"Alee in a Tree" is licensed under a
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I would be lying if I were to say, “Oh boy, community service-learning was great right off the bat!” I think most service-learners would agree that most CSL projects start out seemingly messy, confusing, and disorganized. In this short reflection about my experience with CSL, I will be explaining how my experience went from what-the-heck-are-we-doing? to wow-this-is-really-coming-together-in-a-meaningful-way.

In wanting to make this reflection vivid for those who have not experienced CSL, I have divided my reflection according to the general feelings I was experiencing each month of the course, from January all the way to April 2010.

On that long ago January 11th day, I entered the Communications Studies (COMS) 463 classroom with confidence. Like two of my teammates, I had had Dr. Smith as a professor in a previous semester, and felt comfortable with her teaching style.

I felt ready for my first 400-level university course. Oh how little did I know.

Sitting in the back row during that first class, ready for it to begin, Dr. Smith greeted us. She then went on to ask: "What do you know about community service-learning?" Bewildered, I looked to other students' faces. Some nodded and smiled, seeming to know what she was referring to, however the majority of us seemed to look as confused as I felt. Proceeding to explain CSL, she said "As I explained in my email, this is a CSL-based course." (Dr. Smith had emailed all registrants a month prior to the course's beginning.)

For the first month, my confusion about CSL gained momentum after every class. By the end of January, I felt more perplexed than I had on the first day. I will fully admit that I had not yet at this point done any of the assigned readings for the course (which I now realize would be have been so incredibly helpful to my understanding). In any case, I was definitely one confounded Community Service-Learner.

The second month of the course mostly involved our teams' creation of the proposal for this very website. For this assignment, we had to look deep into the future (unfortunately, without the use of a crystal ball) and figure out how we planned to get to the final stages of the course and our CSL project. As my other team members have described in their reflections, this was a month of discomfort.

This was the month that each and every team member had to start seriously collaborating. We had a website proposal due on February 11th after all (and heck if I knew what that entailed). Along with these uneasy feelings, I felt apprehensive thinking about the technology that would be necessary I learn how to use. My team member Ann, on her reflection, writes "Every computer, Blackberry, or toaster I touch turns against me; therefore, learning that assignments in this class revolved around Wordpress Blogs and Google Sites made the knot in my stomach even tighter." I could not better explain my feelings during the month of February.

During this month, I was also the temporary Editorial Coordinator (team leader), as the original EC, Jen, had an wonderful opportunity to work in Vancouver during the Olympics. So, here we had a confused, apprehensive, and discomforted Editorial Coordinator who had to coordinate a team. I laugh now, but it wasn't that funny at the time.

Let's just say I was excited for reading week to come in the middle of February.

I was even more excited for our beloved Jen to come back in March. We had successfully finished our proposal in February (however, not without some major mishaps) and upon Jen's return, I think we all felt more ready to get the CSL ball rolling. I let my shoulders drop in relief and began looking forward to upcoming assignments, all involving (eek!) much use of technology. During this month, we wrote on our course blogs and later, created individual websites on which to post our articles that we were in the midst of creating. These articles were based on our interviews with past CSL students, teachers and community partners and, incidentally, are on this website. They showcase diverse experiences with CSL, some similar to the one I am currently describing! You can find them under CSL Experiences.

It was when Jen created the template for this website (our final project for the course) that I started feeling truly excited for the course and the final presentation. Suddenly, everything started coming together. We were all working hard to bring our CSL website to life. Our decision to use many visuals (video interviews, charts, photos, and pictures) to portray our ethos flourished and grew as the site grew. It was this continuous collaboration by all members of my team that propelled me into even-more-exciting April.

Without trying to be mushy and gushy, April has been my favorite CSL month, because of the way that our team has bonded. Though I cannot speak for the rest of my team, I feel like we have such a cohesive and supportive network with one another. Having a base such as this, as well as the instructor and community partner foundation is integral to the success of community service-learning.

Through working to articulate our main purpose for this project and the ways in which we will attain it, my passion for this course has augmented. I feel energized about the experience and yearn for the opportunity to experience more!