During the spring semester, the “Artie Has Heart” event was implemented as part of the learning process and community service from SCC staff and students. This event was held on Friday, March 4 and was organized by the office of Service-Learning and Leadership (SLL) at SCC.

Director of Service-Learning and Leadership, Rebecca E. Bradley went over the four components of Service-Learning and what it means to not only SCC but to the community at large.

“In connection to service learning, there are four things that must be met. First, volunteers are expected to have to meet face to face and learn from community partners. Second, they are intentionally connected to the curriculum, this means, anything you do, must to be connected to the curriculum and what is learned in the classroom,” Bradley said. “Third, reflect on what is learned in the classroom and outside that can be collaborated and become better and fourth, it should be celebrated in some way.”

Bradley explained that the service allows for a deepening of learning, and making sense out of class, extending skills, clarifying personal values, developing the confidence of many people and also being more eligible for scholarship opportunities. Many scholarships require some kind of community service.

“So the more students have over 80 percent of community services in all kinds, will be the more eligible to get a scholarship,” Bradley said.

This event has been held inside and outside the campus involving a number of clubs and organizations: Center for Native and Urban Wildlife (CNUW), Ben’s Bells, Feed My Starving Children (FMSC), Foothills Animal Rescue, The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Wild at Heart and Wildhorse Ranch Rescue.

These clubs have a number of voluntary activities with community partners and provide an opportunity for SCC students and staff who want to participate. Since the SLL office was established in Summer 2012, they organized some resources like people, time, space and money and are purposefully dedicated to the pedagogy of service learning.

The SCC students and staff involved in the “Artie Has Heart” were very enthusiastic and happy to be involved in its purpose and implementation.

“I was so inspired by CNUW, (one of the programs involved) because we learn about native plants and wildlife around SCC and how efforts to protect the sustainability of ecosystems,” said SCC student Sheena Harvey, who has been involved in planting trees around campus.

SCC service-learning and leadership serves to help students take their learning to the next level by facilitating opportunities to connect classroom instruction with real-world experience through two main methods: service-learning and leadership lessons.

In each of these venues, students will work to develop as more engaged and aware citizens by addressing needs within our local and global communities.