Geoffrey Campbell

Service Learning Course(s):

• JOUR-2346, Reporting

“What's neat about service learning is that students can learn in a way that they're not conscious of it but that they can through reflection."

Since 2013, Geoffrey Campbell has been a part of the UTA community within the department of communications. Even though becoming a teacher was not his intentions, he found that teaching has been a wonderful experience thanks to the faculty fellows program.

With the incorporation of service learning into his course, Geoffrey was able to pursue this transformative learning experience that allowed his students to become connected with the community essentially fostering growth and discovery of their academic purpose. The opportunity offered by the faculty fellows program guided the cooperation of many faculty and community partners.

Learning the constitutions of effective teaching made the program worth every minute because the information was impactful and valuable. Geoffrey believes that service learning is crucial to education because it adds another level of interaction of the learning experience as the students are giving action on what they are learning. This can be seen when Geoffrey's students worked with the City of Arlington's Parks and Recreation as they visited the elderly to alleviate any experience of isolation.

Geoffrey hopes that students in the future pursue his class not just because their advisor told them to but to seek experience so that they can personally be engaged in the experience that they will acquire. Geoffrey advises faculty who are hesitant to integrate service learning to give it a chance and know that it won't be perfect, but that you can use whatever failures and successes to enhance your project moving forward.