The 2016 spring semester at Stevenson University brought Girl Scouts of Central Maryland six phenomenal and committed students to complete their service learning hours for the Parenting course they were taking under the leadership of Dr. Maria Wong.

These students, Mina Mohammed, Kayla Evans, Ashley Galope, Kirandeep Kaur, Sharon Logue, and Chakyra Whittington, each volunteered 15+ hours, facilitating Community Programs in Baltimore City and County Title 1 schools. The students were trained by GSCM’s Community Program staff in our most popular programs: Free Being Me (self-esteem) and Be a Friend First (anti-bullying). They then went through the process of becoming a registered volunteer, received the necessary materials and paperwork for programs, and went to their assigned schools to work directly with our amazing young ladies in grades K-8.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I had the opportunity to observe a few of the Stevenson students in action, and to say that they were naturals would be an understatement. The girls thoroughly enjoyed their selves and the students were hands-on, engaged, and had fun as well.

In addition to the service hours in the classroom, a few of the students also came to Council to assist with survey data entry and material prep. The Community Programs team greatly appreciated all of the help, in and out of the office, and we know that the girls thoroughly enjoyed having college students as their Girl Scouts leader for 6 weeks!

To culminate the semester, Stevenson University held a Psychology Student Research Showcase where posters were created and presented based on the students’ service learning experiences. This was the icing on the Girl Scouts cake for me, as I was able to see the skillfully designed posters that each of the students came up with to describe their experiences here with Girl Scout Community Programs. The posters covered an array of topics such as the name of the site where the student did their service learning, a brief site overview, services provided, student roles and responsibilities, benefits, personal reflections, and even areas for change. I was so happy to see what the students learned and I am still so very happy to have been able to partner with Stevenson University to be a site for Service Learning. This is GSCM’s third semester partnering with Stevenson and participating in Service Learning thanks to Dr. Christine Moran, Associate Dean for Service Learning. Many of the students expressed that this would not be the end for them with Girl Scouts. They expressed wanting to volunteer beyond this semester, as well as applying for positions as they become available.

Blog submitted by Candance Baker, Director of Community Programs, MSW