Campus Community Collaborations
Examples & Resources for Community Colleges

Brevard Community College (BCC) and the Brevard County School Board have developed a joint service-learning initiative which profoundly impacts both institutions and Brevard County. The school system and the college have created a classroom that goes far beyond the walls of our buildings and campuses, instilling in students a lifelong commitment to civic duty, from kindergarten through adulthood.

This article features the historical context, spotlights innovations of our collaborative efforts, and delineates some suggestions for successful implementation of K‚14 service‚learning collaboration.

The college and school district have a rich history of cooperation. BCCÌs Center for Service-Learning (CSL), established in 1988, has placed and supported more than eleven thousand students in hundreds of community agencies and organizations. Annually, the CSL places more than 350 students in the school system who tutor, mentor, assist teachers, and work in diverse capacities.

An effective conduit for the placement and support of BCC students has been the Brevard County School BoardÌs volunteer program, the APPLE Corps. Through this organization, the framework was established for significant collaboration between BCC and the school board.

A small but important minigrant was jointly authored by BCC service‚learning staff and L. B. Johnson Junior High School in 1989. BCC students tutored and mentored about twenty at‚risk students at the school. Through successful implementation of the grant, the college demonstrated its intent and capacity to provide students as resources to help in the schools.

Simultaneously, college students documented, through evaluations and journals, positive learning experiences through serving in the schools. Many college students decided to make teaching a career because of their experiences. The CSL shared these student testimonials and other benefits of service‚learning with key school district administrators and teachers.

One of the most critical ingredients for further development of the partnership emerged in the middle of the college's curriculum: Scores of high school students who were attending college through early admission or dual enrollment began doing service‚learning in their regular college classes for partial or extra credit. Some of these students became ambassadors for service‚learning initiatives in their high schools.

Concurrently, three other factors gave additional impetus to an eventual model for service-learning partnership: (1) The Florida Academic Scholars program was established by the state, which required high school students to do seventy-five hours of community service as a part of the criteria to receive the scholarship. (2) A service‚learning grant was submitted by BCC to FIPSE (Funds to Improve Post‚Secondary Education). Although the proposal was not funded, the college and school district both supported and authored the grant application. This failure planted fertile seeds for the future. (3) Florida K‚12 Learn and Serve provided service‚learning grants to individual Brevard County schools. Teachers began to seek information from the college on how to conceptualize and utilize service‚learning.

School reform initiatives, both national (Blueprint 2000) and statewide (Florida Scholars) placed service-learning on the table of educational possibilities. The college, through its staff and program development funds, developed a pilot project in fall 1994. RISE (Reflection and Incorporating Service and Education) demonstrated that high schools could effectively incorporate service‚learning into regular classes.

During this critical time, the school district designated the resource teacher for Accelerated Programs and Equity to be the contact for the CSL. Individual schools began to have more autonomy on curriculum matters, but district proactive guidance was vital.

The provost and dean of instruction on BCC's Cocoa Campus enthusiastically endorsed and supported our blossoming efforts. The provost encouraged the inclusion of BCCÌs service‚learning course, Community Involvement, in dual enrollment course offerings with the school system. Additionally, the provost authorized and championed a part‚time K‚12 coordinator position for the 1995‚96 academic year. The CSL director, district resource teacher, and K‚12 coordinator could now work as a team to coordinate and implement new service‚learning curriculum initiatives.

During 1995‚96, several initiatives came to fruition:

• The continuation of building a service‚learning infrastructure in selected schools. Service‚learning staff work with individual school staff to support teachers and students. The recruitment, placement, and follow‚up of student service learners provide much needed support.
• Co‚authoring of a Learn and Serve grant yielded an official school district commitment to enter into partnership with BCC.
• The development and scheduling of a dual enrollment service‚learning course, Community Involvement, at one high school. Ten students enrolled for this initial service‚learning course, which led to the scheduling of four courses at four district high schools for fall 1996. Enrollment is expected to exceed one hundred students.
• The initiation of ongoing teacher training in service‚learning through in‚service workshops. The initial four‚hour workshop involved more than twenty teachers. A recertification course composed of sixteen hours of seminars and thirty-two hours of service attracted ten teachers.
• Collaboration with Cocoa High School on an at‚risk youth program funded by a grant from the Florida attorney general's office: Teachers and students were taught service‚learning, and a service mentor program pairing college students with at‚risk high school students at service sites was implemented.
• The CSL and school board work together on several administrative and curriculum matters that will enhance service‚learning throughout the school district. BCC service‚learning staff work closely with the district's grant coordinator to provide technical assistance to teachers and schools who seek service‚learning grants. CSL staff speak at various schools and districtwide meetings.

Top priorities for the future are expanding service‚learning dual enrollment courses; developing a continuum of service opportunity at selected schools; utilizing college students as service‚learning leaders in schools; extending teacher training and technical assistance; and impacting more schools in the district.

• Provide resources on campus to build an infrastructure for service‚learning. Because BCC had a strong college service‚learning program, resources could be extended to work with the school system.
• Set a priority for collaboration. Although the college places student service learners in more than 240 community organizations, we identified a few organizations in which to commit more resources. The school system was identified because of past BCC student service learners' experiences in the schools and our parity of overall missions to educate the populace of Brevard County.
• All-for-one and one‚for‚all philosophy. Education is a lifelong commitment, kindergarten through adulthood. Recognition of our common purposes, problems, and philosophies was an important catalyst to our collaboration's success.
• Flexibility and persistence are integral. Partners are not necessarily equal in the beginning of collaborations. Start with small successes and initiate pilot projects to demonstrate the worth of collaboration. Quick documentation and dissemination of information about the impacts of service‚learning are vital. We found that it was vital to consider timing and the needs of both collaborators before meaningful progress could be achieved. The schools' immediate needs are of utmost importance and can serve as inroads for service-learning.
• Local action and national vision are needed. Key school district and college staff are needed to accomplish the nuts and bolts of service-learning. However, utilizing national and state curricular guidelines, programs, and success models are important to drive the engine of service‚learning collaborations.
• Top administrative support. The connections for successful collaboration emanate from all levels of the college and school system, but it is critical to have institutional leaders' support for service-learning curricular or program development.

Dr. Maxwell C. King is District President of Brevard Community College in Cocoa, Florida, a multicampus institution. Dr. King has served as president since 1968. He is Co-Chair of the Florida Campus Compact and is serving a second three-year term as a member of the Executive Committee of the National Campus Compact. He also serves on the Campus Compact National Center for Community Colleges Executive Advisory Board.

Dr. King has provided vision and leadership for the collegeÌs nationally recognized and often replicated service-learning program, which he began in 1988. The Brevard Community College program has involved more than eleven thousand students who have served approximately 375,000 hours to the community. The program works closely with more than 240 community organizations and agencies, including crisis care, child care, education, the environment, government, health care, the justice system, senior services, youth services, substance services, and special adults and children.

		Service-Learning and Community Collaboration: Connecting Faculty Values to Community Service
		Making the Connection: College and Community
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