�պ�����

Editor's note: This article is part of a series on service-learning at �պ�����. These stories were written by students as a service-learning project in Joyce Hendley's Public Communication course.

��

Have you ever been sitting in a class wishing you could apply what you are learning to a future job setting? Recent �պ����� graduate Nick McKelvie made it happen.����������

McKelvie is the Tutoring Coordinator at Winooski’s O’Brien Community Center, a nonprofit that serves the community with affordable programs. He began as a tutor there during two of his service-learning courses at �պ�����. The education major knew he wanted to be a teacher after he graduated, but the real-world tutoring experience brought him closer to his goals.

McKelvie first tutored students during his freshman year as part of his coursework in EDSC 207: Development: Theory & Application. He was back at the Center tutoring again his senior year, with EDSC 215: Reading in Secondary Schools. McKelvie believes his service-learning experience at the Center during these two courses “made the class more enjoyable and valuable, by taking strategies I learned in class and applying them directly to service-learning.”

Thanks to McKelvie’s successful tutoring experience, the Center contacted him after graduation to do some tutoring in the spring. He accepted, and shortly after was offered a full-time job as a tutoring coordinator.

At first, McKelvie was unsure whether or not to take the job. “It wasn’t the route I wanted to take, I wanted to be a classroom teacher,” he explained, “but then I thought it would be a good entryway into the teaching field.” Besides his coordinator role, where he schedules times for tutors and students to meet, he also helps tutor students at the Center and substitute teaches at Winooski High School.

Honing Career Skills

During his service-learning experience at �պ�����, McKelvie developed skills to help him later on with tutoring and teaching. “I learned how to encourage independence in students—to teach through a process, not just give them the answer.” He also opened up personally: “I learned to be more comfortable with high school students by being more assertive and approaching them to ask if they needed help with their work, instead of waiting for students to approach me first.”

McKelvie strongly believes teachers should incorporate service-learning into their course work. “Helping students get experience with what they are learning and starting off early will help students get their feet wet for future jobs,” he says. Connecting �պ����� students with the community “helps students break out of the �պ����� bubble “by being held accountable through a college course,” he notes. Youth also “benefit tremendously by being able to work with college students whom they see as role models.”

McKelvie believes every �պ����� student should take full advantage of a service-learning opportunity. “Service-learning is good for the short term when it comes to classes, but it’s also great for the long term, when it comes to future jobs.”