Project Community

What Is It?
In the Project Community program, organized and facilitated by the Ginsberg Center for Community Service, participating students earn academic credit by reflecting with a sociological lens on service-learning experiences in education, criminal justice, public health, or community development settings. Students gain skills and perspective through a variety of experiences within these settings, including tutoring in a public elementary school, facilitating weekly debates or creative writing groups with jail inmates or prisoners, and community-organizing to help stop violence in Darfur. (A complete list of volunteer sites is available on the LSA Course Guide site, under SOC 389.)

Why Should I Consider It?
Students who are participating in Project Community register for SOC 389. This course, known as a service-learning course, is an ideal experiential complement to the regular academic instruction provided by Department of Sociology faculty. It can be a useful tool for getting acquainted with the “real-life” applications of sociology or a meaningful capstone for an upper-level student who has already completed several SOC courses. Participants develop and hone communication skills and make meaningful connections and contributions to Ann Arbor and metro-Detroit communities.

How Does It Work? What’s Required?
Students select a SOC 389 section based on their interest in working within a particular population. In addition to the three or four hours the students spend volunteering in a particular community, students are guided in examining their experiences by their peers, other undergraduates who have volunteered before and are completing or have completed a semester-long facilitation training course (SOC 325). Peer facilitators shape weekly 90-minute seminars into interactive sociological discussions, encouraging participants to solve problems and build  networks within a particular community or population. 

Regular credit exclusions and limitations apply for sociology concentrators.

For More Information
All administrative and pedagogical aspects of Project Community are maintained by the Division of Student Affairs's Ginsberg Center for Community Service.  Email pcinfo@umich.edu for more information.