Honors Course Highlight: Citizenship and Service Lerning

Since class registration is coming up pretty soon, I thought it might be a good idea to highlight a couple of the courses that the Honors College will be offering next semester. The course I will be highlighting today is one of our UH 101 courses...Citizenship and Service Learning.

I took this course during the fall of my freshman year, and it was one of the best class experiences I have had thus far. This course has two components: a classroom component and a tutoring component. You'll meet in a classroom once a week for philosophical discussions on a wide variety of topics related to the themes of community and leadership. You'll also spend two hours a week tutoring at-risk kids at a local elementary school. (Don't worry, no previous tutoring experience is required...although a thorough knowledge of third grade level addition and subtraction is helpful.)

I tutored third graders at Holt Elementary when I took this course.

The tutoring component of this course serves several purposes. First of all (and probably most obviously), you'll be helping kids learn material that will be very important to their future academic endeavors. Second, and perhaps more importantly, you'll be providing these kids with some much needed special attention. Many of the kids (but not necessarily all of them) who sign up for the program come from families with tough economic backgrounds. In many cases, this means that the parents unfortunately have to spend most of their time working...and the kids really craze attention as a result.

While the tutoring is definitely a satisfying component of this class, the time that you spend in the classroom is also quite rewarding. The teacher, Judith Halli, is one of the best discussion leaders I have encountered on campus. If the class is structured the same way it was when I took it, then there will be a brief assigned reading for every meeting (you will also have to write a one page reflection on the reading). The class meeting itself consists mainly of discussion of that week's reading. I would describe the workload as light...and as long as you participate in discussion and put some thought into your reflections, an A is a likely grade.

This course really was one of my best academic experiences on campus. It was both fun and rewarding. So...if you're looking to pick up and Honors course next semester, I can definitely recommend "Citizenship and Service Learning."