Baltimore Project Service Learning Blog

Updates March 8th March 9th March 10th March 11th March 12th March 13th March 14th Related Links Midtown Academy Vivien T. Thomas Medical Academy Baltimore Civitas School KIPP Ujima Village Academy My Sister's Place Women's Center

Students participate in team-building activities before the trip.

Pre-trip reflections

Deonte Austin '11
My name is Deonte Austin and I am a sophomore at Gettysburg College. I am a Women's studies major and an Africana studies minor. Born and raised in Baltimore, MD I wanted to experience a different type of culture than that of an urban environment. Gettysburg was the best place for me to do that and I do not regret making that decision. As a member of the Gettysburg College community, I am the secretary of the Black Student Union and the treasurer of Doing Our Dance (dance group).

Ironically, I will be spending spring break 2009 in my hometown doing a service learning project in Baltimore's public schools involving running an after school College & Career Institute for middle school students. As we get closer and closer to the trip, I have become more and more nervous. I do not know what to expect from the trip, but I do hope that it is a learning experience. It is weird that I will be teaching students because I cannot imagine myself with my personality actually teaching groups of people, but look what I am getting ready to engage in. I am nervous because I never had to facilitate a group of students on a daily basis. Nonetheless, I am very excited and eager to do this service learning project. I am really curious to see what other students from different backgrounds gain from this experience. Hopefully I will learn something about myself from this experience and in return someone learn something from me. I can say that Gettysburg College does provide a wide realm of opportunities that all students are able to pursue.

Allison Rudolph '09
My name is Allison Rudolph and I am in the last semester of my senior year. I will graduate in May with a degree in sociology, and will be back in the fall to student teach in order to obtain my elementary teachering certification. I am originally from Delaware, but have enjoyed the time spent in Gettysburg as president of Hillel, an employee at the Bullet Hole and working with the Leonard Bernstein Center.

Sitting on a beach, soaking up some sun and one endless party is not what I am looking forward to on this Spring Break; observing different teaching models, working with a group of eighth graders and relating what I have learned thus far in my Urban Education course to real situations are just a few of the things I hope to take away from my trip to Baltimore. I expect to be exposed to educational systems and techniques that I have never seen before, since much of my personal schooling and classroom observations have occurred in rural areas. My hope is that I will gain insight into the type of techniques and practices that are most effective in an urban school. In regard to the afterschool program I want to be able to use my background in education to help my group create and implement the best afterschool program possible. Making connections between the course material and the real word is something that I hope will make the experience more meaningful for both my peers and I, and the students we will be working with. I am very excited to get the opportunity to spend a week in Baltimore and I look forward to gathering more education experience and having a positive influencing on the students we will be working with!

Melissa Arsenie '10
As we begin preparing all of the paperwork, logistics, and classroom lesson plans necessary for our trip to Baltimore, I have to admit that I am amazed that it is time already for us to depart on our trip! Where has this semester gone? It seems like just yesterday that I had sat down for my first day in Professor Rinke's class for an introduction to what we thought the issues and successes of urban education. Now it is time for us to see whether or not the insight we provided in that first class discussion proves itself to be true or not. Service is something that is not new to me at all. In fact, it is something that has been a part of my life for a very long time. However, working with younger and high-school aged students in an urban area is something that I have never done, and I will admit, I'm pretty nervous about it. I go into this trip with high hopes for the experience, and I think we are all feeling both nervous and excited butterflies. As excited as we are to test out our College and Career Institute curriculums as well as shadow different schools and learn about different types of urban education reform, I do believe that there is a little part in all of us (a big one in me!) that is nervous that we might not be able to bridge the gap of our pasts and presents that separates some of us from these kids. While I am nervous, I do believe that we as a class are up to the challenge! We have discussed so many different readings about urban classrooms and have had stimulating dialogues about what we have been doing in class. It will be truly an eye-opening experience to see these issues at play in a real school environment, and I think that our class will benefit immensely from the experience. We can only hope that the kids at Midtown Academy will, too!

Kaitlin Molloy '12
My name is Kaitlin Molloy and I'm a freshman here at Gettysburg. I graduated from Council Rock High School North, a very competitive public high school of about 2,300 students in Newtown, Pennsylvania, a suburb an approximately 40 minute drive northeast of Philadelphia. I write a weekly column for the Gettysburgian, I work part-time in the education department, and I'm the manager for Gettysburg's awesome ice hockey team. I come from a family of educators, and from a very young age I knew that I wanted to be a teacher too. I've volunteered, tutored, and worked with students ranging in age from 6-18. I'm an avid reader; I like long walks on the beach and Flyers hockey; and the love of my life is Maggie, my family's 10 month old black lab.

Going into this trip, I really do not know what to expect. After all the in-class readings and discussions and preparation I'm really excited about finally being able to go into the classrooms. I'm very interested to see how the different school systems work and to get to talk to the teachers and students about their impressions and experiences. We've studied the "expert" opinions and read some student accounts but I'm eager to see things for myself. I'm trying to keep an open mind, I know that these schools are probably going to be very different from my own school experience and that this week is going to take me way out of my comfort zone and what is familiar to me.