Service Learning

Community Service and Service-Learning

Colorado State , as a land grant institution fosters service to Colorado constituents and communities through outreach activities, as exemplified by scholarship that cuts across teaching, research, and service. Outreach activities engage students and faculty in actions that benefit these external audiences in ways that are consistent with our departmental mission, addressing issues of design using research-based problem-solving strategies . Community service to the surrounding communities begins with a need established by the community. Faculty interests and student competency levels are matched with this need to provide a venue within which the learning experience will take place; generally projects are selected for investigation by faculty because the client would have no other means of developing or sustaining the project. Students work either individually or as a team, engaging in one or several phases of the design process - developing a statement of client need (program), exploring physical space needs through space planning (schematic design) or detailing the aspects of the solution (design development) that will need to be evaluated in terms of cost (project management). These projects allow students to experience real clients with real limitations within the context of their learning. Students have the opportunity to research and investigate many different project types, sometimes in an area that they might not have selected for study or future professional interests, but one rich in learning about people and their special needs. In return, community clients receive many diverse solutions to address these needs and have a chance to think about ideas and issue that they have not considered and that may in fact bring about a unique solution to their spatial challenges. Clients have been overwhelmed with the ideas generated by students through service to the community.

• 2005
  CSU Alumni Center, Fort Collins, CO
  Katie Aurigemma and Mary Ann Lane , Instructors
• 2002-2003
  CSU Graduate School, Fort Collins, CO
  Katharine Leigh, Professor
• 2001-2002
  Islamic Center of Fort Collins, Fort Collins, CO
  Katharine Leigh, Professor

The Islamic community in Fort Collins had been working toward their goal of building a structure to incorporate an alternative school, a gym and a place of worship for the expanding member ranks. The project was brought to the attention of the faculty member by a student in the class, herself a member of the Islamic community. On the morning of September 11, students and faculty were working on the project preliminaries during the events in NYC. Following that event, students were given the opportunity to alter or continue their project focus. Of 37 students, thirty-four continued on to develop individualized programs and solutions for the 30,000 SF complex. The project drove home an understanding of not only the Islamic culture. Individual members were awarded certificates and feted to a celebrational banquet at the end of the project that rivaled the best of international cuisine.

 

Service-Learning

Undertaking projects for the community at large is not new to the profession of interior design but using these experiences as sources of measured learning impacts how these projects are presented and carried out. Engaging designers in their civic responsibilities as creators of civic and public environments that shape and impact behaviors, attitudes and values was spurred on by the 1990 National and Community Service Act aimed at creating new generations of socially responsible young people. Service-learning differs from community service through reflections structured into the experience within which students examine and reflect upon their learning and grow through the experience. While class discussions related to project critique are frequent in design studios, written reflection is rare.

Discipline-based service-learning, as one venue of service-learning, provides hands on and experiential learning through design for community clients. It is an excellent match to the departmental mission of research-based problem-solving in two specific phases of the design process, in programming or establishing client requirements and in post-occupancy evaluation, where one re-visits built projects to understand what is working and what may need improvement, allowing the designer to filter this information for the next project undertaken, thereby improving the design knowledge base. In practice, this information remains proprietary and therefore many students do not realize the extent of their research capabilities as applied to practice. Such experiences enrich student awareness and learning of research applications as well as expand the students' portfolio of work through design and planning of unique spaces. The implications for using service-learning as an orientation to practice in interior design are unlimited when one considers student responses to real life clients, project characteristics that are not "fixed" by the instructor and a learning environment that actively invites asking "what if".

Service-learning was integrated into the senior year experience in interior design in 2003 beginning with the addition of formal reflection components to the community service activity. Each year a specific focus has been selected to expand learning. Clients are identified through community request (Berthoud, Pine Ridge) or competition (Roanoke) to allow student s the opportunity to experience client needs that generally differ from their own backgrounds or present an enriched research potential. In addition, students have developed unique portfolio pieces that exemplify team planning and design approaches.

• 2004-2005
  SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE - C2C Housing, Roanoke , VA and Pine Ridge Reservation,
  Pine Ridge , SD
  Katharine Leigh, Professor

Sustainability was an issue being recognized during the senior year experience, but this year, it officially became the focus of all design emanating from the class of 41 students. In searching for a community recipient, the director of CSU's Institute for the built Environment invited participation in design solutions for Native American residents of Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota . Professor Leigh had already organized and been recognized as a recipient of a HUD's housing award for her work on the adjacent Lakota reservation, Rose Bud, and she sought to construct a similar design adventure for the students in order to not respond to the question she raised, "What is the role of interior designers in sustainable practice?" but also to involve the class in a culture very different from their own backgrounds and experiences. Simultaneously, the Cradle to Cradle/C2C competition invited university teams to engage in developing a sustainable solution for residents of Roanoke , VA. These two projects had very similar objectives and students would be able to choose their target population.

These two research/project demonstrated that discipline based service-learning experiences can provide important acculturation experiences for students of the built environment. Interior designers must have the capacity to comprehend their clients; but what about clients that differ from the designer's own values and experiences? How does one transform cultural concerns when one is the "other." Decorating with artifact does not demonstrate sensitivity nor an understanding of intercultural difference. Students researched the populations they were designing for, attended presentations on Pine Ridge culture, looked at a video presentation made by a Pine Ridge resident, and throughout the project, responded to reflection questions that sought to measure learning. Students also modeled aspects of the project that demonstrated sustainable practices that included construction methods, planning solutions and building systems that would enhance water or energy conservation. Projects explored straw bale, Earthship and panel methodologies in their search to minimally impact the environment. Each of the seven teams presented their solutions and of the four C2C teams, one solution was selected to represent CSU in the university team category.

While each team developed a graphic poster(s) to depict their learning, written student reflections responses suggest that the team members working on project solutions for the Pine Ridge Reservation community were more aware of cultural influences on the project solution whereas teams working on the Roanoke project were more aware of site influences on final product. Team building was apparent as team members discussed their initial challenges in working together under a deadline; the project took place over a five week period. In the final analysis, students felt that the project had immensely expanded their learning both about sustainability as well as interior design practice. In a letter of support for one student provided by the coordinator of the C2C competition, she stated that the obvious benefits of the solutions by the CSU team demonstrate a level of learning that exceeds the classroom.