Students in Moraine Valley Community College’s Honors Introduction to Psychology course are taking a pragmatic approach to their education thanks to a semester-long service project to supply meals for individuals experiencing homelessness. The project was designed as a method of connecting psychological concepts to real world problems.
“Throughout my education, I was involved in several hands-on learning experiences that helped me better understand the material I was learning. Once I became an educator myself, I knew it was something I wanted to start integrating into my own classes,” Nick Shizas, professor of psychology at Moraine Valley, said. “With service learning, my students become actively involved and engaged in their communities but also develop a more profound understanding of psychological concepts.”
For the past 15 years, Shizas has included a service-learning project in his course. What began as simply asking students to volunteer in their own communities and write about those experiences has evolved to an experience where students pack lunches twice a semester for BEDS Plus Care, a non-profit organization that helps people stabilize their lives through housing and support services. At the end of the semester, students are required to present how the service-learning project impacted them and how they saw psychological concepts in action.
The students, along with Shizas, donated items and packed 60 lunches in September and plan to do another packing night later this fall. On packing nights, students create an assembly line to pack lunches with sandwiches, chips, granola bars and fruit cups. They also plan to visit and serve chicken dinners, donated by The Patio restaurant in Bridgeview, at the BEDS Plus Summit Service Center this November where they’ll interact with residents. Additionally, students will participate in an organized bingo game, with each student playing on behalf of a resident, providing them twice the chance of winning donated gift cards.
“Students come away from this experience with both a deeper understanding of basic concepts in psychology and a need to help others less fortunate,” said Shizas. “It’s a humanizing experience that many students come back and say, ‘That was one of the most memorable experiences I had at Moraine Valley.’”
Michael Hayes, of Beverly and an Honors Psychology 101 student studying computer science, shared he was excited to hear about the service-learning project. While Hayes had volunteered with Moraine Valley before, this is his first time helping those experiencing homelessness.
“Volunteering definitely is something I want to continue doing,” Hayes said. “It’s nice to give back to the community. For those who are on the fence, I encourage you to volunteer. It’s a fun group activity and helps so many people.”
First year student Laura Galindo, of Burbank, initially took the course to learn more about herself but also found it to be a very humbling experience. “It’s a very humanizing experience, learning that we’re all human and that we can interact with each other, no matter the circumstances,” she shared. One lesson she’s taken from this project is that everyone starts somewhere.
Anahi Fernandez, of Burbank, said the service-learning project changed her perspective on the people her class is helping. “I personally have never met people that have experienced homelessness before this course. A lot of people are unaware as to how difficult others’ lives are, and I don’t want to be ignorant to that – I want to help.”
Shizas expressed his gratitude for the dinners donated by John and Janet Koliopoulos from The Patio in Bridgeview. To learn more about BEDS Plus Care, visit www.beds-plus.org.
For news media inquiries, contact Joshua Lahey, Moraine Valley communications specialist, at (708) 974-5652 or laheyj5@morainevalley.edu.
