Exit Essay and FInal Blog

Wow! Is it time already to wrap things up for the semester? It really zoomed by and as I read over my entrance essay, it's amazing how much I have learned this semester. First, I would say that my expectations were met as stated in my entrance essay for this course. I wanted to learn familiarity with the ACPL's genealogy department and I do feel competent now using this department. I feel that I have improved my writing skills and I created a useful project to deliver to my family. I am very pleased about that. Second, I have learned so much about service learning than what I initially believed. I thought service learning was more like volunteerism and instead I found it is a learning venture for students and service to the community. At the beginning of the semester, I was apprehensive about writing the blog, but I have enjoyed writing and reflecting on my progress throughout the semester. I found that writing the blog was a very useful tool in my research for both projects as it helped me keep focus and on track. I actually think a blog is easier to keep than a written journal. Of course, in many respects, a blog is an online journal. I even think keeping a blog would work for other classes as a reflective writing tool, not just for service learning.

The family project was in its own way a service learning project. I felt that I was preparing a project that would fulfill a need for my family by preserving a piece of our family history. I learned for myself how to research family history and how to develop a story from the research. When I interviewed family members, I was surprised at how pleased everyone was at the prospect of having a story written about two of the grandmothers. When I had my mother proofread my story, I was also surprised at how much she learned of things she didn't know before about both of her grandmothers. It seems like most families have someone that will research family lines, but it isn't as common to have someone write a story incorporating the genealogy research. The stories help make the ancestors more relevant to the descendants and keep the memories of those in our past alive. I also learned just how much women are the story keepers of the family which ties in with why the women are often the center and glue of the family.

With the Lake James service learning project, I learned that research doesn't always give you the information that you are looking for. I also learned that not finding something still contributes to the research. I had to be more creative in thinking of other ways to find information for James Riley. I probably learned more about research with the service learning project and I learned more about organizing and writing with the family project so it was a nice balance. In writing about James Riley, I still am not sure what Jim and Flaime are looking for exactly. I talked with Jim and he helped me with where he wants to go with this information. However, putting that into writing with what little I have found is more difficult than I thought it would be. Since I don't have the final deliverable finished yet for this project, I don't yet how it will turn out. I think this particular research project on James Riley required a couple of trips to Angola, but I couldn't fit that in. I really needed more time for that. I can give my ideas to Jim so he can hopefully wrap up those loose ends when he has a chance.

We did go in somewhat of a different direction with Lake James that I expected when I wrote my entrance essay. I was thinking that I was going to learn more about the lake culture and the people that lived the lake culture. I did learn much about Lake James in very early history (at the beginning of white settlement), but it wasn't a focus on the lake culture itself since I had the project portion on James Riley. Of course, it was hard to learn from the other sections of the project since we did individual projects and we did have a time crunch. I did learn some about the lake culture with the presentation given by Jim and Flaime. The group discussions we had with Jim and Flaime were very edifying and helped me learn more too about the sections of the project and more of the lake culture.

I feel that the Lake James project was definitely a service learning project. It was a learning process for the whole class with service learning clarified by the graduate presentations. I think we all learned more about Lake James than what we knew before. We are helping to put together a history project and therefore fulfilling a need for Jim and Flaime by our work. This whole project is preserving the history of Lake James which ties in with the family history project too. Like I mentioned in a previous blog, just because on the surface, we aren't championing a cause with this project, I don't think service learning has to be just that. We don't know what will happen or who will be touched by the finished project.

I have definitely gained knowledge about genealogical and archival research. I am not intimidated like before with diving into the research. It is very fascinating and I want to continue with my family research and writing. I learned that this type of research is time consuming, but fun so time has a way of getting away from me. Organizing the material gained from research is harder than the actual writing process. If I teach again, I would like to eventually put service learning into a course. I think it is a valuable teaching tool and gives a fun and interesting opportunity for students to learn. I am looking forward to seeing the finished Lake James book. My family is looking forward to receiving their finished project hopefully by Mother's Day.