What makes an Aggie Service Leader?
Team Leaders in the Aggie Service Program not only get to collaborate with local community members to design unique and rewarding service projects, but also benefit from the experience and support of their peers in the program. Periodic team leader meetings facilitated by faculty directors guide the Aggie Service Leaders in their development, drawing on their own experiences to inform each other and creating a supportive, professional community. Together, these elements of the Aggie Service Program contribute to learning outcomes for each team leader that are aligned with Aggie Core Values and rooted in the university’s mission as a land-grant institution.
Successful Aggie Service Leaders are able to:
- Articulate the importance and necessity of collaboration with community partners in every stage of pursuing service projects.
- Identify their potential contribution and limitations in the process of establishing a community partnership.
- Collaborate with a community partner to design a service project that meets the needs, values, and approval of the community being served.
- Identify and recruit a team of service students with potential for personal growth as a result of their involvement on the team and who will contribute to the project’s overall goals.
- Create learning outcomes for their team that align the goals of the team member with the opportunity presented by participation on the team.
- Manage and lead their service team members to ensure a high standard of work and engagement, the expectations for which are informed by the community partner and articulated to the team members.
- Critically analyze their role as a service team leader that demonstrates respect for the experiences, perspectives, and values of everyone involved in the project.
- Reflect on their experience and relate it to the broader context of their service partner organization or effort, the underlying social influences contributing to it, and the impacts of their service project in a comprehensive and scholarly fashion.
- Incorporate their reflections and experiences into future planning for their service project to ensure consistency and excellence in their project even after they have moved on.