关于一篇英文演讲稿

Nurturing volunteer spirit

Freshmen at Wilfrid Laurier University hit the streets to shine shoes for a cystic fibrosis fundraiser even before they crack their first textbook.

As undergraduates, they're just as likely to be in the community cuddling babies, reading to children or visiting elderly residents as they are to be studying for exams.

A non-profit agency needs a business plan for a new program? A master of business administration student helps.

A program for pre-school children needs a volunteer to hold and feed infants? There are 13 students every term involved with children at Our Place, an Ontario early years centre in Kitchener.

"Laurier has always had a very special culture of student involvement and student volunteering and fundraising outside the classroom," said David McMurray, WLU's dean of students.

Now, that culture is about to explode with new opportunities.

The university is launching the Centre for Community Service-Learning with help from a $1-million grant over five years from the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation.

Starting in September, a little house on Albert Street will be a volunteer hub for students on all WLU campuses, including Brantford.

The university will do important research on the impact of volunteering on students, WLU and community agencies: Did students continue to volunteer after they graduated? Did children's literacy skills improve after a Saturday morning reading program?

The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation recognizes universities that are helping students become engaged in community work as part of their academic course load. More than two dozen Canadian universities expressed an interest.

About nine, including WLU, have been awarded the special grant.

"It's a good fit," said Susan Horton, WLU's vice-president academic. "We want to prepare people as citizens, not just prepare them to pass their professional qualifications."

Volunteering off-campus is a tradition at Laurier that began 35 years ago in the psychology department. Each year, about 600 psychology students volunteer in community organizations and schools as part of at least one course credit.

Other faculties and departments, such as kinesiology, music, business and social work, also include volunteer service in their curriculum.

In total, about 150 community organizations in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Brantford use WLU volunteers.

"Community service-learning" is a model of education that has spread across campuses in the United States with an almost evangelistic fervor.

It's a growing movement among Canadian universities such as WLU, Trent University in Peterborough and University of British Columbia.

"It's a combination of giving to the community and connecting it to a course," said Paul Davock, director of Laurier's news centre.

There are three goals of community service-learning, said Davock, who has co-ordinated field placements in the psychology department for many years:

(1 star) It will benefit community organizations;

(1 star) It will give students the chance to relate course theory and content to real-life situations;

(1 star) Students will reflect on their experiences when they return to class.

"Involvement in the community is a really rich experience," Davock said. "In a time when much of the focus seems to be on individual growth, this is a real focus on the community.

"As opposed to what can this do for me, it changes the focus to what can I do for others."

Business professor Mark Baetz, an enthusiastic advocate of community service-learning, believes WLU is well positioned to be a leader.

"We'd like to be one of the strong champions within the Ontario and Canadian university system in teaching this philosophy," said Baetz, who teaches business ethics and corporate responsibility.

As one of the centre's four associate directors, Baetz will find faculty members willing to adopt service-learning in their courses, and help them link with community partners.

At present, WLU's master of business administration program is the only one in Canada requiring 40 hours of community service, said Baetz, who helped redesign the program 10 years ago.

Psychology students earning an honours bachelor of arts degree at WLU must complete at least one service-learning course credit.

Many students are hungry for volunteer opportunities, McMurray said.

But some others, pressed for time and stressed-out over grades, are less than enthusiastic about taking on another commitment.

"It's not unusual for students to feel put-upon initially to have to do two hours a week in a community organization," Davock said.

But most students are enthusiastic about the job once they start, he said. A large number stay with the organization after the course is over.

Over the years, more than half of the psychology students said volunteering had an impact on their career decisions.

"For some, it's an epiphany," Davock said. "They say, 'I wanted to be a lawyer and now I want to work with kids.' "

Part of the reason for their change of heart is the opportunity in class to think about what they've experienced and understand it. It's an important ingredient, Davock said.

For example:

(1 star) Students in developmental psychology study how children learn to measure. Then they watch children in a day-care centre play at a water table. "They look at the theory and content of the course and understand what they see the kids doing," Davock said.

(1 star) Students in a sociology-of-aging course visited senior citizens in a home for elderly people. Later, a kinesiology student was thinking of ways to improve seniors' movements.

(1 star) A part-time master of business administration student, who is a high school teacher, organized a successful conference for students dealing with issues like depression and suicide.

(1 star) A student who worked with young people on the issue of violence chose to continue to volunteer after his course was over. "He had a passion for the cause he'd never expected," Baetz said.

(1 star) A master of business administration student met the single mother and her children who would live in the Habitat for Humanity house he was building. Until then, he had taken housing for granted, Baetz said.

(1 star) A female business student was struck by how much impact she had as a role model in a Grade 6 class.

Bit by bit, the university will expand the number of courses that offer a volunteer placement. Students who sign up for the courses will get police checks, as required by many groups, and choose an organization listed on a website.

Then, the student will call the group, and go for an interview. Some organizations, such as a telephone distress line, will require a high level of training. Others will not.

To help guide the centre, community groups will make up more than half the members of a steering committee.

Davock doesn't expect there will be any difficulty finding placements for the hundreds of additional students who will want them.

"I have not had to recruit community placements for the last five years," he said. "The need is out there."

A bigger challenge might be in finding already-busy faculty members who are eager to include a service-learning component in their courses.

"There is no discipline that can't have a service-learning component," Baetz said. From archeology to zoology, "there's a way to link what you're learning to some community need."

As an incentive to faculty, WLU will offer awards for innovative curriculum, sabbaticals, merit bonuses and research grants.

"We need to ease into it to make it effective," Baetz said.

He's also sensitive to some agencies' concerns that they might be swamped with volunteers at a time when resources are stretched.

The new centre will provide some seed money to help community organizations prepare to take volunteers.

Community groups need quality volunteers, and students need "a certain standard of involvement," McMurray said.

"It can't be a nothing kind of experience where they sit at a phone waiting for it to ring."

Davock hopes most students will take at least one course with community service during their undergraduate years. Better yet, would be that they enjoy it so much, they do several, he said.

"At the end of five years, we'd like to see every student who graduates from Laurier, either through co-op, community service or co-curricular activity, have some community-based experience when they graduate," Davock said.

Davock's dream is to give students an opportunity to "be in the world" and to better that world.

"My dream is that students will learn to value connecting to others, not just to their friends, but to the community.

"How can I connect in my heart in a way that can really make a difference to people?"