Service-Learning through Minding Our Business 1997-2015 Presented By Sigfredo Hernandez Presented By This is a course/program that I started back in 1997 thanks to a Harper grant from CBA.

Student Engagement Through Civic Engagement Rider students have a chance to make a difference in the community by advancing the development of low-income youth. This is a pure service-learning course. Civic engagement is the course and entrepreneurship, leadership, and team facilitation are embedded in the learning experience. MOB is what I call a pure service-learning course because the motivation to create the course was civic engagement. As opposed to a course in an academic discipline with a civic engagement component.

Service-Learning Program Rider University students mentor groups of Trenton public school students Trenton students in MOB: 2/3 female 11-14 years old Black or Latino Poor Training conference, field experience and a class experience. More than 2,000 Trenton students have participated in MOB since its inception in 1997. The learning experience has 3 components: a class experience, a field experience and a training conference. MOB is a service-learning experience for Rider University students Rider students mentor Trenton public school students through the process of starting and running a team business Students are 2/3 female, ages 11-14, Black or Latino and poor.

Program Objectives Improve Academic Involvement Improve Communication, Team, Leadership and Entrepreneurship Skills Improve Self-Efficacy/Self-Confidence Increase Interest in Going to College Increase Interest in Becoming an Entrepreneur The first objective is to get Trenton students to be more involve with school

LDP 220 Course Objectives The course has several skill development objectives but as you can see, the top course objective is a civic engagement objective.

Class Experience Three knowledge areas: entrepreneurship, leadership and team facilitation Team Learning (Michaelsen 1994). Mentors in their teams apply concepts in class and in the field. Reflection is where the learning takes place – weekly journal writings and collective class reflection. Students are engaged in class because of the team learning pedagogy that is used. Also, they have a chance to collectively reflect about their experience in class and apply the leadership, team facilitation and entrepreneurship concepts that they later have to apply to the field.

Training Conference We have to train all Rider students during the first week of class at a weekend conference. We need to do this so that they fell comfortable in their roles as mentor-facilitators before they start working with Trenton kids. In this picture you can see the 30 Rider students that we trained last January.

Training Conference Mentors receive 17 hours of training at Weekend-Long Training Conference Mentors learn their role as mentors-facilitators. Mentors learn how to facilitate the 12 week entrepreneurship curriculum. Mentors get to know their co-mentors.

The Field Experience This is where the most significant learning takes place. This is an individual and group development experience. It’s a win-win for Trenton students and Rider mentors.

Field Experience The MOB Roadmap Session 7: Your Business Plan Session 1: Building a Team I Session 8: Business Plan Presentations Session 2: Building a Team II Session 9: Getting Ready for Market Fair Session 3: Introduction to Entrepreneurship Session 10: Market Fair Session 4: Selecting & Naming Your Business Session 11: Sharing Successes & Challenges Session 5: Pricing & Promoting Your Business Session 12: Visit to Area Businesses Session 6: Advertising that Works Session 13: Reflection &Next Steps This is where the most significant learning takes place. This is an individual and group development experience. It’s a win-win for Trenton students and Rider mentors.

Long-Term Impact on Trenton Alumni 1997-2005 AREA IMPACT Became better students 90% More interested in college 66% College degree or in college 50% Developed important work and life skills Started businesses 33% Planning to start a business In 2012 we conducted a study of the impact of the program on the Trenton alumni 7 -15 years after they participated in the program. And as you can see our Rider mentors appear to have made a difference. eir academic skills of reading comprehension and math, the results do indicate contribution of the MOB program to these academic skills at least at the “some” level or higher by 87% (94) of interviewees for math skills and by 82% (89) of interviewees for reading comprehension skills. Less than 8% (8) of interviewees reported no impact of the MOB program on their development of these various skill areas. Rider mentors make a difference! Long-term data and mentor experiences confirm this.

Long-Term Impact on Rider Alumni Mentors 1997-2005 AREA IMPACT MOB learning experience better than other courses. 87% Community service important after graduation 62% Favorable impact on career plans 70% Helped prepare them for the world of work. 79% Development of important work/ life skills 75% We did a similar study back in 2010 among Rider mentor alumni 5-13 years after they took the course and participated in the program. And as you can see the course/program appear to have a strong long-term developmental impact on Rider mentors as well. In addition to program objectives related to skill development, MOB also endeavors to positively impact the lives of participants in terms of improving their self-esteem, self-confidence, self-efficacy and level of hope. As indicated in Table 2, the MOB program has a strong impact on these aspects of participants’ lives and attitudes. An open-ended question asked participants about the effects that MOB had on how they felt about themselves. The results indicate that each of the respondents gained some type of self-confidence as a result of MOB. The most frequently reported impact was a decrease in shyness and an increase in confidence. The next most commonly reported impacts were increased motivation, new skill acquisition, and the feeling that the students could “be somebody.” Participants also remarked that they generally felt cared for and more positive about work and themselves, and that they felt smarter and could better communicate with others as a result of being a part of MOB.

End-of Semester Mentor Journals – Selected Quotes “This class is based around a life changing program.” “I learned that I’m capable of helping others… that I have some things in common with all the children… I am definitely not the same person I was.” “In the future I would definitely like to work more with kids at some point, whether is coaching or teaching or mentoring, the experience you get from kids is like none other.” “I feel that MOB is the best thing that happened to my life, overall, in quite some time. The things I will take away from this class have and will continue to change my life.” “My life plans are still to own my business, and MOB has helped me realize that I cannot see myself doing anything else other than that.” These are selected quotes from the Rider mentors end-of semester reflections about their learning experiences. I’ll let you read them. This is a life-transforming learning experience for many Rider students. Because of it and the impact that MOB has on Trenton youth my hope is that Rider will continue to support this course after my retirement in 2016.