By BRIGID PARKER

For 20 years, Beloit College’s Duffy Community Partnerships provided students across all areas of study the opportunity to deepen their understanding of how institutions interact within a society through firsthand experience at a wide range of community partners, including local businesses, nonprofit organizations, government institutions and many more. However, following the retirement of well-loved professor of sociology and Director of Community Based Learning, Carol Wickersham, The Duffy program has taken a hiatus this academic year. Yet Beloit’s commitment to experiential learning remains fierce and continues to grow. 

This past Spring, with the announcement of the Duffy’s unfortunate hiatus came the news of several community-based learning courses being offered this Fall, some of which are already existing courses reformulated to include experience outside of the classroom, while others are being offered for the first time. These courses all fall under Impact Beloit, the college’s new initiative being piloted this semester with the mission of combining community engagement with career readiness. It aims to get more students involved with the community, ensuring they develop professional skills through firsthand experience. PRAX 285: Impact Beloit Community Connections is a standout among this selection of classes for both its intensity and familiarity. 

Taught by Suzanne Goebel of CareerWorks, Community Connections takes after the Duffy in its comprehensive approach to service learning, requiring each of its students to complete 90 hours of service with their respective sites over the course of the semester. While most of the learning happens off-campus the class meets weekly to connect and discuss experiences within the larger context of the community. When asked about Community Connections’ resemblance to the Duffy Program, Suzanne tells me that this was completely intentional, as the course was born out of The Duffy with the purpose of continuing to offer Beloit students the opportunity to immerse themselves in the off-campus community over the course of a full semester.

Goebel spent the last semester working alongside Carol Wickersham to ensure that she was able to maintain relationships with the various community partners, which has proven successful considering that Community Connections and the Duffy share many common partners, including Community Action inc. and Family Promise of Greater Beloit. Suzanne also had to work towards creating and establishing a structure for a community based course, especially being that so much of the learning takes place outside of the classroom.

Suzanne describes this course almost as a temporary placeholder for the Duffy. “We didn’t want students to be looking for a class like this and tell them ‘Okay, nothing is being offered.’” She says. Although, I’m not sure she is giving herself and this course due credit. Like many other Beloiters and community members, I am a lover of the Duffy and the purpose it serves both on and off campus, and I felt very uncertain as to whether it would ever make a full comeback after Carol’s retirement, especially considering the hardship of maintaining relationships with over twenty community partners at a given time. But from the buzz I have heard around campus, Community Connections is much more than just a stand in. It approaches community based work with its own unique and critical questions, such as how do we partner with community organizations ethically and sustainably? or, what does civic engagement look like and why does it matter? Plus, there is always something to be said about a class that not only encourages students to connect their learning to what they experience outside the classroom, but also teaches students that some of the most important learning will not take place in a physical classroom. 

Suzanne describes Impact Beloit’s central objective as connecting as many students as possible to the community, while questioning not only how we can impact the community, but how the community impacts us. 

Second, third, and fourth year students interested in a hands-on, intensive approach to service learning can expect applications for PRAX 285 Spring 2024 to be open around October. Look for them under the Impact Beloit page on the college’s website.