For freshmen who began their service learning opportunities last week, listening to lectures and reading textbooks are now accompanied by activities like reading with grade school students and tutoring different languages.

"Service learning is a teaching, learning method that enables students to do work and learning in the community," said Service Learning Program Administrator Bobbi Timberlake. She said 52 classes this semester offer service learning.

Kim Jensen Bohat, Service Learning Assistant administrator, said things are "off to a strong start." She said she expects about 900 students to participate in the program this year.

Among those students is Katie Meyer, a freshman education major in the College of Arts & Sciences who went to a service learning site for the first time as part of her Introduction to Schooling in a Diverse Society class.

Meyer attended the Service Learning Agency Fair last month and chose to work at Our Next Generation, 804 E. Juneau Ave., a nonprofit organization that provides one-on-one mentoring to urban youth.

She said in talking to the representative, it "seemed more hands-on" than other sites.

"I think it's really important to get one-on-one time with the kids," she said.

Meyer said she was initially nervous about taking a bus to the organization. She e-mailed the site's service director to get the names of other Marquette volunteers.

"I met up with two other girls and we rode together," she said. "It made it a lot easier."

Meyer said her first experience at the site "ended up being really fun." She said she worked with a first-grader with her reading homework, then they read a book together.

"I'm really excited to go back," she said.

Despite having "a bit of apprehension at first," Garrett Gundlach also had a positive experience at his Service Learning site last week for his Spanish Composition and Conversation class.

Gundlach, a College of Arts & Sciences freshman contemplating a major or minor in Spanish, said he will be helping at Windlake Elementary, 2433 S. 15th St., an alternative school working in partnership with Milwaukee Public Schools where 70 percent of students come from a Hispanic heritage.

Like Meyer, Gundlach said he was nervous at first, but not because of transportation issues. He said he caught a ride with a classmate to the school, so he was more nervous about tutoring in general.

"Tutoring is hard in itself, but doing it in a different language is a different animal," he said.

During his first time at the site, Gundlach said he helped a young boy who knew very little English learn to count coins. He said the experience helped to validate his knowledge of the Spanish language.

"You never realize how much you have the ability to communicate," he said. "I found out I could get more things across than I thought."

Gundlach said he was looking forward to going back to the school this week.

"It's such an awesome experience," he said.

This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on October 6, 2005.