“Finding clients is not difficult,” she said. “Clients find the program.” Christy Naquin, executive director of the Bayou Country Children’s Museum, said the course has benefited the museum’s development in numerous ways, specifically by providing the logo, 31-page branding guidelines and several brochures and folders. “We could not be happier with the final product and outcome,” she said. Nicholls has become a leader in Louisiana for service-learning projects. Students, faculty and staff members perform an average annual total of 176,000 volunteer service hours, enhancing both the economy and culture of the Bayou Region. Photo by Misty Leigh McElroy
Trisha Dubina, assistant professor of art at Nicholls, displays design projects from the Department of Art’s servicelearning capstone course.
In addition to offering service-learning courses, the university also hosted a UL System service-learning mini-conference in spring 2010. Free and open to all Louisiana university faculty members interested in incorporating service learning into their classes – as well as community members interested in partnering with Nicholls to conduct servicelearning projects – the event allowed participants to exchange ideas and learn how service-learning can create a more effective learning environment and strengthen communities. Such commitment to service-learning has earned Nicholls the highest federal recognition a university can receive for its devotion to volunteerism, service learning and civic engagement – the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll – four times in the past five years.
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Nicholls State University – Nine Universities Strong