Service Learning Projects & Partners
Community-Based Learning is an educational initiative in which students complete a project in the community that directly relates to the objectives of a course and meets the needs of the community-based organization.
COMMUNITY-BASED LEARNING COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Projects are created collaboratively with a community partner - any project is possible! Here are just a few of our community partners.
- Wistariahurst
- Nuestras Raíces
- Voices from Inside
- Holyoke Media
- Holyoke Boys & Girls Club
- Girls INC
- The Care Center
- Reach Out & Read
- Springfield Schools Volunteers
- MSPCC/Halo Center
- Western MA Elder Care
- Geriatric Authority
- Kate's Kitchen/Margaret's Pantry
- Gandara Center
- The Trustees of Reservations
COMMUNITY-BASED LEARNING PROJECTS
Some examples of HCC Community Based Learning projects done at HCC:
● A Spanish heritage speakers course that has students learn to podcast and create a podcast using Spanish and English on topics related to Latinidad
● An Earth Science course in which students test CT River waters for nitrates and report/present their findings to the Connecticut River Valley Watershed Council
● An English and human services Learning Community course in which students learn about writing as a tool for healing and self-discovery, and then work with teen mothers studying poetry at the Care Center
● A web design course during which students design new websites for community-based organizations in Holyoke
● An English and sociology Learning Community on teen pregnancy in which students learn about poetry alongside teen mothers studying at the Care Center, and design an assessment tool for a teen pregnancy prevention program at the Holyoke Boys & Girls Club
● A robotics course in which students instruct the youth at the Holyoke Boys & Girls Club in the designing, building, and programming of robots
● A nutrition course in which students create an activity, a healthy recipe, and content for a lesson plan that teaches a nutritional concept to children at the Holyoke and Westfield Boys & Girls Clubs
● A marketing course in which students break into teams. One team completes a much-needed marketing plan/strategy for developing a new retail store run by Providence Ministries, the other team creates a much-needed survey for the Holyoke YMCA
● A nursing course in which students partner with the Holyoke Health Center's initiative that links literacy and health under Reach Out & Read
● An online anthropology course where students gain hands on experience with oral history and participate in building an archive of Holyoke resident and worker experiences during the COVID pandemic
