Class focuses on community service learning

Not everyone gets the opportunity to advocate land preservation in Alaska and Utah or contribute to the wellbeing of their community. Twenty-four SCOM 313 students earn credit for doing just that.

Pete Bsumek, assistant professor in the school of communication studies, is instructing the class this semester for his second time.

"Students will learn by doing as they take their knowledge and apply it to specific tasks," Bsumek said. "You take things you’ve read books about and heard lectures on and really apply it."

The class is broken into four teams focusing on certain issues and working with non-profit organizations — the Blacks Run Greenway, Alaska Wilderness League and Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

"The idea is to learn the things you would in an internship, in addition to helping out the community," Bsumek said. "It gives students a taste of what it means to be involved in your community."

Two groups of students, with about five students each, will work with Blacks Run, a stream that runs through Harrisonburg. The first group will clean up the area and restore vegetation, in addition to building a greenway bike path connecting parks to one another.

The second group’s focus is to spread awareness about local environmental concerns. They will put together information packets about the causes of pollution as well as how to keep the area clean. On April 9, the Harrisonburg community will have a clean-up day, something the students will also be working together to promote.

Dia Russell, stream health coordinator for the city of Harrisonburg, has begun working with these two teams from Bsumek’s class.

"I am hoping that we are able to creatively advertise a healthy body of water and get the word out that Blacks Run can be a great natural resource and asset," Russell said. "We also want to focus on how all of our individual activities can affect water quality."

The other two groups will be working with national organizations. "These students will be affecting change at a national level," Bsumek said.

Students working with the Alaska Wilderness League will concentrate their efforts on the prevention of drilling in an arctic refuge. The group is going to work closely with grassroots organizations, political activists, as well as the national outreach coordinator for the AWL.

"I am glad this class is giving us the forum to actively work towards something outside of the JMU community," junior Yasmeen Alamiri said.