Leadership and Organizational Change graduate students recognize rewards of the service-learning model

At the midway point of their graduate careers, Leadership and Organizational Change (LOC) students and their team members collaborate to complete a consulting project with a non-profit organization in the Rochester area. Under the close guidance of Dr. Jennifer Leigh, a Professor in the School of Business and Leadership, the Public Engagement Practicum provides our LOC students with opportunities to develop their consultation skills, collaborate in applying learning from their first year in the program, enhance teaming skills, and engage with a community partner.

Mostly recently, our LOC students using a service-learning model collaborated with the Jewish Family Services and Rochester Refugee Resettlement Services. In all cases, both the students and the community partners benefited from the exchange of ideas and the experience to collaborate with others to work toward common goals.

Jewish Family Service, Inc. of Rochester (JFS)

Corey Tylenda, LOC graduate student

Leadership and Organizational Change student Corey Tylenda, one of a team of four, worked with Dr. Betsy Bringewatt of the Jewish Family Service, Inc. of Rochester to create a Policies and Procedures Framework. Bringewatt believed that the students provided incredible insight on how the organization can improve their organizational policies and processes. She said that they were committed to the project, offering thoughtful ideas, and always being a pleasure to work with. She hopes that the LOC students she worked with were able to gain insight from this real-life experience.

Tylenda found the opportunity with the JFS and his participation in the course valuable and illustrative of the importance of service-learning. In reflection, he determined that partnerships with Rochester partners, in the profit or non-profit realm, bring a new level of learning not just to the students, but for the organizations as well. Of his experience, Tylenda shared, "Working with Jewish Family Service of Rochester (JFS) underscored the importance of putting values and service into practice. Our cohort worked alongside our partners and JFS where it reinforced our class material. Most importantly, I created life-long friendships while helping a not-for-profit in Rochester continue its mission!"

Rochester Refugee Resettlement Services (RRRS)

Graduate students Rachel Hohenwarter and Tiffany Torres, two of a team of four, collaborated with Mr. Djifa Kothor and Mr. Mike Coniff of the RRRS for their summer service-learning project. Both Kothor and Coniff believed that the partnership benefited the Nazareth grad students. The students were able to learn about small non-profit organizations that assist newly arrived refugees to the city with meeting basic needs. Both believed that the experience of working with Naz students opened their eyes as well, especially in thinking about activities and efforts that they would not typically have considered. They hope that the experience led the LOC student team toward empathy and sensitivity to the diversity in their own community and of the world around them.

Hohenwarter and Torres shared that their experiences with RRRS brought them to a better understanding of the Rochester community and grassroots non-profit organizations. They came to appreciate how little resources these organizations have available and how they need as much help and collaboration from our city as possible to succeed. Both LOC students believe that the partnership afforded them a new awareness of the basic needs in our community and how an organization like Rochester Refugee Resettlement is unable to succeed in addressing this need without help from the community.