Honors Service Learning
Learning in Service to Iowa
Through money, mentoring, a service-learning seminar, and a culminating conference, Honors at Iowa is supporting student projects in service to Iowa. Learning in Service to Iowa began as a featured initiative for the fiftieth anniversary of Honors at Iowa. It contributes to Iowa’s communities through practical innovations by Honors Students.
LISTI competitions call for Honors Students to propose individual or especially small-group projects that can respond to needs and opportunities around the State of Iowa. Led by Honors Experiential Learning Director Andy Willard, members of the Honors staff coach all the applicants in preparing their proposals. This helps students spot likely complications, plan good timelines, and specify realistic budgets. The idea is to refine the initial ideas to be more productive and persuasive. Honors advisors also suggest mentors from the faculty, staff, or target community who can advise students as their complete their projects.
Honors has faculty review the submitted proposals. It funds the winning proposals with stipends so that the students can do most of the proposed work in an ensuing semester or summer. So far, the community partners have been enthusiastic about working with LISTI students, and their results have been impressive!
In the following semester, participating students also earn academic credit through the Honors Seminar in Public Service. Often they venture further service in connection with the seminar, which meets weekly to compare information on what each student has been doing and learning. Seminar exercises guide the students in reflecting on their efforts and in preparing to report on their projects during subsequent semesters.
As part of the Aces Program for Analysis, Advocacy, and Action, this Honors Seminar in Public Service helps students improve their skills for public action. Students also learn to understand their service efforts within larger contexts, and they use relevant scholarship to assess possible lessons from their results. The seminar participants develop presentations on their projects. Typically students take these presentations to forums throughout the University and the State — including Research in the Capitol, the Spring Undergraduate Research Festival, other Honors events, even meetings of the Iowa Regents.
For the golden anniversary of Honors at Iowa, the Honors Seminar in Public Service also planned an initial Symposium on Learning in Service to Iowa, staged in Spring 2009. This gathering enabled students, mentors, and teachers to join beneficiaries and officials in assessing program results and how to build on them. For further information on any aspect of Learning in Service to Iowa, please contact the Honors Experiential Learning Director.