Graduate Richard Dima

More than 100 students, faculty members, administrators, and Board of Trustees attended the luncheon and colloquium, which explored the academic embroidery of Honors through the lens of service. Several students said they enjoyed taking Honors courses and believed the Service Learning component attached to many of them was extremely worthwhile. However, to keep the partnership alive, they suggested that Honors students doing Service Learning get "special attention," such as reduced workloads, ability get out of the final exam, or extra credit.

Even the most motivated individuals, they said, need to have that impetus.

Lori Moog Coordinator for Service-Learning

Linking Honors with Service Learning provides greater opportunities for both programs, according to Service Learning Coordinator Lori Moog, who spoke at the luncheon. She said Service Learning can provide innovative learning situations that complement the Honors Experience, such as helping parents tutor their children, fostering economic programs developed by business students, or providing local libraries with oral histories.

Maryann Barnes, a 1999 RVCC graduate now at Kean College where she is studying business management, told the audience she got involved with Service Learning because her professor offered the class the
chance to be exempt from the course final if students volunteered 30 or more hours.

That was the "carrot" she needed, Barnes admitted. She worked first at the ARC of Hunterdon County and in a subsequent course for Somerset Legal Services, where she helped provide free legal assistance to low-income individuals. "This turned out to be a completely positive experience for me academically," she noted.

Psychology Professor Mimi Dumville

Professor Mimi Dumville said she uses the Service Learning component of her Honors class in psychology to teach students to "think like a psychologist." According to Dumvifle, connecting real-life experience to the classroom experience helps the process along, breaking down barriers and fears. "Service Learning and Honors enable students to make connections," she added, "and build a connecting bridge to the 21^st century.

Among the agencies her students have worked for are the Carrier Foundation in Hillsborough, Middle Earth in Somerville, Agape House in Somerville, The ARC of Somerset County, the YMCA, Lyons Veterans Hospital, and Martin Luther King Youth Center.

Nursing Professor Helen Jones said Honors is the "perfect place" for nursing students to do their clinical/volunteer work. In her Honors course on women's health care, students must spend at least 12 hours a week on Service Learning but usually do at least 20 hours worth of work per week over a six-week module.

Past students have produced brochures on breast feeding with implants or after breast-reduction surgery, translated health pamphlets into Spanish, and did field work with newborns and pregnant adolescents.

Another speaker, RVCC graduate Richard Dima, now a Rutgers geography major, said his Honors and Service Learning experience enabled him to gain leadership skills, learn to use the computer, and move him into a paid position with an environmental group, the South Branch Watershed Association in Hunterdon County.

Graduate Diane Drude

1999 RVCC graduate Diane Drude, now at Kean College, said through taking Honors courses with service components, she began to feel "part of the big picture." A placement at the Superior Court of Hunterdon County helped her narrow down choices for a career.

Luncheon moderator was Ella Rue-Eyet, president of RVCC's chapter of Phi Theta Kappa. John Maguire of the Board of Trustees read a letter from former President Cary Israel singling out Honors and Service Learning for being national models. Israel said he is instituting an Honors program similar to ours in the Texas community college system where he now is president.