Lonely as a Clud ;)

Part II:  Expert Sources

         Ellin McDonough deals with service learning in the community on a daily basis.  She is the program director for service learning at Winthrop, and works with the Rock Hill community to assess the needs of the community that Winthrop students can help to address.

         McDonough often works with Winthrop students and their volunteering projects.  She helps to organize the different service projects that the campus provides to draw students in as well as working directly with the ACAD classes on their service projects.  McDonough gets the chance to observe the students on these service-learning outings, and said that she observes different motivations for every student when it comes to volunteering.

         McDonough said that service motivation comes from a variety of places.  She said that a lot of students coming into college from high school bring an interest in service that stems from their high school involvement, while other students are motivated to work through their own personal values instilled by family. 

         “We have students that automatically are kind of engaged before they come [to Winthrop] and usually contact our volunteer and community service office and start to get involved,” McDonough said.

         She also said that while there are an increasing number of students who volunteer in the Rock Hill community simply because they are passionate about contributing, there are students who only volunteer for personal benefits.

         “We do have a lot of students who have a ‘what’s in it for me’ kind of scenario while they’re serving,” McDonough said.  “They’re just beefing up their resume and they’re getting extra experience…but no matter how a student comes in, the outcome is the same.”

         McDonough said the main benefit for students who volunteer is that they get the chance to grow as a person and be an active citizen to the community when they leave college.

         The National Corporation for Community Services predicts that volunteer service by college students has increased by 600,000 students in just three years.  McDonough said that this massive increase is definitely feasible, and can even be seen on Winthrop’s campus.  The number of student volunteers at Winthrop has grown in the last few years, and McDonough said that the service learning staff is a big part of that.

         “A lot of it [the volunteering increase] at Winthrop is due to having more staff dedicated to the programs,” she said.  “We’re offering more opportunities for students to be engaged.”

         McDonough also said that in addition to providing more opportunities for student service, the service learning staff have infused education into service activities at Winthrop, promoting better understanding of community issues that will hopefully spur students to become more passionate about volunteering in general.

         “We have a lot of students that are very passionate about service—I think Winthrop as a whole,” McDonough said.  “…We naturally recruit very liberal minded, very conscientious students, so we actually have a large student body that likes to serve.”