About Service Learning
Service-learning is the integration of community service into the academic curriculum. Students become involved in a hands-on experience that helps them not only make better sense of what they are learning in class but also engages them in activities that help to meet a community’s needs.
Service Learning Initiatives
Spring 2009
Mayan Arts Program
Learn and Serve in Guatemala
Course description
Students will use experiences in an arts-based service-learning project in Guatemala as the foundation for exploration and personal reflection in art. The 3-credit course will focus on artwork made related to the service-learning as a catalyst for personal, social, and cultural change. In addition to guest lectures and readings, trip preparations will include creation of art lessons and planning of a community art project. Students will teach as well as make art and should be prepared to work independently and collaboratively.
The centerpiece of the course, a week-long spring break trip to Guatemala, will expose students to indigenous communities, their artistic traditions, and contemporary Guatemalan artists. Upon completion of the service project, students will meet bi-weekly to develop and analyze a body of work that examines a theme, crucial question or complex topic encountered during the trip. Because a diverse mix of participants is desired, students who are majoring in Painting and Printmaking, Sculpture and Extended Media, Crafts and Material Studies, Film and Photography, Kinetic Imaging, Communication Arts, Creative Writing, Theater and Education students are encouraged to enroll.
Click here to download a visual tour of the Mayan Arts Program.
For more information email course instructor, Jan Johnston at johnstonja@vcu.edu.
Registration
To register for this course, all students must visit the Office of International Education (OIE) and turn in deposit of $250 by December 15, 2008. This office will actually register you for the class. After December 10th, OIE will be located in the first floor of the Franklin Street Gym at 817 W Franklin Street. See the FAQ sheet for more information. Please also contact Jan Johnston at johnstonja@vcu.edu with questions.
Undergraduate students register for ARTE 491 section 902, CRN 22916
Graduate students register for ARTE 591 section 901
Course structure
During the first part of the semester students prepare for service in a foreign country; familiarize themselves with the customs, history, art and culture of the Maya, examine important issues facing contemporary Guatemala, and create art lessons to be carried out in the community schools in Quetzaltenango. Over Spring Break, students work together teaching art in the mornings and running community art workshops or creating large-scale murals in the afternoons. Weekends and evenings are devoted to travel, cultural presentations, and guest lecturers. After retuning from the trip, students work independently on their own series, meeting every two weeks for formal critiques. The final exam is an exhibition of student work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Please download the FAQ sheet here.
Fall 2008
Students in the Foundations of Art in Education class work with the elderly in the assisted living and alzheimer's units at Southerland Assisted Living Center and Chestnut Grove Assisted Living Facility to increase the arts offering in the Richmond community while learning about the element of empathy and how the arts can be used as a therapeutic means.
View movie here:
Summer 2008
General education students in the Art for Elementary Teaching class, under the direction of Dr. Sara Wilson McKay worked with Head Start pre-schoolers at the Adult Career Development Center. Students developed book-making skills while honing their abilities to observe and document children's learning in and through art.
Spring 2008
Secondary Practicum students continued the Chandler Middle School partnership while investigating material culture through Sonya Clark's artwork. Emphasizing the math skills artists employ in the process of making, the middle school students held an exhibition of their work over the 7 week project looking at such big ideas as Power, Frameworks, Honor, and Change.
Fall 2007
Secondary Practicum students work with English teachers from Chandler Middle School to incorporate Art into their English curriculum. VCU students gain practical teaching experience while partnering with an inner-city school that expressed a need for curriculum, teaching, and student-learning support.
Fall 2007
Students in the Foundations of Art in Education class work with The Children’s Museum, Art 180 non-profit organization, Southerland Assisted Living Center for the Elderly, and other community partners to increase the arts offering in the Richmond community while learning about developmental growth patterns of children and needs of the elderly.
Fall 2006
VCU students are providing art after school programs to Carver Elementary, a school that has limited art instruction. Preliminary and ongoing studies show that students’ critical thinking skills have increased.
Fall 2006
Students in the Art for the Exceptional Students course work with local organizations that cater to the Exceptional Student population.
