Beginning in September, students taking classes in a variety of departments faced a revamped curriculum, opening the doors to civic engagement and a newfound appreciation for Northfield.
Two years ago, Nate Jacobi was hired by the Center for Experiential Learning to begin a new program with St. Olaf professors that would incorporate civic engagement into the curriculum. Last summer, Jacobi held a Civic Engagement Institute with nine professors to offer 15 courses this academic year ranging from the political science department, social work, sociology/anthropology, statistics, history, philosophy, psychology, economics and others.
“Personally, I think it’s a great complement to the liberal arts education, especially in terms of fostering skills for responsible citizenship,” Jacobi said.
Jacobi explained that incorporating civic engagement into curriculum is a new trend at higher education institutes. Jacobi’s primary role is providing support to professors as they teach classes with the new curriculum. He also facilitates the connection between organizations and professors. At times, organizations either approach Jacobi about projects, or vice versa.
“The goal is to help students to develop civic skills and responsibility,” Jacobi said.
The primary focus of the program is to engage students in the community and enhance classroom learning.
Jacobi reports success with the classes that were done last fall and so far this spring.
“The response from professors has been very positive,” Jacobi said. “For some, it’s a challenge to teach class differently and then to redesign the course. Most would say that overall the students seemed more engaged with the material and content of the course.”
At the end of the semester last fall, a survey was given to all the students to get their feedback about their impressions of the redesigned courses. Of the students that responded, 90 percent said they found the civic engagement part of the course either “valuable” or “very valuable.”
In SOAN 373: Ethnographic Research Methods with professor Chris Chiappari, students work with after-school programs with Northfield public school students, conducting community based research. The students will interview Northfield students and conduct a qualitative community based research project for Tacking Obstacles Raising College Hopes (TORCH), a nonprofit organization that works to improve high school graduation and college enrollment rates among ESL students, Latino and first-generation college students.
In the past, students taking this class choose a topic or group on campus, ranging from Ole Choir to LARPers.
“The interesting thing is that we have an opportunity to do community-based research this year, a different type of research than what we normally do,” said Scott Grandt ’10, a student in the class.
Primarily in sociology/anthropology there is an “observer” and the “observed,” but this type of research will allow the students, or “observers,” to interact with students. Before they can begin their interviews, they’re currently just volunteering with the TORCH program, getting to know the students. There has been a delay because they need to have their research approved by an ethics board before proceeding with the interview.
“This is beneficial to St. Olaf students, to become integrated into the Northfield community,” Grandt said. “We’re all juniors or seniors, and it’s a little late to start learning about the community, but its better late than never.”
When the project is finished, the students will give their qualitative research to TORCH to apply for grants.
“I think it’s a great idea. At St. Olaf, there’s this general thought that we’re in a bubble and we don’t often interact or know what is going on in our own town,” Grandt said.
Last fall, professor Paul Roback in statistics partnered with the Cannon River Watershed and Dakota County Office of Planning with his class, STAT 212: Statistics for Sciences. Students in the classes analyzed stream monitoring data and residential survey data.
At the end of the semester, the students presented a paper based on their analysis of the data for both of the separate organizations. Normally, students in these classes propose and implement their own research projects to apply the material learned in class to exercise their knowledge.
“Students seemed to put a little more work into it because they knew that someone would be interested in their results, more than just the professor, and that it would be used by a community organization,” Roback said. “There was a little extra motivation.”
Half of the students analyzed data from survey of farmers in the Cannon River Watershed that looked at river-friendly practices, use of pesticides, waste disposal and other variables. There were few people at the Watershed office with backgrounds in statistics, so the use of undergraduate students provided an invaluable resource.
The other half of the class looked at data from a survey of residents in Dakota county that assessed how they felt about the quality of life, services provided, health care, law enforcement and other interests. The students reported the overall results at the end of the semester, comparing data between districts and with neighboring counties.
“There was so much data that there were six groups,” Roback said. “Immediately after the presentation there was talk of doing further analysis on the data, possibly with the STAT 272 class in the future.”
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