Monday, October 14, 2013

"Sync"ed Partnerships

I recently had the pleasure of meeting the ladies at the Assistance League of Boise. During my visit with them, I took a tour of their Operation School Bell sight. Operation School Bell is an incredible philanthropy that touches over 3,520 Ada County elementary school children per year. From September through November the goal of the Assistance League’s Operation School Bell philanthropy is to dress every elementary school child in need within Ada County. The money earned through the Assistance League’s thrift store is used to purchase new clothes. Some of the clothing products come from large scale distributors nationally, while others are purchased from local retailers, such as the Bronco Shop.

My role at the Assistance League was to help make their vision, of engaging students in an educational experience while they are waiting to "shop", a reality. The challenge in making their vision a reality was in getting an army of volunteers trained to implement the lessons.  The Assistance League contacted two other community organizations that work with Boise State Service-Learning to help make their vision a reality, Foothills Learning Center and Boise Watershed. Each of these community organizations designed a lesson that could be easily implemented by Boise State Service-Learning students.  Boise State Service-Learning students from Environmental Studies 121 signed-up to share their understanding of the environment while engaging students in thinking about the water cycle and recycling.
   


The challenge then became making this vision come to life with a unified understanding of the lessons.  To create this unified understanding, I filmed the delivery of each of the lesson plans, edited the film, and uploaded the videos to the Assistance Leagues' OrgSync portal. Students who missed the orientation could then view those videos, as well as students who just want a review the material.


The Assistance League can now decide if they are going to grow their library of activities, by adding more lessons each year, or continue to use the same lessons with training just one click away. This form of training may become a great alternative to getting service-learning students off and running quicker.

 -Jill K. Hettinger, Boise State University Service-Learning

1 comment:

  1. Not only are these Service Learning students teaching our children some valuable and usable environmental information but they are also great role models for our young children. Thank you BSU Service Learning students!!
    Becky Woodrfuff, VP Publice Relations for Assistance League of Boise

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