TWO HOUR WEEKLY COMMUNITY SERVICE REQUIRED
THIS IS A SERVICE LEARNING COURSE

How do people become homeless?  Is poverty a necessary feature of
contemporary society?  What can we do to end child abuse?  This
course will ask students to explore current social controversies
using both academic materials and service learning experiences.
Students in  is this course will perform at least 32 hours of
community service over the course of a semester (about 2 hours per
week).  We will center both our volunteer work and academic inquiry
around 5 or 6 different social problems such as homelessness and
hunger, animal control, child poverty and abuse, domestic violence,
illness and aging.

Through class readings and discussion, we will examine the
sociological literature on the extent, causes and consequences of
the social problems.  In addition, we will read excerpts from
sociological work on volunteering in similar contexts.

Students are required to complete 32 hours of community service.
Tentative course requirements include a journal detailing their
experiences of community service, a final paper integrating personal
experiences with academic literature on their social controversy,
weekly reading quizzes, and a short presentation.