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the luxury of having a quiet environment to do their homework in the evening and some have nobody to help them out. Many of their parents can’t read or write and they don’t understand the system. The kids and the parents needed and welcomed the support.” Volunteering as a tutor with ‘pavee-study’ set a foundation for Hannah, helping to broaden her skills, which were later put to good use while on her school placement. “Attitudinal problems are an issue in every classroom, but I learned how to deal with them better. I was informed and more confident in my teaching,” Hannah recalled. Having developed through a balance of academic and community learning, Hannah’s outlook towards education has been transformed. “It was part of our course, but it’s something we really enjoyed; it completely changed my outlook towards education and as part of the overall course, it balanced out all the other more academic elements.
Anne-Marie Morrissey Occupational Therapy Graduate ccupational therapy student Anne-Marie Morrisey worked with her community by delivering a stress management programme designed to assist people with epilepsy. When people are stressed, they’re more likely to have a seizure. It’s a vicious cycle, so intervention acts to break down that cycle,” explained Anne-Marie, who in the third year of her degree regularly donated her time to her community as part of her service learning module. A need for stress intervention support was identified after teaming up with Brainwave, a community-based organisation committed to improving the lives of people with epilepsy. “Brainwave as a community organisation had no occupational therapy input before and they really saw the benefits of having such a service, especially in times of recession. They were so happy to have us involved and we were so happy to be able to help people,” Anne-Marie recalled. The stress management plan was devised to teach people how to deal with stress in the workplace, how to identify the triggers of stress and how to apply coping mechanisms such as breathing and relaxation techniques.
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“I was giving something back for a change not stuck behind the walls of the campus”
“There are particular breathing exercises for emergency situations and others for more prolonged periods of relaxation at home. People also learned about the warning signs such as headaches and how to deal with them,” explained the NUI Galway student. It was then delivered to the local community through a series of workshops, which allowed the students to learn from dealing with their service users and also invited the wider community into the university grounds. “I was giving something back for a change, not stuck behind the walls of the campus. It also allowed the service users to come into our world where the sessions were held in Áras Moyola while we gained 15
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Philosophy students attend the CKI Service Learning Conference at NUI Galway in 2010 practical experience in theirs,” Anne-Marie enthused. Having worked with epilepsy clients and supported the Brainwave organisation in the provision of tailored workshops, Anne-Marie’s growing interest led her to research the neurological disorder as part of her final year project and more recently, to her current PhD in neurology research. “It became the subject of my final year project and now I am about to start a PhD in research on neurology. An interest in that general area was sparked back then with service learning and it’s still here to this day.” As well as sparking enthusiasm in what has now turned out to be her specialist area, service learning also, she stressed, changed the community’s attitudes towards students. “Service learning changes people’s attitudes. People forget that we’re students and we’re treated like professionals. It’s a fantastic way of sparking enthusiasm and gaining respect.”
“Looking back, I would have been missing a huge piece of practical knowledge without it now. There was no better way to prepare me for the real world at that point in my learning,” she added.