Research shows that students who perform community service linked to their coursework (“service-learning”) learn about and become more interested and involved in their communities.  Promoting citizenship is an important part of Central Connecticut State University’s mission and service-learning can help to accomplish that.  It can also help reverse the trend toward decreasing civic engagement described by Harvard University political science  professor Robert Putnam in his book “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community.”  Because the community service is integrated into a course, it is also an opportunity for learning and critical thinking.

Students in some CCSU psychology courses have service opportunities linked to their class work.  For example, many of my General Psychology students opt for projects in which they regularly visit the New Britain-Berlin YMCA’s after school childcare program.  There, they help children with homework, participate in games, and organize such group activities as “capture the flag” and making crafts.

Later, the students write papers in which they connect their community experiences to psychological

literature in child development, dealing with topics such as gender differences or formation of peer groups.  Their papers are a pleasure to read, as it is clear that they become very engaged in their service activities, and are forming relationships with the children, a combination that sparks their interest in research literature.

The “Psychology of Community Service” course has students involved in a variety of settings, including CWResources (a New Britain-based organization that empower persons with disabilities through employment), the Farmington Senior Center, and Clothes Make the Man (a Hartford-based agency helping low-income and disadvantaged men enter the workforce).

While students serve others, they examine their service from a psychological perspective, such as considering stereotypes of the people they serve.  They gain insights that can lead to a better understanding of psychological concepts and about the people they serve.  At the Farmington Senior Center, for example, students are often surprised by the vitality of the older adults they meet, and spend time with them in exercise classes, current-events discussions, and outings.  This involvement enables students to re-examine their own stereotypes about aging.

This fall, students in a General Psychology class linked with CCSU Professor Toni Moran’s American Government political science class became engaged in a different way.  They worked on political campaigns of both major parties in the New Britain mayoral election.  Involvement in local politics provided an opportunity for students to see from the inside a critical part of democracy.  Of course, the Republican students were happier than others with the outcome of the mayoral election, but all of the participating students learned about different political philosophies and why it is important to think through their own beliefs.

CCSU students become involved in the broader central Connecticut community through a variety of disciplines such as Teacher Education, Social Work, Anthropology, and others.  There is considerable interest among CCSU students in community involvement.

 (James M. Conway, Ph.D. is professor of psychology at Central Connecticut State University.)