Final Reflection Paper on Service Learning Project Directions

WST 3015: Final Reflection Paper on Service Learning Project

Purpose:
• To reflect on and connect your SL project with the goals and content of the
course.
• To demonstrate your knowledge—at semester’s end—of the course materials
• To consider how SL deepened your understanding of these materials
Your paper will include three sections: Service Learning Project Summary; Synthesis of Project and Course Materials; and Personal Reflection/Connection. While one final project, each section should be clearly labeled. Please include a word count at the end of each written section.

1. Service Learning Project Summary 30%: 500 words; please be concise; note that much for this section probably already exists in your proposal, which I hope you will draw from here.

o Origins and scope of project: what did you plan to accomplish and why?
o What exactly did you do? How did the project evolve, what were the
successes and limitations of your project and its goals, and what have you
learned from that?
o What institutional framework did your project interact with?
o What was the significance of your project to the texts, themes, and goals
of the course?
o How was your understanding of the texts/issues considered in the course
upheld, complicated, or negated by the process of completing the project?
o What do you hope your audience gained from your project?

2. Synthesis of Service Learning Project and Course Material 35%: Answer ONE of the following questions that most connects with your SL project. This section should be 500 words and should include textual support and/or documentation from course texts and at least two external resources. You should be able to use your weekly activism logs to answer this question.

o What can people do in their communities on behalf of women and/or
girls? Discuss how one or more of the following impediments impacts
action in communities: internalized oppression, internalized domination,
operating from a politics of scarcity, subscribing to a hierarchy of
oppression, not knowing one another’s history.
o Discuss a single institutional framework that shapes women’s lives and
impacts their lack of human rights. Discuss how that institutional
framework could be redefined from a feminist perspective.
o What idea, concept, or story stands out as the most significant thing you
have learned about women and their experiences with regards to diversity
of women across differences in culture, religion, sexuality, race, age,
socioeconomic situation, etc?
o What is the relationship between women’s present situation and one of the
following: biology, religion, education, media, culture, violence,
economics, globalization, sexuality, militarization, environment?

3. Personal Reflection and Connection 35%: This section should be 500 words and can be in the form of an ONLINE scrapbook, photo-essay, or a video journal. If you choose the multi-media approach to this section, remember that you must still address how you have engaged with the course and provide some reflection of how you personally were impacted (this can be done in captions, etc.)This would be included in your presentation.

o This section will consider what you’ve read, discussed, and experienced
throughout the semester, both in and out of class, including both the
readings and the SL project you completed. Describe specific moments, or
readings, or events and connect them with specific thinking or behavior of
your own. Of course, these specific instances may be positive and
negative, clear and unclear (sometimes both at the same time!). The
important thing here is to demonstrate that you have connected what you
have read and done in this class to who you are as a woman or a person
who lives in a world with women and how you might think and behave in
the future. Here you might consider what is next for you, as a student or
as a global citizen.

Criteria for Grading:

CONTENT: The paper follows the requirements of the assignment and meets the criteria described. The paper is organized and developed sufficiently, with claims supported by evidence from the texts and from your SL project experience. The paper is free of empty language and unnecessary or uninformative sentences and words. The paper observes academic language, diction, and grammar, is presented in proper format for MLA citations, and is generally free of mechanical, spelling, and proofreading errors.

ORGANIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT: Each section of the paper is developed in a clear and systematic way that reflects its overall purpose and focus. Paragraphs use topic sentences effectively and support points with evidence. Supporting evidence is clearly and explicitly connected to assertions and claims. Ideas are developed to logical conclusions—that is, the paper goes beyond what to how and why.

KNOWLEDGE DEMONSTRATED: Each section of the paper demonstrates your ongoing presence in and engagement with the course and its materials and central issues and concerns. Your writing demonstrates mindful interaction with specific texts and their implications. Your use of texts is wide-ranging, demonstrating a depth and breadth of understanding.

Quotes for reflection and inspiration:

“The personal is political.” --feminist slogan

“Too many of us have become passive and disengaged. Too many of us lack confidence in our capacity to make basic moral and civic judgments, to join with our neighbors to do the work of community, to make a difference. Never have we had so many opportunities for participation, yet rarely have we felt so powerless . . . . In a time that cries out for civil action, we are in danger of becoming a nation of spectators.”----A Nation of Spectators: How Civic Disengagement Weakens America and What We Can Do About It (1998 – National Commission on Civic Renewal)

You may not be able to do much about the government, but you can do something about what is in your power.-- Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Winner (2004). The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience. New York, NY: Lantern Books, 2004. 128-29.

Activism is not issue-specific
It’s a moral posture that, steady state,
propels you forward, from one hard
hour to the next.
Believing that you can do something
to make things better, you do
Something, rather than nothing.
You assume responsibility for the
privilege of your abilities.
You do whatever you can.
You reach beyond yourself in your
imagination, and in your wish for
Understanding, and for change.
You admit the limitations of individual
perspectives.
You trust somebody else.
You do not turn away.
--June Jordan, cited in WLMP 532