Running Head: SERVICE LEARNING

Annie Rana
Service Learning
Dominican University of California

Running Head: SERVICE LEARNING

Many college and university mission statements make a certain kind of reference to, or
imply that, they want to educate their students to become leaders. Of course, we wish to graduate
as student leaders, but not just any kind of leaders. We wish to become educated leaders who feel
committed to serving the community. We want to be leaders that care about the well-being of
others, especially the at-risk populations. If we accept this challenge, then it is worth thinking
carefully about how and which college courses might help us to achieve this goal. Many different
kinds of courses would be possible outlets for promoting this kind of caring leadership, but an
ethics courses would be ideal. Dominican University offers ethics courses in the hope that its
students will gain an understanding of various moral theories and develop skills in honorable
reasoning. However, many students are focused exclusively on the academic goals of passing the
class and tests, that they overlook other appropriate lessons related to leadership development
and caring for others in ethics. Certainly, we would be disappointed to find that our students
emerge from ethics courses totally indifferent to ethical issues we face as a society. Hence, if
colleges hope to graduate compassionate, ethically sensitive leaders in society, then they must
incorporate service learning in the course of ethics education.
Service-learning cannot be a course or a discipline on its own, but it can facilitate a
method of teaching an existing course or discipline. To use it as a tool, it provides real purpose
and connection to our learning. It is a way of teaching that engages us in direct service
correlating with our learning at the time. For this model to be effective, we must analyze the
connections between the theories and our service. As we perform the service, we must reflect on
our experience.
My service learning engaged my skills as a tutor in the Canal Alliance. The alliance
believes that, Every new American deserves the opportunity to thrive. This statement represents

Running Head: SERVICE LEARNING

their mission, their theory, and how they justify the difference they are making in their
community. What they are doing is ethical and much needed. Combining ethics and service
learning taught me how to engage with and better understand my students who were of a
different culture and class.
The students and the tutors had very different values about learning. When I would tutor
some of the students I started to notice a pattern. The students would only focus on completing
their work, getting the answers they needed and moving on. They did not care about the
reasoning behind the questions. Being a tutor, I tried to teach them the importance of
understanding. Not one student of mine was interested in actually learning. This difference in the
values of education shocked me, because valuing education is a virtue. Education means more
than acquiring knowledge. It is socially valued because knowledge is power. It empowers people
to develop personally and promotes greater participation in our social and political spheres. My
students had a different view about the education system. From speaking with them, I gathered
that they viewed school like a game; complete each level to reach the end. In this case passing
classes is what moves you up in levels and cheat codes and short cuts only help you finish the
game faster and easier. It is not about what you actually learn in these classes, but rather about
getting enough points to pass on to the next level. Although I do not agree with their perspective,
there was so much that I learned from the conversation. The reason they think this is because in
America everything revolves around the idea of being number one, achieving excellence, it is all
about the end, it is never about the means to get to that end. As the children of immigrants these
students are particularly exposed to this aspect of American culture, they see the value in
education, and the greater material wealth it can provide, however there is less value placed on
the process of achieving this end. If we, as a culture, talked about the importance of the journey,

Running Head: SERVICE LEARNING

maybe our students would care more about education as not just a means to an end, but an
important part of developing ourselves.
This situation presented me with an ethical dilemma of two conflicting viewpoints.
According to Appiah the world encompasses many similarities and differences between people.
The world is made up of many different communities, but all fall under a single community of
humankind. Appiah states that, cosmopolitanism begins with the simple idea that in the human
community, as in national communities, we need to develop habits of coexistence: conversation
in its older meaning, of living together, association (Appiah 2006, xix). Appiah would see our
different viewpoints and urge us to have a meaningful conversation about our different
perspectives. Such a conversation would foster an exchange of ideas and give us a chance to
learn from one another. People need to put faith back into our youth, especially our immigrant
youth, because they have so much to offer. They come from different cultures and have diverse
and powerful experiences to share with us.
These students experience struggles that the majority of Americans are not accustomed
to. The students are first generation Americans, this means that for a lot of them their first
language is Spanish not English, yet all their education is in English. While I was tutoring some
of the students I noticed that most of them had trouble with writing some words in English and
understanding certain phrases. This is a major problem. How are you supposed to answer a
question, when you cannot understand it? Our tutoring service is only two hours Monday
through Thursday. Any student knows that homework and studying takes much more time than
that. These students face greater struggles when they get home because their parents do not
usually speak any English at all. Their parents cannot help them study or answer homework
questions. There are PTA meetings and teacher-parent conferences for a reason; parent

Running Head: SERVICE LEARNING

involvement is one of the biggest factors in determining a childs success in the education
program.
All of these disadvantages are not taken into account, which explains why many of the
students are doing so poorly in school. The Canal Alliance practices ethics from the margins by
listening to the needs of the disadvantaged and trying to give them opportunities. The schools
administration can do a lot to help these students by practicing ethics from the margins. By
listening directly to the students, the schools can identify what they need and work to provide
better opportunities. It will also be a way for the students to feel that they are in control of their
own destiny, and that their voice in the community is of importance. This will help motivate
them to believe they can make a difference in their own lives, and can allow students to feel
supported, which will inevitably lead them to put in the effort necessary to succeed.
By being a tutor I am giving back to the community. I am training the youth to be a
contributing part of society. I strongly believe that this is something beneficial to the community,
and it makes me feel worthy, that I can make a difference in the lives of disadvantaged students.
Utilitarianism is the thought that actions are moral if they are useful or beneficial to the majority.
The moral act is the one that produces the greatest good to the greatest number of people, and
your own personal welfare is not more important morally than that of others. Utilitarianism,
according to John Stuart Mills, in its most general form claims that one should assess persons,
actions, and institutions by how well they promote overall human welfare. If something makes
you very happy, but is overall making more people upset or causing harm than it causes
happiness and benefits, it is morally wrong. Tutoring increases my welfare by giving me an
opportunity to teach disadvantaged students, and practice my ethical beliefs in a real-world
scenario. This provides happiness and help for the students which in turn will help make them

Running Head: SERVICE LEARNING

contributing, hardworking members of society, which contributes to their general welfare.

Without tutoring, the students would not receive equal opportunities and could not overcome all
the struggles they are dealt, and would be more likely to be a problem in society.
Performing this service of educating the marginalized youth and reflecting on my
experience has made me appreciate service learning. It has led me to reexamine ethics in a real
world scenario. It has helped me to analyze the connections between the theories and the
challenges I faced in service. Service-learning provided real purpose and correlated with my
learning to produce positive outcomes for myself and those whom I helped. Without it I would
not have been able to facilitate learning and change within my students.