Social Science Teaching Students Give Back

From the desk of Dr. Laughlin-Schultz:

My SOS 2400 students have been engaging in service learning this semester. This new one-credit course for teacher licensure students has a service learning component, in part because the state now mandates that secondary Civics teachers incorporate service learning into their classes. We have chosen a few projects that relate to poverty in Coles County and central Illinois, in part to help students reflect on the inequities and poverty that many of their future students will face.

On Saturday, February 11, Undergraduates Kyann Adams, Josh Bost, Anne Marie Covert, Aaron Calloway, Delaney Hardman, and Gabriella Ramirez, along with postbac licensure student Michael Bradley and EIU librarian Bill Schultz, traveled to Sullivan to work at a mobile food pantry. I was so impressed with these students’ willingness to get up early on a Saturday morning and go serve their community, and very much appreciate their efforts. Other students from the class, including Brittany Borowski, Jared Schonert, Andy Goldstein, Billy Davis, and Megan McClard, have been staffing the Charleston Food Pantry on Thursdays this month.

Many thanks to the Office of Civic Engagement and Volunteerism here on campus for helping me put together these opportunities to engage in service with my students!