Community Service-Learning in WST

A significant feature of our undergraduate program is the degree to which our instructors have embraced Community Service-Learning (CSL). The incorporation of CSL into Women’s Studies courses at the University of Alberta exposes students to a range of community learning opportunities and facilitates links between scholarship and activism. Moreover, these learning opportunities coincide with academic work in the classroom. In such courses, alongside the more typical requirements of essays and exams, assignments such as journals, blog assignments, and poster presentations encourage students to reflect upon their volunteer opportunities in the context of scholarly literatures and debates. To date, WST 201, 202 and 431 have been offered as CSL courses and our students have worked with a range of Edmonton social justice organizations, including, the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters, the Elizabeth Frye Society, the Women's Emergency Accommodation Centre, the Global Visions Film Festival, the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund and the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton. For students, these course-based community learning experiences provide opportunities for the development of active citizenship and career-based skills (including leadership, organization and research).

Comments from past CSL students

As part of my Women's Studies degree, I had the opportunity to get involved with the Community Service Learning program, completing three placements before I graduated in 2011. In my first Women's Studies class I had my first CSL placement - it was with Adamant Eve, Edmonton's feminist radio show that airs on the campus radio station CJSR. I had never had any desire to work in radio, and in fact was terrified of public speaking, but three years after that placement I have now been the producer of Adamant Eve for a year and a half (as well as the show's CSL mentor), I am completing an internship as the National Coordinator of GroundWire, a national alternative news radio program, and I am currently looking for work in community radio with some promising opportunities on the horizon. Not only has my CSL placement brought me unexpected career options, but it has also provided me with an awesome feminist community and countless opportunities to learn more about feminist topics and issues as well as participate in more feminist activism. - Sam Kriviak (BA '11)

CSL as a part of Women's Studies has enabled me to garner a greater grasp on overall course concepts as the experiences I have gained through course specific volunteer opportunities have allowed me to greater connect lived realities to the theoretical propositions. Furthermore, the CSL component within a course has brought me into areas of the community of which I would not normally be involved in, and has subsequently fostered a grassroots involvement with an increased connection and understanding of the community in which I live.  - Alana Cabana (WST Major)