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At your service
By Shari Gasper
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Greg Pierceall's planting design class came up with a plan to turn the outdoor property at the Wells Community Center into a work of art. Not satisfied just to create the design, students also did the "hands-on" work and have returned the past two years to maintain the landscaping. (Photo by Greg Pierceall). |
"Volunteerism is an important part of service learning," explains Pierceall, who has taught at Purdue for 23 years. "It is an opportunity to gain real world experience, such as dealing with the wild cards and unexpected pitfalls that happen along the way."
Community members, professors and students all agree service learning is a win-win situation. Organizations receive insightful landscaping plans at little cost, while students receive essential hands-on experience, making them more knowledgeable and more marketable.
Service projects are not limited to Purdue or the Lafayette area. Students have completed projects elsewhere in Indiana, as well as in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and West Virginia. Last fall, Kim Wilson's senior urban design class took on two projects in Chicago--geographically close but miles apart in circumstance. One was the redesign of a historic park in a low-income, high-crime neighborhood, while the other was a new park along the Chicago River in a predominately upper-middle class, young neighborhood. "In one community, residents were concerned with drug dealers in the park, while in the other, their biggest concern was where their dogs would go to the bathroom," says Wilson. "It ran the gamut of real life."
Working on two such diverse projects, students had to thoroughly research the sites and the neighborhoods before sitting down at the drawing board. At the end of the semester, the six teams presented their designs in Chicago for critique by a jury of landscape architects and officials from the Chicago Park District.
"Feedback from design professionals is another learning experience for students," Wilson says. And as an added bonus, students may see some of their ideas incorporated into the final designs by project architects.
Bernie Dahl has led student teams on several projects, including the Prairie-Duneland Trail in Portage, Ind., a showcase "rail to trail" project. Students worked with Carl Fisher, park superintendent for the Portage Parks Department, to create a six-mile recreational trail in the path of an abandoned railroad. "Once the city purchased the land, we needed a conceptual plan for the trail," says Fisher. "Students' designs included picnic shelters and rest stops, an overlook at a wetland area and historical and informational signs along the trail." The student proposals were a means "to keep the dream alive," but the city of Portage did not have the immediate funding in 1994 to carry out the plans. Following the foundational work by the students, the city applied for and received a grant, enabling them to go ahead with construction of the trail.
In Delphi, Ind., students not only aided in creating a park, but in saving an important piece of land from becoming the site of a car-crushing plant. Their work also propelled the community to apply for and receive nearly $2 million in grants for additional improvements.
Dahl and his students have also assisted with more than 20 urban forestry projects and another 30 projects related to land protection, community beautification and community enhancement along the Wabash River.
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