By Burke Jensen
Rachelle Mackay entered Provo''s Oakridge Elementary School to offer service for physically handicapped children as part of a class assignment.
'At first I was nervous because I didn''t know what to expect,' said Mackay, 19, a sophomore from Goshen, Ind. 'Once I got going, it was easy just playing around with the kids.'
Hundreds of other students like Mackay donate their time and efforts through community service when they enroll in American Heritage. The service is a required part of the class.
'It''s pretty rewarding,' said Kristen Gostafson, 18, a freshman from Dolores, Colo., majoring in nursing.
'I felt great because I was able to see the happiness in their (the children''s) faces,' Mackay said. 'I know they were having fun, and I think it is a great idea to have a service project.'
While American Heritage has had some form of community service linked to the curriculum for a while now, it took a more defined shape under the direction of Gary Daynes, a former BYU professor.
Daynes said he required students to serve two hours each week during a 10-week period and then write a paper about their service, the course content and their roles as citizens.
Students enrolled in Matt Holland''s class have similar but different requirements.
Holland said his students are required to complete five hours of community service and write a short paper on the experience, relating how their service is connected to some principle or idea they covered in American Heritage.
Dayne said he based his ideas about community service on a model called service learning.
'In service learning, students serve in the community, but their service is connected to the curriculum, and the service is an opportunity for students to learn about and learn from their community,' he said.
The students that Daynes taught had excellent experiences linked with the service.
'The vast majority liked having service being part of the class,' Daynes said. 'Most of the students involved in the service learning developed a better sense of themselves as citizens in our democracy, and they understood better the causes and effects of the political and social problems that afflict our society.'
Students have various ideas for service.
Many students opt to take part in the Outreach to Provo Schools, an elementary tutoring program run through the Jacobsen Center.
Curtis Salmon, 18, an open-major freshman from Gilbert, Ariz., said he would probably help referee or coach junior high lacrosse teams.
Aubrey West, 19, a pre-art major from Raleigh, N.C., said she sang at a rest home for her service hours.
Including service in the course changed Dayne''s life as well as the lives of the students participating in the course.
'Ultimately, including service learning changed my entire outlook on the course,' Daynes said. 'I had once thought of American Heritage largely as a course about the founding (of the country). Now I think of it as a course that helps students develop skills and attitudes they need to understand the founding and apply its lessons in their lives as citizens.'