carlos will work together to write articles in both Spanish and English for a bilingual newspaper called “Common Borders” produced by Manos Unidads a multicultural organization in the Berkshires.
Art Students designed the boxes for the food drive like this one that sits in front of the President's Office
Healthy Food Drive collection begins Monday, Oct. 24 and runs until Nov. 4th at Berkshire Community College. Please bring healthy non-perishable food items to drop off boxes at the Service-Learning Office, President’s Office and Student Lounge.
This is a service-learning project in partnership with Berkshire Health Systems and the Salvation Army. Math, Art, Sociology and Culinary Arts service-learning students all have a role in making this food drive a success! Healthy food totes will be distributed to families and individuals in need on Nov. 18th at the Salvation Army. Recipients will be chosen based on need. Applications for a Healthy Food Tote are available at the Service-Learning Office, BMC Hillcrest Campus and Salvation Army from now until Nov. 7th.
The boys show off their bounty!
On Tuesday, October 18th, students in Conte’s Garden Program created their own scarecrows in the garden. The group split into three groups of four to create their scarecrows. They collected leaves to stuff into the pants and shirts provided by Kelley and Lisa, two of the BCC Service-Learning Students, who created that lesson plan. The kids also enjoyed some cherry tomatoes, running around the garden and throwing the colorful leaves that have fallen to the ground.
The whole group and their winning Scarecrow!
David and John Tatro and the kids take a break from programming for a photo opp!
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Crosby’s first robotics session was spent introducing the kids to the Legos NXT Programming Environment which included making the robot “say” little phrases and sounds, and playing simple songs. As always, the session came to an end far to quick; students left excited about their return next week to program Robert the Robot, further. Next week’s lesson, will include moving Robert forwards and backwards, make turns, drive in circles, and drive in squares. Students will be doing some math that is important in actual robotics applications. In this context, the kids have a lot of fun with the math.
1. Enroll in a Service-Learning Course. (See list)