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Campus Review
August 15, 2014
Page 16
Blasco notes that her work had multiple
benefits that very directly tracked to
Buckley’s original vision.
“This project helped the Clayton State
student community and helped me to
learn as a person,” she says. “I learned
how to better research politics and about
local election positions. The best way to
learn something is to teach someone else -
- that’s what our guide accomplished.
“The project benefitted a lot of people,
that’s what was really special about it.”
Biology major Bri Heilsnis agrees that
Buckley’s project helped educate a lot of
Clayton State students.
“We found a lot of students had ideas and
opinions, but a lot of students couldn’t
vote or felt they didn’t have a way to
express themselves,” she says of what was
found during the student surveys. “They
care about what’s going on, they just don’t
know how the political chain works.”
Heilsnis notes that the students she sur-
veyed were most concerned about having
more money being put into education, in
the form of scholarships and programs,
and, yes, better pay for teachers. She also
noted that public safety, environmental
and health issue were at the top of the stu-
dents’ concerns list.
Heilsnis also says Buckley’s students also
learned about something else while sur-
veying the candidates; as she phrased it --
adults’ opinions of college students.
“Some had the attitude, `you’re just col-
lege students, so we don’t care about
you,’” she remarks. “But, we’re the next
generation. We’re being educated now for
the future.”
Akil Harris, another English major,
learned something during the research
process, including having the same expe-
rience as Heilsnis. He initially tried get-
ting information off of city or candidates’
websites, but found them outdated. So, he
went the old-fashioned way – the tele-
phone.
“I didn’t know I could just call them up,”
he says. “It was really interesting, some
candidates didn’t want to bother with us;
it was like we weren’t important.
“However, the research process was
important to me. I learned there were var-
ious means of research.”
In addition to learning about research,
Harris also notes that the project taught
the students some additional practical life
and academic skills as well, notably coop-
eration, meeting deadlines, allocating
tasks and teamwork.
Blasco, Heilsnis and Harris are all “tradi-
tional” freshmen, in that they are recent
high school graduates. John Lindsay, a
management major and another freshman
member of Buckley’s CSU1022 class, has
a different perspective. Lindsay joined the
U.S. Army at age 17 in 2003 and spent
nine years in the service. Still, even with
his previous life experience, he learned
some of the things that Buckley targeted
the class project for in the first place.
“It was nice to know about the bureaucra-
cy of cities, the lower level of politics are
more influential,” he says.
The consensus among all the students was
that they had indeed learned a lot from
Buckley’s class. However, they also see
the opportunity to learn more, both based
generally on their CSU1022 experience
and specifically on their community serv-
ice experience.
English major Harris would like to see
one of his future English classes get
involved with literacy – particularly read-
ing to young children in elementary
school classrooms.
“I’d be interested in reading, and tutoring
kids in writing skills,” he says.
Buckley, as a philosophy professor, teach-
es ethics at Clayton State. He also has
vision for the future.
“I’ve always wanted to have a service
project in my ethics class, something that
would help out a charity and would
involve some good volunteer work. I’d
like to combine ethical theory with a serv-
ice experience,” he says. “We study char-
ity as a virtue, it would be good to have
some experience with that process.”
Blasco may or may not end up in
Buckley’s ethics class, but she thinks that
connecting to the community again would
be something welcome in her future.
“It’s better than reading a book,” she says.
Partnering Academics
And Community Engagement
What is a QEP?
A QEP is a
Quality
Enhancement Plan.
Clayton State’s QEP -
Partnering
Academics and
Community
Engagement (PACE)
-
is designed to engage
students in service
experiences within
the community as
part of their courses.
Find out more about PACE
Process, cont’d.from p. 6