November 17, 2016 Volume 87 Issue 5
Volunteering boosts resume, helps world By LIZ MOORE Ranger Reporter
AC students are putting down their textbooks to give the community a helping hand. By volunteering their time out of class, students say they’re making an impact. “It also just makes you a better person, and makes you feel more connected to your community,” said Clarissa Clifford, a biology major. Volunteering allows students to boost their resumes, or even earn scholarships in some cases. Future employers or admissions officers for colleges will look at volunteer work as a huge factor. “Most volunteer places have scholarships you can apply for just because you volunteer,” said My Nguyen, a biology major. “It creates a better opportunity to gain connections.” While some students only volunteer to boost
resumes or earn extra credit, some enjoy it outside of that. Volunteering for a grade or a resume can be a doorway into students giving back on their own time. “I felt that it was kind of interesting when I was
a college student that we would be required to do community service and volunteerism, because that’s more like being volun-told,” said Lesley Ingham, Badger Hearts faculty adviser. “In my junior and senior year (of high
classes even give extra credit if students donate food. While there is nothing wrong with only volunteering every once in awhile, it takes a lot of endurance to volunteer for years. “If you just swoop into the Evelyn Rivers Christmas project and have a good time, that’s one experience, that’s just a snippet,” said Ingham. “But the drudgery of volunteering long term you really have to love it to stick with it. You really have to love it to continue.” Clifford said you can just go pick up things that people aren’t always given, but are Photo Illustration By: Claire Ekas necessities to life, such as toothbrushes, toothpaste school) I volunteered involved, even on cam- and hygiene products. because it looks good pus. Making them feel more but as time passed by I The Badger Hearts human can make a world enjoy myself doing it so club is centered on of difference. it become part of me,” volunteering, and raises According to Ingham, said Nguyen. money every year to give what you do for others, There are many op- back to foster youth. you also do for yourself. portunities to volunteer The Food Pantry “You don’t grow until around the community is always accepting you get out of your and several ways to get donations, and some comfort zone,” she said.
Assignments teach civic engagement By MICAH SMITH Ranger Reporter
Honey bees are disappearing globally due to pesticides, parasites, disease and habitat loss. Humans rely on bees to pollinate one-sixth of the world’s flowering plants, as well as about 400 different species of plants important in agriculture.
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Former U.S. President Bill Clinton once said, “there is a need to help younger people recognize their own capacity to do good, and help them discover the rewards of generosity.” Texas colleges and universities are taking it into their own hands to teach their students about personal and social responsibility. According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which governs all state colleges and universities, students should develop intercultural competence, knowledge of civic responsibility, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global communities and the ability to connect choices, actions and consequences to ethical decision-making. The state has incorporated these learning objectives into the required general education core curriculum for all state colleges and universities. Social responsibility is defined as an ethical framework that suggests that an entity, be it an organization or individual, has an obligation to act for the benefit of society at large. At Amarillo College,
several classes have required assignments that ensure students meet the social and personal responsibility learning goals. As part of some of their core general education classes, students have to do a project that focuses on giving back to the community. “Our service learning project requires that you
done the school work, but you’ve also done something else that helps out the community,” said Rodriguez. Requiring students to learn social responsibility doesn’t just positively affect the community, it can also improve the lives of those doing the work, Rodriguez said. Another type of ser-
“Most of the dilemmas are not a right or wrong answer. The students are asked what they would do if they were in that particular dilemma.” An example of one of the ethical dilemmas students may be faced with is putting themselves in the shoes of President Harry Truman in 1945 and having to decide whether or not to drop the atomic bomb on Japan and spare millions of lives, or potentially endanger the lives of millions of Americans by not doing so. “The ethical dilemma paper teaches students a sense of what we would do if we were put in these situations and how it could affect others,” said Allison Prater, a physics vice learning project that major. students may have to Faculty members said partake in doesn’t involve service-learning projects volunteering. Instead, this help students to become assignment requires stu- better members of socidents to examine their ety. From volunteering own ethics and values to writing ethical dilemand relate their beliefs mas, educators are findto the subject they are ing ways to model social studying. Students in responsibility in their U.S history classes have classrooms. “What we to write an ethical di- do does affect the people lemma paper. around us. In order to be “It is a writing assign- a functioning adult, we ment where students are have to understand that asked to put themselves we’re going to interact in a particular histori- with other people and cal dilemma where they what we give back to our have to make a decision,” community does make said Dr. Stefanie Decker, an impact,” said Rodria U.S history professor. guez.
From volunteering to writing ethical dilemmas, educators are finding ways to model social responsibility in their classroom. do four hours of some sort of community service,” said Dr. Beth Rodriguez, a psychology professor. This community service can range from volunteering at the High Plains Food Bank or helping an elderly neighbor around the house. “Everyone is getting a degree now, so everybody has to do something else. Requiring the servicelearning project actually gives students a leg up when they go apply for scholarships or for internships or a job. It shows, not only have you
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