Professor receives community service award for work in service learning in Gratiot County

RACHEL KINGSTROM

Staff Writer

Mark Seals, assistant professor of education, is receiving recognition for his efforts to incorporate service learning in the curriculum of his courses.

Seals has been awarded the Michigan Campus Compact Faculty/Staff Community Service-Learning Award for 2003 for his implementation of various service learning projects. He was nominated by Anne Ritz, Serving Learning Coordinator, to receive this extraordinary honor.

Seals’ award is the highest annual award that MCC bestows on faculty and staff in the state of Michigan. “It was kind of a shock. I thought they had made a mistake,” Seals said. “I put a lot of time into the grants, and I’m glad someone recognized the efforts.”

Seals applied for two grants, which allowed him to do service projects in different areas. The projects, called “Trashalysis” and “Seniors for Schools,” involved both the college and local schools in Gratiot County.

“Trashalysis” was a project that involved taking a group of students out of the area schools and having them clean up an area of the city. Seals and the students worked with the local agencies and went to a local park to pick up trash. The grant paid for safety equipment and other necessary items.

After doing the actual project, Seals had the students analyze the data they had collected from it when they got back to the classroom. “It was a good experience for everyone,” Seals said.

Since the program was a success, Seals used the experience as an example for his college students to teach them what a service project is. “The purpose of service learning is to link it back to the curriculum,” he said. “It’s not just a neat project.”

The other project that Seals was involved in was “Seniors for Schools.” The idea of the program was to get as many senior citizens into as many of the area schools as possible. “Seniors have a world of experience,” Seals said. “A lot of kids don’t get enough attention at home, and the seniors can be there as support for the kids.

Seals places a lot of importance on incorporating service learning into the curriculum. A number of students from the college have experienced this philosophy first-hand and have benefited from it.

Eileen Cole (04) is an education student, and took one of Seals’ classes in which the students did the “Trashalysis” project. “He made it fun,” she said. Cole said that she particularly liked that. Seals provided the class with extra facts about the project, which made it more interesting.

Cole was confident that Seals is deserving of this prestigious honor. She feels that he is very dedicated to his work and is committed to making a difference. “He’s a really great guy, and he’s easy to talk to when you have questions,” she said. “He works really hard to incorporate service learning into all of his classes.”

Seals was extremely pleased to receive the award, but said that it was not his ultimate goal.

“I didn’t do the projects to get an award,” he said. “It’s something I enjoy doing. I wasn’t expecting it.”

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