Guess what
our Corrections Club was up to last week! Criminal Justice/Corrections Club
students gave their time and energy to Service-Learning and engaged in a
project with Habitat for Humanity in Washington/Dodge County.
Corrections
Club President, Jessica Parsons, has passion, enthusiasm and a sincere desire
to become actively involved in the community through Service-Learning projects
and has passed this passion on to other club members to become engaged in the
process. It began at a meeting when Jessica proposed the club focus should be on giving back to the community. Students in the program/club identified poverty, homelessness, hunger, MH and AODA issues as some of the contributing factors affecting individuals and correlation among/within the CJ system. In an effort to increase awareness and empathy among club members, it was decided the club would be part of the solution and get involved!
Club members
and advisor met at a Habitat home in Washington County and assisted with
mudding drywall, taping windows/doors to prep for painting, texture walls using
a hopper and another student would complete the knock down of the texture. Two
other students assisted with the breakdown of scaffolding at the other Habitat
site (MPTC students in another program are currently building a duplex in
Washington Co).
Photo: Joseph Clark, Peter Giove, Matthew Henning, Steve Smith, Jessica Parsons and Joan Barfield (Connections Science Instructor at MPTC).
Near lunchtime, the soon to be owner of the house arrived and the students had the opportunity to meet her and learn that she would be moving in with her four children. Currently, they are living in a homeless shelter.
Interestingly, many of the club members who
helped with the house, were students in one or more of
Brenda Schaefer’s classes and had the opportunity to engage in service-learning
projects previously.
This is proof that service-learning is so meaningful to
our students that they would love to help out again. Providing
"service" and "learning" can create an impact in the lives
of all members of a community.
