Reflection Journal Entries are opportunities for you to reflect on your service learning experiences and connect your experiences with principles of civic engagement and active citizenship. 

Civic Engagement takes us back to the original motivation for the creation of colleges and universities in the United States of America: to create an informed citizenry.  When we speak of an “informed citizenry,” we are not referring to one’s legal status as a citizen; instead, we speak of the knowledge, skills, attitudes, behaviors, and resources necessary for individuals to possess in order to make a vibrant democratic society.  Civic engagement is where your academic experience intersects with the “real world.”  Civic engagement assumes that the college experience does more than provide students with a degree; it also prepares students for a changing world, one where they can be agents of change.  MCTC’s mission statement promises that every student will be prepared “to live and work in a democratic society within a changing global community”, and that MCTC students will build “bridges to the community.”  Civic engagement is one of the ways that we meet these promises

Journal Entries are worth 30% of your grade. All journal entries should be done individually and submitted into the D2L Dropbox by the due date. Check the calendar for due dates. Each journal will be graded on a 0-10 scale, 10 being the highest. You will find a Grading Rubric at the end of this page.

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Journal Entry One (500 words): Identifying "Interests"

A necessary part of reflecting on one's own morality and ethics and how to engage their community, their society, their world, is to identify one's own "interests" in an honest manner and the interests of others. Interest is not always selfishness. Rather, interest is that which is very, very, important to you, that which you are willing to make sacrifices for (devote time, give money, etc...), and that which your very identity is caught up in (who am I? where do I come from? what do I believe?). For some of you, interest may include your religious beliefs and practices, your family, your job, your education, your goals and dreams, your hobbies, etc... Before you begin your service learning, I want you to honestly reflect on your own interests and relate that to your community partner. Write a journal entry of no less than 500 words in which you answer these questions: 

1. Why did you select this particular community partner? (include your own self- interests, knowledge/skills, academic goals, situation, experiences, etc...)
2. Why, do you think, people who go to (or work at) your organization might also be involved with this organization? (You may not know at this point, but try to imagine why someone would give their time and energy to show up and be involved with your community partner.)

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.Journal Entry Two: (500 words): Democracy - it is more than just politics.

Democracy literally means “rule by the people".  Democracy is more than a people’s right to participate in governance. It means that all people hold power and can exercise it to create a common world.  In this journal entry, reflect on the nature of democracy and how your organization holds power and uses that to create the world in which you live. Answer the following questions:

1. What does your organization want to change and why? What do they want to create and why? (include skills, values, behaviors, laws, beliefs, attitudes, structures, etc...)
2. How will they change and create their world?
3. How do they know that creation and change is happening (or will happen)?
4. What might be your role in creating this change?

Be sure to include how these goals and actions of your community directly relate to a healthy democracy!

Journal Entry Three (500 words): The Influence of Diversity

We all experience diversity (social, economic, cultural, religious, etc…), but most of us do not reflect on the importance and influence of diversity on our decision-making, moral values, self-interests, social behaviors, etc... Most of you will encounter deep diversity at your service learning site. Diversity can include racial and ethnic, sexuality, economic, cultural, religious, age, social position, etc... For your third journal entry, describe one interesting situation that you observed or experienced during your service learning and then reflect on how diversity influenced that situation. If you cannot identify one specific situation at your service learning site, imagine a possible situation that might arise at your site and how diversity might influence that situation. The goal of this journal is to see how aspects of who we are (religion, sex, age, culture, etc...) influences how we participate in situations.

1. In the first part, describe (or imagine) a significant situation or problem that happened while you were doing service learning.  What happened?  Who was involved?  How was it handled? 
2. In the second part, reflect on the experience in light of diversity. How did the diversity of social, religious, sexual, economic, cultural, age, etc... of the people involved influence how they made decisions and resolved the situation/problem?
3. In the third part, reflect on how your own religious, sexual, economic, cultural, age, social situation, etc... orientation influenced how you participated (or did not participate) in this situation. If you were not directly involved, imagine how you might have participated.

Journal Entree Four (500 words): The Play of Power

All change requires power, and all power is personal.  Whether or not you seek after power and regardless of how you use it, we all have power. Power is not inherently good or bad, but it is necessary to make change happen in society - whether for good or not. In fact, power may be defined as the ability to change or create. For this entry, I want you to reflect on the distribution of power (money, resources, decision-making, leadership, position, titles, etc…) at your service learning site. Answer the following questions:

1. Throughout your experiences, who do you think has the most amount of power at your organization? (remember, they do not have to be present)   What kind of power do they have? (money, decision-making, knowledge, skills, titles, position, etc...)  
2. Why do those individuals have the power they do and how did they get it?
3. How is that power being used?  Is this power being distributed throughout the organization or held tightly in the hands of a few?  In your opinion, is this a good use of power?

Journal Entry Five: (500 words) Active Citizenship

Active citizenship is more than just voting and volunteering. In fact, there are people who are active citizens who neither vote nor volunteer. Being an active citizen does however influence all important aspects of your life - your job, family, religion, education, hobbies, sports, recreation, etc... I am certainly not talking about one's legal status. For your final journal entry, I want you to do your best to answer these questions based on the knowledge and service you have engaged throughout the semester:

1. What does it mean to be an active and informed citizen?
2. What moral and ethical values do you believe active citizens should have?
3. How can your education at MCTC enhance your active citizenship?

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Reflective Journal Grading Rubric Your service learning Reflective Journal presents an opportunity to make your service more valuable as a learning experience by reflecting and writing about it. You’ll want to do a thorough, thoughtful job. Here are some tips on how to succeed: Respond thoroughly and thoughtfully, making specific references to the details of your experience, using specific examples, quotes from conversations you've had, and so forth. Proofread your entry. Your writing should follow academic expectations in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar and sentence structure. Evaluation I will grade your journal entries holistically, using a 0-10 point scale. Here are the grading criteria: Points Rating Description 10-9 Excellent The journal entry follows instructions for the assignment. The response is fully and thoughtfully developed. The writer uses evidence from his or her experience to support main ideas. Organization makes the writing easy to follow. The writing has few or no errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar and sentence structure.   8-7 Satisfactory The journal entry follows instructions for the assignment, but it may not be fully developed. The writing may not include enough evidence to support main ideas convincingly. Organization may make the writing somewhat difficult to follow. There may be distracting errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar and sentence structure.   6-5 Unsatisfactory The journal entry may not follow instructions for the assignment. The writing may be poorly developed, without evidence to support main ideas. Organization may make the writing hard to follow. The writing may be full of distracting errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar and sentence structure.   0 No response No journal entry was submitted, or it was submitted past deadline.