Allied health science student Julianne Sommer and her mentee get to know each other on one of their monthly visits to the zoo.

College of Allied Health Sciences mentors find they learn as much as their mentees

Along the riverbank of Cincinnati's Sawyer Point park, two people stood in a state of disbelief. One was only 8 years old and entranced by the power and majesty of the water. The other, a UC student, was astonished that the child had never seen the river before, not even from a car window. After all, the second-grader had lived in Cincinnati since birth.

"I couldn't get her away from it,” says Julianne Sommer, a Dayton native who was mentoring the child. "She knew that she lived by a river, but she'd never seen one because she'd never been out of her impoverished neighborhood. I have to say I was shocked at her excitement and how big the experience appeared to be for her.”

Sommer's recollection of working with an underprivileged child became a profoundly moving experience, says the communication-sciences and disorders junior. And she found herself in the situation because of a required freshman service-learning course taught at the College of Allied Health Sciences.

The course "Success in Allied Health” is mandatory for the college's 129 majors and includes class time and 20 hours of service. Sommer's service came through the program "Zoo Mates,” which involved meeting her mentee twice monthly, often at the zoo, for an entire academic year.

"It helps a lot of students realize whether this is the correct major for them or not,” explains junior Whitney Chaffin, an advanced medical imaging major who went on to become a service-learning teaching assistant after completing her service hours at University Hospital. Chaffin spent her time there transporting patients to and from radiology for X-rays, MRIs and CAT scans.

"I had one lady who only spoke Spanish, so there was the need to involve an interpreter. That really helped me to understand a diversity that I'd never been exposed to,” says Chaffin, from Proctorville, Ohio.

"Students realize they are helping people, whether it be tutoring or pushing a wheelchair, and Allied Health is a helping profession,” says assistant professor Carolyn Sotto, MA (A&S) '85, PhD (CAHS) '94, director of the First-Year Experience initiative, which oversees service learning at the college.

While elements of service learning have always been integrated into the college curriculums, Sotto says, it wasn't until 2007 that it became a freshman quarter requirement, complete with growing pains. But this year, with 129 students placed throughout the Greater Cincinnati area, it became evident that the program had evolved into a purposeful endeavor with measurable success. According to freshman surveys, three-fourths of students in 2008 found the experience fulfilling, compared to only a third the previous year.

Service learning, Sotto adds, aligns itself closely with the UC|21 academic plan's community engagement initiative by forging key relationships and partnerships within the community. In this way, the university's faculty and students lend their expertise and efforts to bettering the greater community while students are provided with real-world experiences.