The Mrs. Feenstra’s article begins with discussing how for anyone starting college it is a time for exploration. For Christians it is also a time to grow closer to God and discover your vocation. What is vocation though? What does that mean?
Two examples of vocation are, “The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you most need to do and (b) the world most needs to have done” (Buechner 1992). Sometimes we can complete step (a) and have a hard time completing step (b) and vice versa, and sometimes we miss both altogether. If we are truly enjoying our work, we have completed step (a), but if we are wasting our talents on something that does not benefit Gods purpose, we are not completing step (b).
In order to understand how be the most successful in this endeavor of college, students have to understand themselves and know what brings them joy, what can best service them and the world around them, and the best way to know that is through service learning. Service learning can be defined best by Howard (1998) who defines service-learning as “a pedagogical model that intentionally integrates academic learning and relevant community service” (p. 22).
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Through service-learning there could be an incentive for students. It could be meeting new people that they necessarily wouldn’t have met in their everyday lives by doing community service that pushes them to grow and change into their best selves. Researchers discovered that after a couple of years, people reported that through their self-learning, they have made different career choices than they would have before self- learning.
“For Christians, service allows us not just to learn about ourselves as individuals, but also to be reminded of our place within the community and our identity as Christ-follower” (Feenstra 2011, p. 67). God wants us to go out into the world and help others, be his hands and feet and through self-learning we can achieve this. Service – learning can affect identity development in the best way possible.
“For college students in the midst of identity explorations, it can help move them forward and may even be sought by students. For Christian college students, service-learning may remind them of their identity as Christ-followers. Service-learning helps students learn more about the world and learn this in a way that motivates them to learn and allows them to see the complexity of the world and to apply their knowledge to the issues at hand” (Feenstra 2011, p. 73).
