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WVU Spring Break Service-Learning Course
Community Organizing & The Civil Rights Movement in Alabama
Course Title: Community Organizing and the Civil Rights Movement
Course Location: Alabama
Academic Instructor: Jen Saffron, MFA
Service-Learning Facilitator: Daniel Funk
Course Description
This course is designed to introduce students to key aspects of the US Civil Rights movement and the important role that community organizers have played in the movement. Students will travel to the Southern States of Alabama and Georgia for direct experience, lectures, interviews with community organizers, historical sites, churches, museums, and other places that were and are integral to the civil rights movement in the United States. Lectures and readings will cover topics such as: “race beat” journalism of the late 50s/early 60s’; African American history; collective and personal identity; integration of schools; racial discrimination and the law; and hate crimes. Participants will witness important sites along the Alabama Civil Rights Museum Trail, including: the route of the march from Selma; the Tuskegee Institute; and the 16th Street Baptist Church. Students will also travel to the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, a truly incredible place for witnessing the life and works of one of our country’s great leaders.
This course instructor routinely lectures on civil rights history and photojournalism; teaches courses at the University of Pittsburgh such as “Race and Class in American Photography,” and is a community activist, herself. These assets, including her personal contacts with civil rights organizers in Alabama, will make this course a one-of-a-kind experience for the students.
Students will write an academic paper on an applicable research topic of their own. For the service component to the course, each student will give a presentation to his/her home community upon returning, sharing how this experience has made an impact on their cultural understanding of themselves and others.
Course Learning Outcomes
Students who participate in this course and complete the assignments will:
- Identify and define key civil rights terms and concepts, as learned from lectures and discussions given by the instructor.
- Understand the role of the civil rights movement within the larger context of the development of the community organizing movement and American history
- Establish a well-informed dialogue (and internal reflection) about issues of difference
- Articulate how civil rights issues relate to the student’s value framework and worldview, particularly through their responses, in writing, to experiences along the trip.
- Present their experience in an original presentation to a group, which:
- Demonstrates their public speaking and communication skills
- Determines their own role and scope as a change agent in their own community
Academic Details
One academic credit awarded through West Virginia University:
Service-Learning: Global Service-Learning (SRVL 293) - 1 credit
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Program Timeline
March 1 - 24
2 class meetings and academic preparatory work
March 24 - 31
Intercultural Service-Learning in Alabama
April 1 - 15
2 class meetings and academic completion of course
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Program Tuition: $840 / $740*
* Updated 2/8/07 - Tuition Discount: Students who apply by February 23, 2007 will receive a $100 program tuition discount.
Program Tuition Includes:
- 1 undergraduate academic credit through West Virginia University
- Room and board during spring break academic program
- Scheduled educational, cultural and service activities
- Transportation to Alabama
Additional Program Related Expenses:
- Travel related expenses including medical insurance
- Course textbook and materials
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Global Service-Learning & Program Expectations >>
WVU Spring Service-Learning Course Application (pdf)
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Instructor, Jen Saffron,
on an Amizade Jamaica program
Global Service-Learning & Program Expectations >>
WVU Spring
Service-Learning
Course Application (pdf)
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