Spring 2019 Match Fair Dinner

Students meet prospective community partners at Public Service Campaigns Match Fair Dinner

Students in COMM 495: Public Service Campaigns gathered in Webb Center on Jan. 22 with 14 community partners eager for their help in promoting worthy causes.

Sign reading Public Service Campaigns Match Fair

The upper level class in the Department of Communication & Theatre Arts matches students with these organizations in a semester-long, service-learning exercise. The dinner was a way to “speed date” the prospective partnerships, to get them off to a running start.

After welcoming remarks from Department chair Avi Santo, professor Gary Beck and Amy-Leah Joaquim of Student Leadership and Involvement at ODU, students shared dinner with representatives of community organizations. Moving around the room, students and community partners shared impromptu conversations. Students found out about the opportunities that awaited them with the community partners.

Public Service Campaigns is structured as a service-learning course, rather than an internship. Students are responsible for producing something written, something visual, something in social media and something in advocacy during the semester. What those deliverables are is up to the partner organization’s needs and the student’s abilities.

After dinner, each partner organization made a short talk, describing what the experience working with them for the semester would be like. The presentations were so rich and enthusiastic that the last few site hosts had only a few minutes to make their pitch.

At the end of class, students provided a priority list of their preferred community partner. Some added “flair” to their choices, adding stars and exclamation marks to let me know just how excited they would be to collaborate.

That enthusiasm was evident after emails matching students with their community organization were sent out. Replies were immediate, with both students and partners expressing excitement about what lies ahead.

I’m excited to see what these students do on behalf of their organizations, and their community.