The task force also conducted workshops and recruited and trained other faculty to become service-learning advocates. The grant funded a half-time administrative position for help with the details, and Anne Ritz continues as service learning coordinator. Other institutions now look to Alma as a service learning prototype of success. She has written a handbook on how to use service learning in the classroom and it will be printed and mailed to teacher education departments throughout the country. Alma students work in Jamaica, Mexico, Indian, Honduras and Poland, as well as Michigan inner-city schools.
New courses are in Ecuador and the Yucatan.
The effort is bolstered by support from Alma College President Alan Stone, who has promoted the Alma program statewide and found additional funding. The art and value of giving is best learned in the act of service itself.