- National Recognition
- Unity College Named to Presiden'ts Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll (Read more...)
Community-Based Learning
Unity College is all about making life real. Real people doing real things that make a real difference. We call it community-based learning.
Yes, you’re in class, and, yes, you get credit for completing the work. But you also gain hands-on experience by working with organizations and groups in the local community to tackle the issues of the day. Community-based learning gives you a chance to test your skills, expand your knowledge, build your resume, and work alongside some top notch professionals in the field. And all the while, you are making a difference, one project, one initiative at a time. How great is that?!
Community-based learning connects classroom activities to the real world in as many ways as you can imagine. Here are just a few examples of how Unity students are already making a difference...
Recently, students in the Landscape Horticulture and Environmental Humanities programs worked together to design and install a food producing hoop house and habitat garden for a local elementary school. The habitat garden includes a butterfly sanctuary, blueberry and pumpkin patches, a mini-apple orchard, outdoor classroom space, and therapeutic walking paths. This spring, a freshman leadership class, under the direction of a student project manager, coordinated and led the school's first-ever Earth Day Celebration-- a whole day of interactive programming that included educational gardening activities, arts and crafts, a theatrical production, and cooperative, team building games for more than 100 students. Now these elementary kiddos can enjoy fresh, crunchy vegetables and sweet, juicy fruits right from their own schoolyard. And, they are learning how to grow their own food using environmentally friendly agricultural techniques. That's zero food miles and 100% nutrition, thanks to Unity College and community-based learning!
Last fall, a group of Unity students in the Adventure Education and Environmental Education programs developed a three-day transition-to-middle-school retreat for local seventh graders that helped these youngsters learn team building, cooperation, and leadership skills, as well as a bit about water ecology and how to hold their own on a hiking trail or paddling a canoe.
Unity students also work with the local lake association and watershed restoration project to monitor the water quality of Lake Winnecook. They conduct courtesy boat inspections in an effort to prevent the spread of invasive aquatic plant species, and they help design and implement bank erosion control strategies. They conduct field inventories for area land preserves, help maintain and repair the local trail system, and have even built a barn for a therapeutic riding center that rescues abandoned horses. They traveled to New Orleans to help in the clean-up after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
When you become a Unity student, you can join with other members of the on- and off-campus community to do something about issues of local, regional, national and even international concern. Community-based learning puts your boots on the ground and polishes your brain. Your hands get dirty, your clothes get wet, your notebooks bulge with great thoughts, and your spirit soars! You find out something new about yourself and your world, and you feel good about your accomplishments. Dream it up, follow it through, make it real! Now that’s real learning!