Service-Learning Journal

Community Service Reflection Paper

Jose L. Olmos

University of Wisconsin – La Crosse

Spring 2024
 What is service-learning and why is it implemented by many educational institutions? It

is completely different than an internship, where an internship is on-field training for a specific

purpose, like the tasks done by different healthcare professions, for example. As a Medical

Dosimetry student, I have been participating in this form of clinical training myself. Service-

learning, on the other hand, has a lot more to offer. According to Housman

Service-learning is a teaching technique that connects academic content and community

service. It offers a learning environment that promotes critical thinking and problem

solving, requires students to be actively engaged, and practice ethical decision making.

The impact of service learning on students’ cultural competence can be explained by

elements of the Social Cognitive Theory, primarily through the principle tenet of triadic

reciprocal determinism.1

To put it simply, it offers students a unique opportunity to obtain experience unlike anything else

out there.

I had the opportunity to volunteer for a local non-profit organization based in the San

Fernando Valley called MEND, (Meet Each Need with Dignity). They are an organization that

works to serve the most vulnerable members of our community, including the homeless by

helping provide things like food clothing and furniture. I myself am a product of this community.

It gave me what little it could to get me to where I am at today, and I feel that it is my duty to pay

it forward and give back however I can. I spent a Saturday volunteering for the organization

where I had a chance to put my muscles to work. Every few of weeks, the organization receives

all kinds of food donations from different markets from around town, and they need help loading

and unloading the food, and sorting is so that they can stock their food warehouse in preparation

for a community food drive.

I was amazed how many smiling faces there was, and how genuinely thankful people
were for the event. I had a chance to work with a group of amazing individuals who were all

working together to achieve a common goal: to help lift each other up, even if it is just one

person at a time. The event reminded me of the quote about it taking a village to raise a child. It

was literally that quote, personified. That is how we all succeed. I think it is important for us to

stay humble, always be hungry and never forget where we came from, as well as never forgetting

those who have helped us along the way, and I am truly thankful for the reminder.

Another thing events like this help me with is by increasing my cultural competency.

This can be very beneficial as cultural diversity within workplaces have become more diverse

over time. Research indicates that the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of those who participated

in service-learning projects were more consistent with the concept of cultural competence then

those who did not.1 With increased diversity in professional environments, it only makes sense

that those who have an increased cultural competence would have a more refined sense of

awareness and sentiment towards everyone around them. It would allow them to function better

as leaders in their professional workplaces as they would have an increased understanding of

how to better empathize, communicate, and have sensitivity to those from different cultural

backgrounds than their own. The leaders of the future are definitely going to need these qualities

if they are to succeed in the professional environment.

This is especially true in the healthcare industry as this is an environment in which

anyone can encounter people from all sorts of different backgrounds. Studies show that people

exposed to cultures different than their own developed culturally competent skills such as

acquisition, refinement and use of culturally relevant language and deconstruction of

stereotypes.1 This is a skill that I believe will be invaluable as our professional environments

become more and more inclusive of people from all backgrounds in the years to come.
 References

1. Housman J, Meaney KS, Wilcox M, Cavazos A. The impact of service-learning on health

education students’ cultural competence. American Journal of Health Education.

2012;43(5):269-278. doi:10.1080/19325037.2012.10599245