Nghana Lewis

Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, is located in the midst of a public health crisis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of 2007, Louisiana ranked fifth highest in the United States in annual AIDS rates and eleventh in the total number of cases diagnosed. The city of New Orleans ranked second highest in the United States in annual AIDS rates, behind only Miami (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2009). As in the larger international community, HIV/AIDS in Louisiana disproportionately affects black people, who comprise 32 percent of the state’s population but represent 66 percent of residents living with HIV/AIDS (Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals 2009).

Andrea Wood

Before becoming a postdoctoral teaching fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology, I had never heard of service learning. When I attended the university’s annual Celebrating Teaching Day during my first year, I was utterly amazed by a series of presentations from veteran professors who employed service-learning pedagogy across their multiple disciplines. Drawing from broader research, these presenters made clear how service learning can provide practical opportunities for students to develop their critical thinking and communication abilities beyond the borders of the traditional classroom. Inspired by my colleagues’ depiction of service learning as a fundamentally reciprocal learning experience for students and community partners, I began to envision how service learning could enhance my own teaching.

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