Program in Leadership and Community Service
Groover Hall, Room 214
Mercer believes that facing today’s global problems (e.g. climate change, globalization, resource scarcity, poverty, crime, etc.) requires citizens and leaders who have an in-depth understanding of a particular field of study like engineering, or education, or music, or economics, or pre-med and pharmacy or art or one of the humanities or social sciences. Mercer also believes that having a profession or career is not enough for the times.
The modern world needs individuals who are committed to service and to what E. F. Schumacher calls “Good Work”. Work that allows for the expression of individual talents and interests, work that is beneficial to ones neighbors both hear and abroad, and work that springs from ones spiritual understanding and commitments.
The Program in Leadership and Community Service (PLS) at Mercer University is for those who want to become a professional but also want to lead and to create sustainable and just communities. The goals of the program are therefore: (1) to deepen the students’ understanding of and commitment to personal, cultural and ultimate values, (2) to help students develop the skills and values necessary for effective servant leadership roles in diverse organizations and communities, (3) to promote the common good both here and abroad, (4) to help meet unmet human needs in diverse communities both here and abroad, (5) to prepare student for entrance into graduate or professional schools, (7) to prepare students to work for a variety of non-profit organization including religious organizations upon graduation and (8) to help students to create new service forms and/or to develop and manage new service organizations or groups.
Pedagogy
The University created the PLS program 35 years ago in recognition that an effective way to develop intellectual depth and the capacity for service is to combine practical experience and community service with traditional course-work content. Individual classes taught within the PLS program often require, therefore, students to volunteer or intern with community based government, corporate or non-profit organizations, both in the community and abroad, and/or to provide direct service to individuals and families. As part of their course work, students and community partners (e.g. community based agency supervisors, ministers, case managers, CEO’s, city planners, entrepreneurs, etc.) work together to resolve real physical, social and/or economic dilemmas.
PLS is an amalgamation of community service and study. Students explore the literature of social problems in order to gain a trans-disciplinary, ecological and global understanding of the nature of our planetary and social concerns (e.g. climate change, poverty, mental and physical health, crime, terrorism, etc.). They also analyze and reflect on the experiences gained from working in a variety of community-based government, corporate and/or non-profit service organizations off campus. This amalgamation helps students to acquire the skills that are necessary to lead and manage existing services or to create new dynamic and effective service programs or systems. It also helps them to pursue graduate work in a variety of fields (e.g. public health, social work, public policy and planning, law and medicine, pharmacy, management and marketing, education, etc.).
Major, Minor and Concentration
PLS is a multidisciplinary concentration of 12 courses. To complete the concentration, students take a few courses taught by the faculty of the PLS program itself and other courses taught by members of other departments including Philosophy, Sociology, Christianity, Math, Statistics, Education, Engineering, Biology, etc. (See a current Mercer Catalogue for specific course requirements for PLS)
Courses are grouped into content areas including “Theories of Human Nature”, “Social Problems”, “Morals and Ethics”, “Statistical Reasoning and Data Analysis”, “Program Analysis and Evaluation”, “Program and Proposal Development”, “Mercer on Mission Abroad, “Service Project Development and Internships”.
All students at Mercer are required to have a major and a minor. PLS can be used in lieu of a major or it can be used as a minor. Although it is possible for students to use PLS in lieu of a major, the benefits of using it in combination with a traditional major are numerous. For example, students leaving Mercer with both a major and a PLS concentration are more attractive to graduate or professional schools and they are better prepared to contribute to the resolution of problems facing a changing and complex world.
Courses at Mercer are demanding and require study time. It is difficult for students to find the time to double major or to minor in programs like PLS. This is especially true for students who major in the sciences or pursue degrees from one of the professional schools. In recognition of this fact, the PLS program was designed to allow students to participate in the PLS program and also major in another discipline within a four year academic calendar. In brief, students can graduate with both a primary major that emphasizing analysis and theoretical information and the PLS concentration that emphasizes service and civic engagement (e.g. political science and PLS, Pre Pharmacy and PLS, Business and PLS, et.)
The curriculum is flexible enough therefore to allow students in different university divisions to complete the PLS concentration or minor, along with a primary major. This is accomplished by allowing students in the sciences, engineering, business, education and music to blend and substitute course within the curriculum. Exemptions from certain courses are built into the program to allow students to acquire double majors, and for faculty and students from different university divisions to interact in meaningful ways to solve human and social problems (e.g. engineering and PLS, or Business and PLS, etc.)
Service-learning OpportunitiesThe PLS program is Mercer’s premier service-learning program. Internships are available in the health and behavioral sciences, social service agencies, environmental and sustainability projects and programs, applied research projects, educational programs, legal clinics, and a variety of social entrepreneurial projects and NGO’s. Since its inception in 1975, the PLS program has placed more than 300 students annually in service learning projects.
Since the advent of the Mercer-On-Mission Program (MOM), service-learning experiences are now available in Africa, Asia, Latin and Central America and Europe. Students who participate in the MOM program can receive academic credit through the PLS program.
Accomplishments
Staff, community partners and students connected to the PLS programs have helped create and maintain the Crisis Line of Middle Georgia, and the Macon Bibb Citizen Advocacy Program. Students have also worked on projects sponsored by the Georgia Advocacy Office, the Macon Housing Authority, New Town Macon, the College Hill Corridor, and numerous physical and mental health agencies. Students in the program have served the needs of children in India, African and Central America. The PLS partnership created a licensed pre-school program and a children’s museum in downtown Macon.
Direct Service Impact: A total of 1,612 children have been served in the preschool program since 1994; 14% of the children had one or more developmental disabilities. In 1994, 36 children were being served per day in the preschool program located within the First Street Arts Center. The school eventually served 60 children per day. Ninety percent of the preschool children served exceeded the Georgia criterion for school readiness while 25% exceeded criterion for entrance into first grade. In 2001, the preschool was awarded National Early Childhood Program Accreditation (NECPA).
In 1994, the staff and its partners created and managed a dynamic new arts-based after school and summer camp program in the building housing the preschool. Since then 1025 school-aged children (5–8) have been served. Ninety-five percent of those served maintained or improved their GPA by subject by15% or more. Children with disabilities in the program improved in every developmental domain (language, motor, and cognitive) by 25% as assessed by professional service providers. They also maintained their gains throughout the summer months.
In 1999, PLS students helped create an additional after-school/summer camp program within the Georgia Children’s Museum. Two hundred and twenty-six new children between the ages of 8 and 12 were served. Data indicated that their school performances matched those in the other school-aged programs mentioned above.
PLS students developed an early childhood behavior management curriculum for other non-profits to replicate. The system is called R.I.S.E. (Respect, Include, Support and Encourage) R.I.S.E. is the acronym for the GCAP.
In February of 2003, the Central Georgia Center for Independence: The Disability Connection awarded its annual “Inclusion Award” to the PLS program for its success in including students and adults with disabilities in all aspects of programming. In addition, the children in the after-school program were invited to perform and showcase their work at three of the last six national conferences on Inclusion held at the University of Georgia.
Impact on Students: Eighty percent of the students who completed the PLS improved their leadership skills by developing, managing and completing 124 service projects designed to meet human and community needs (e.g. ramp building and home and building renovation projects for persons with disabilities, neighborhood clean-up projects, blood drives, children’s festivals, etc.)
Community Strengthening Impact: Students helped the PLS program to leveraged $4,000,000 in capital improvement grants for the renovation of three historic structures in Macon, Georgia. PLS students helped renovate and save the First Street Arts Center building now valued at $1.2 million dollars.
Students also helped renovate and save two historic buildings in downtown Macon as well. These buildings now house the Georgia Children’s Museum and its Educational Annex. These buildings are valued at $5.2 million dollars. Two of the six floors of the museum opened to the public in May of 2005. Six thousand individuals have visited the museum since it opened in 2005. When completely operational, museum planners estimate that the building will serve 125,000 visitors annually.
Volunteerism: Members and staff recruited more than 18,120 volunteers and logged more than 48,000 service hours since 1994. The value of their service was estimated to exceed $275,000 annually. PLS staff and members helped create a Student Service Corps within Mercer University that now generates 12,000 service hours annually. Students are now engaged in weatherization and sustainability projects throughout the Macon,
Strengthening Non-Profits: PLS students served approximately 66,000 individuals since 1994 in special events sponsored by other community based non-profit organizations (e.g. Relay for Life, Habitat for Humanity, etc.)
Graduate Programs: Students who have completed the PLS program have gone on to Pharmacy, Law, Public Policy and Health Programs, Accounting, Education and Church Ministry and/or Theology Graduate Programs and Social Work to name a few. Students in Engineering have used their senior design projects to work on issues sponsored by the PLS program.
Contact Information:
For more information contact: Thomas J. Glennon, PhD at
Glennnon_tj@mercer.edu.