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Volume 38 Issue 9
February 13, 2001

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Service learning priority for new MCC council

BY KARA WIREMAN
MESA LEGEND
Submitted February 13, 2001

MCC’s Community Outreach Opportunity Leaders Council, a new student service-learning organization, was created to educate and empower students to strengthen the community through service, according to Service Learning Faculty Director Duane Oakes.

COOL Council is a part of the Center for Service-Learning office and may soon become a club.

The council supports service-learning, which is tied to a one-credit class. Council members offer service and learn from that service by keeping a journal or writing a report about experiences.

Service learning activities place students into their areas of interest, practicing skills obtained in the classroom.

Jordan Currier/MESA LEGEND

MCC students Brandy Sarver (left) and Brandon Provalenko (right) engage in a brainstorming session at a COOL Council meeting. COOL Council is a new service learning organization that connects students with the community.

Service-learning also focuses on class competencies and combines community service with academic instruction, critical thinking, values clarification, career exploration and civic responsibility.

One of the goals of council members is to enhance learning in existing course competencies and to help put the community back into the college, Oakes said.

Oakes decided that his focus would be on teaching and getting students involved in service.

"I believe that students would like to serve but sometimes they just don’t know how to do it," he said.

As a student advisor, Oakes helps students be committed to service and creates an environment for them to do so.

"I want students to be part of my team effort. More importantly, that’s how they’re going to learn, that’s how they’re going to grow," Oakes said.

When Oakes created COOL Council, he called COOL (Campus Outreach Opportunity League), a national organization, to ask for their permission to use their name and model.

The COOL Council was started and organized by students to encourage MCC involvement in community service.

MCC’s COOL Council modified COOL’s mission statement, and changed the "L" to "leaders" instead of "league."

"It’s cool to serve, it’s cool to get involved in service and our goal is to get students involved in it, to make a difference," Oakes said.

The council is now creating a marketing campaign to recruit students to become student leaders, volunteers at service events or to sign up for service-learning classes.

Oakes will mentor the students but said that he will allow council members to create and organize in leadership roles.

COOL Council plans to co-sponsor "Into the Streets" with the activities department, as well as the "Generations Prom," a dance where students will be a date for a senior citizen.

"The bottom line is that you learn by doing, and you can make a difference," Oakes said.

Caralee Ellingson, a freshman at MCC, is a member of the council.

Oakes first approached Ellingson with the idea of a new organization in service-learning.

"I love giving service and it sounded like a lot of fun and a new way to get involved," Ellingson said. "It all depends on how much work we put into (COOL Council). I think it will be a fun way to give service and to get students involved and help the community."

Brandon Provalenko, a sophomore at MCC, is a student leader for the council.

"This semester is where we make a foundation for COOL Council," Provalenko said.

"If we get a strong base for an organization, we’ll have a set role for future members."

Provalenko refers to the council as a student organization of volunteers and believes that the beginning of a strong foundation leads to a strong future.

"The hard part and the best part is that everything’s brand new and everything’s crazy and we’re doing a lot of neat, different stuff," Oakes said.

"We’re just trying to create a structure where we can all work together," he said.

COOL Council meets every Wednesday at 3 p.m. in the Kirk Center’s Maricopa Room.

For more information, call (480) 461-7393.

Information is also available in the Service Learning Center.

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