CBL Courses for 1999-2000

Community-Based Learning (CBL) is an educational initiative that links Mount Holyoke students with local communities in nearby Springfield, Holyoke, South Hadley, and the surrounding Pioneer Valley in courses that combine analysis with action.

Promoted and supported by the Center for Leadership and Public Interest Advocacy, community-based learning enhances students 1 understanding of issues of public concern and fosters their leadership and advocacy skills.

Begun in 1993 as a pilot project funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation, community-based leaming at Mount Holyoke has grown over the past years into a college-wide program. that has helped develop over 20 courses in a wide variety of disciplines.

Faculty with community-based learning experience report that these courses encourage students to think creatively and to discover the meaning and relevance of their work outside the classroom. They also observe that students ask more sophisticated, more subtle, and more complex questions when text-based learning is combined with community-based projects.

Students are similarly enthusiastic about the benefits of CBL. Reported one senior politics student: "The community-based component allowed us to see how theories were manifested in the real world, and the chance to speak with residents made the subject matter much more personal. Beyond academics, we learned how to deal with agencies, work in a group, deal with technological setbacks, work against a deadline, and present our findings to a large group of people."

CBL is an approach to learning -- a pedagogy that brings together students, faculty, and community organizations to examine questions of significant public interest. CBL prepares students to meet the challenge set forth in the college's Mission Statement of "fostening the aIliance of liberal arts education with purposeful engagement with the world."

Through course-based projects co-designed by faculty and community partners, students examine questions in ways that provide intellectually rich experiences for them and tangible benefits to the community.

Community-based learning is not mere observation. Rather it is analysis, engaged reflection, and action. Students not only study community issues, but also work with local organizations to grapple with problems and offer solutions.

Examples of recent Mount Holyoke College community-based learning projects include:

• a politics course in which students worked with Nueva Esperanza and the Valley Opportunity Council to investigate the feasibility of establishing a credit union in downtown Holyoke.
• a geology course in which students collaborated with the Quabbin Reservoir staff to construct a computer model for estimating pollutants.
• a women's studies course in which students consulted with the Emily Dickinson Homestead in creating an exhibit on the poet's life and art for the thousands of visitors who annually tour the historic site in Amherst.

"Geographic Imagining Systems and Community Watershed Planning," Thomas Millette, Geography.

"Methods of Measurement, " Sean Decatur, Chemistry.

"Environmental Chemistry," Donald Cotter, Chemistry.

"Environmental Science," Jill Bubier, Environmental Studies.

"Russian Baptisis and Evangelical Christians in America: Pasts and Presents," Susan Scotto, Russian.

"Race, Class, Culture, and Gender in the Classroom," Sandra Lawrence, Education.

"Continuity, Crisis, and the Future of Our Schools," Anita Page and Patricia Ramsey, Education.

"Anthropology of Reproduction," Lynn Morgan, Anthropology.

"Negotiating Identities," Debbora Battaglia, Anthropology.

"Women in Sport : Seminar in Coaching Education, " Laurie Priest, Physical Education.

"Introduction to Womens Studies," Martha Ackmann, Women's Studies.

"Community Development," Preston Smith, Politics.

"Justice: Ideals and Practices in History, " Harold Garrett-Goodyear, History.

"Fundamentais of Pedagogy for Teaching Classical Ballet, " Rose and Charles Flachs, Dance.

Curriculum development grants for creating new or modified courses that include community-based learning.

• Opportunities for networking with other CBL faculty at Mount Holyoke.
• Five College workshops to prepare students for beginning CBL work with diverse communities and semester-end workshops to reflect upon those experiences.
• Sample syllabi of CBL courses from around the country.
• Workshops on engaged reflection, evaluation, and the ethics of community-based research.
• Suggestions for identifying CBL partnerships with local community organizations.
• Recommendations from MHC community partners on ways to create successful CBL collaborations.
• Books and monographs exploring community-based learning theory and the ways CBL has affected faculty teaching and research.
• Essays detailing the "principles of best practice" for developing CBL courses.
• Student evaluation surveys of past NMC community-based learning classes.
• Information on meeting transportation needs through the newly expanded MHC Fleet Office.
• Grant opportunities and resources through Massachusetts Campus Compact, a statewide organization.