Service Journey
Although helping and fixing might at first glance be a mode of service interaction that would work best within the Deaf community (especially from a hearing perspective), the very best mode of service within the Deaf community is serving. Both helping and fixing imply a “savior” dynamic between the service-learner and the community partner, where serving implies a mutually beneficial relationship – where your service as a student is appreciated but not required to “improve” or “change” the Deaf space.
WHAT IS AN ACTION LEARNING PLAN (ALP)?
As a student, it is important to keep in mind there is a much deeper element of service-learning that differentiates it from volunteering within the community. As opposed to volunteering, service-learning requires not only self-analyzation but the analysis of society, specific situations, and the PURPOSE of serving our community partners.
The Action Learning Plan (ALP) is self-written and takes into consideration all of the perspectives involved in service-learning. Carrying the ALP throughout our service-learning experience is essential for meaningful reflection.
My Action Learning Plan (ALP)
Service-learning is a mutually beneficial experience, in which students engage within the community – offering support to community organizations and programs such as in volunteering – while also gaining and applying our knowledge of - what the Learning Through Serving (LTS) textbook describes as - civic engagement and capacity. The purpose of our collaboration with CSL is to experience real- world Deaf Culture/Community through the application of ASL and service work in the Cornerstone Deaf program with Trena Shank. At the same time, the purpose extends to include the connection and confrontation between prior knowledge/assumptions (learned in the classroom) with actual knowledge and understanding of the Deaf experience through observation and engagement.
FROM CSL's PERSPECTIVE:
One purpose for collaborating with service-learning programs, in our case CSL and OSU, is because students in service-learning are receiving personal and academic benefits that ensure dedication to the community partner without monetary compensation. Additionally, allowing students to engage with the community partner stimulates background diversity and has the potential to benefit the organization and the clients.
My purpose is not to take over or fix the communication or even interpret between hearing and Deaf individuals involved with CSL, but to facilitate.
I am not needed, but my service involvement with Cornerstone Supported Living (CSL) and the Deaf community can mutually benefit me and CSL's Deaf Program.
QUESTIONS TO REFLECT UPON:
Why was I used to facilitate conversation between a Deaf CSL staff member and a hearing maintenance worker?
Why was I asked to make a call for a patient? Did I unfairly assume that I was supposed to just make the call or should I have instead looked into video relay services (VRS)?
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING
BEFORE STARTING MY SERVICE-LEARNING JOURNEY...
There is a large part of me that feels incredibly intimidated by community service. I think right now I'm probably about a 3 on my Service-Learning Scale of Anxiety, mostly because I worry about my ASL conversational and receptive skills. I also didn't think so many students in the 4189 class were going to be minoring in ASL studies. I kinda feel like a fish out of water. Maybe I've taken some of the same classes, but feel like I'm psychologically diminishing how much I know and then making myself more nervous.
I think my biggest hope is that I'll expand my knowledge of Deaf Culture and challenge what I know from ASL 1-3 Culture projects and tests.
AFTER 15 HOURS OF SERVICE...
I have really started to build relationships and make connections with the CSL staff and clients! I have also found that I was at first very nervous to engage with the service portion of the class, the learning aspect has been much harder for me than the service aspect. But I'm realizing that's the ENTIRE POINT! Asking why and reflecting on what I do during my time at CSL and with clients is the importance of developing Intercultural Competence!
During the first couple weeks of class, I wrote this about the roles that service students play at Cornerstone Supported Living:
"Volunteers, interns, and service students play a myriad of roles for the Deaf program within CSL. Due to the lengthy list of services that CSL provides, volunteers, interns, and service students have the ability to serve needs within the Day program (from 9 am-2 pm) and/or transportation needs, and residential needs during other hours that CSL provides its services."
In my experience, these roles specifically look like entertaining and engaging with clients during the Day Program and going with a CSL staff member to engage with a client at their homes over the weekends or after the Day Program on weekdays. Going to the residency of a client involves communication with the CSL Deaf Program supervisor, often service students can go along with the plans that the CSL staff member had for the day. As I have gained around 14-15 hours, I think I'm closer to a true 2 on the anxiety scale.
AFTER COMPLETING 40.5 HOURS OF SERVICE...
This has been such an amazing service journey! Although my signing and receptive skills still have a lot of room to improve, I have gotten more comfortable with signing. I think I'd place myself at about 1, just because I still find myself getting frustrated by my signing and receptive mistakes. However, Cornerstone Supported Living (CSL) has provided a unique opportunity to practice signing in ASL while speaking in English. I'm nowhere near perfect, but I know that I want to continue my work with the clients at CSL as a staff member this Summer!
What ended up being unexpected is how much the routine of the Day Program would have such an impact on me. After my first 6 hours at CSL, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to make connections or be an agent of change because I wasn't perfectly fluent in ASL. However, I realized throughout my service-learning journey that I knew more than I thought I did. The friendships and genuine connections I ended up making with the clients and the CSL staff turned out to be the things that make me come alive.
Laughing with the clients especially ignites my drive to be an agent of change anywhere I go. There have been several moments I think I will remember for the rest of my life, but one moment stands out:
There is one client at CSL, in particular, that is non-verbal and Autistic (Client N). For the entirety of the days I visit CSL, he stacks up wooden blocks into a box and then dumps out the box to repeat the process. A few days after Valentine's Day, while the OSU service learners were engaged all over the room doing puzzles or making crafts with clients, Client N came up behind me and swiped up half a cookie I had been eating and stuffed it in his mouth with lightning speed!
The whole room erupted in laughter and expressed their total bewilderment! Still chewing, Client N sat down next to me and went back to pouring out the wooden blocks and stacking them up again.