Make+it+personal

**Make it personal: College completion** Gail Robinson, Director of Service Learning, American Association of Community Colleges grobinson@aacc.nche.edu] Mary Prentice, Associate Professor, New Mexico State University [mprentic@nmsu.edu] Sean Brumfield, Executive Director of Civic Engagement and Service Learning, Georgia Perimeter College sean.brumfield@gpc.edu]



**Keywords:** Pregnancy planning, pregnancy prevention, student retention, community colleges

**Track:** Student development and learning

**Format:** Research paper


 * Date & time: **Thursday 2:00-3:10
 * Location: **Salon 10

**Summary:** What do pregnancy planning and prevention have to do with service learning, student retention, and success? Three community colleges created curriculum-based strategies in several disciplines, using service learning as a focus, to improve student retention and provide resources that students need to complete their college goals. Pre- and post-course surveys were administered in 25 courses to gauge the impact of the service learning intervention on students’ knowledge, intentions, and behavior regarding pregnancy planning and prevention.

Service learners took the pre-course (n=491) and the post-course (n=417) survey. Analysis of survey responses before and after students participated in the service learning intervention (consisting primarily of peer education and campus/community events) revealed statistically significant increases in knowledge about pregnancy prevention and in behavior changes made to avoid an unplanned pregnancy. Specifically, there was an increase in the number of students who thought a pregnancy would make it harder to achieve their educational goals. Additionally, at the end of the semester, service learning students scored statistically higher on questions regarding knowledge about pregnancy prevention. Finally, there were statistically significant increases in behavior that would prevent an unplanned pregnancy, intention to continue behavior that would avoid an unplanned pregnancy, and comfort in talking with a partner about using contraception.

As a pedagogical intervention, the purpose of service learning in this study was to increase the number of students engaged in or aware of pregnancy prevention. Results support the use of service learning activities related to pregnancy prevention education as one strategy to bolster students’ educational goal completion.

**References**: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">American Association of Community Colleges. (2011). Community college trends and statistics. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Jacksteit, M. (2009). //Getting started at community colleges: Reducing unplanned pregnancy and strengthening academic achievement.// Washington, DC: The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Prentice, M., and Robinson, G. (2010). //Improving student learning outcomes with service learning.// Washington, DC: American Association of Community Colleges.

**<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Please click here to access a PDF of this page: ** <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">﻿[|Robinson - Make it personal-College completion.pdf]

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