Service-learning+impacts+on+first-generation

**Service-learning impacts on first-generation students:** **Setting a national research agenda** Lynn Pelco, Service-Learning Director, Virginia Commonwealth University lepelco@vcu.edu] Kelly Lockeman, Ph.D. Candidate, Virginia Commonwealth University kslockeman@vcu.edu] Donna Dockery, Assistant Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University djdockery@vcu.edu]



**Keywords:** First-generation students, student engagement, higher education


 * Track:** Student development and learning

**Date & time: ** Thursday 9:30-10:40 **Location: ** Salon 6
 * Format:** Team presentation

**Summary:** This conversation hour is for scholars who are interested in studying the impacts of service-learning on outcomes for first-generation university students. Estimates of the percentage of beginning postsecondary students with first-generation status range from 43% to 50%; however, first-generation students earn bachelor’s degrees at significantly lower rates than their second-generation classmates. Early studies suggest that service-learning may facilitate first-generation students’ engagement in higher education (Henry, 2005; Pelco, et al., under review). Furthermore, service-learning has been shown to positively impact college student engagement (Kuh, 2008), yet very little is known about how participation in service-learning impacts this growing first-generation subgroup of college students.

We believe that the conversation hour platform provides a perfect opportunity for scholars to begin an ongoing discussion with each other that may result in the implementation of multi-site studies. Our work in the area of first-generation college students and service-learning indicates that this is a large at-risk student population for which the impact of service-learning remains virtually unexplored. An organized agenda of multi-site studies would hold great promise for moving the knowledge base in this area forward. We believe that a conversation hour designed to begin the creation of such an agenda would be well-attended and productive.

Following an initial overview of the nascent literature in this area, the co-presenters will outline the research projects on this topic they are planning, lead a discussion to discover the research project interests held by participants, identify overlapping interests amongst participants, and establish an email list through which interested scholars can continue the conversation and develop collaborative multi-site studies.

Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), //Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education// (pp. 241-258). New York, NY: Greenwood Press. Henry, S. E. (2005). “I can never turn my back on that”: Liminality and the impact of class on service-learning experience. In Butin, D. W. (Ed.), //Service-learning in higher education// (pp. 45-66). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan Kuh, G. (2008). //High impact educational practices: What they are, who has access to them, and why they matter//. Washington, DC: American Association of Colleges & Universities. Luyckx, K., Goossens, L., & Soenens, B. (2006). A developmental contextual perspective on identity construction in emerging adulthood: Change dynamics in commitment formation and commitment evaluation. //Developmental Psychology, 42//(2), 366-380. Pelco, L.E., Dockery, D., Lockeman, K. S., McKelvey, S. & Ball, C. (under review) First-generation and second-generation college students: A comparison of their service-learning experiences. //Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning.// **Please click here to access a PDF of this page: **  **To download materials from this session please click on the file link(s) below.**
 * References:**

The slides for our talk are attached above as a PDF document. Thanks for your interest, Lynn Pelco (lepelco@vcu.edu)
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