MANKATO — When Elizabeth Sandell first came on board as a professor in the College of Education at Minnesota State University in 2005, she inherited a course where service learning was a key featured component for her elementary education students.
However, in reaching out to area nonprofit and organization leaders about having her Human Relations in a Multicultural Society students volunteer with them, she got some pushback.
“A couple of them said to me that they had poor experiences with students in the past and with faculty connections in the past,” she said. “So they were thinking they didn’t want to do that.”
Rather than discontinue what she regards as a “transformational” experience for students, she invited those community leaders to a meeting on campus and discussed her plans for her course.
“I explained my goals and said that I would support them in having students do meaningful work,” Sandell said. “They all agreed and it’s been a lot of good partnerships since then.”
Now, Sandell is retiring, and the nonprofit leaders who rely on her students for service learning hours are left wondering how their relationship with MSU might change. Sandell’s retirement party was last week; then she’ll teach summer classes online and officially retire in August.
“Oh yeah, we’re in a bit of a panic,” said Erin Simmons, executive director at MY Place youth center in Mankato. “Beth is irreplaceable in her passion for serving the community. We for several months now have been putting the call out to MSU that we need some other faculty to step up to fill in the gaps for us. I think there’s a warm reception to the calls. But more complicated is faculty adding something else to the curriculum they already have in place.”
Alison Troldahl, family and community engagement coordinator for Mankato Area Public Schools, said she too is hoping another MSU professor will pick up the partnership.
Sandell, she said, is definitely the “connector or catalyst” between this MSU partnership and her organization.
“Beth wrote this in her syllabus because her students had it as a requirement of the class to do 20 hours of service learning in the community,” Troldahl said.
Sandell’s students are cherished tutors within the school district’s Adult Basic Education department for its immigrant and refugee second language learners, Troldahl said.
“It gives them the opportunity to have more one-on-one time,” she said. “The tutors serve as conversational partners or small-group tutors and that definitely benefits the Adult Basic Education students in the classroom. They also build friendships cross-culturally.”
Crystal Watts, assistant director for community engagement in the MSU Student Activities office, said Sandell has been a “champion for service learning on this campus for a long time.”
Watts said Sandell will be greatly missed, but that she has gotten “conversations started” prior to her retirement “to make sure my office is connected with some of our community partners. We are currently restructuring how service learning and volunteering information is communicated.”
She has a positive outlook on how things will play out at MSU. “We always want to make sure we have that transition of historical knowledge and Beth has been working on that for the last few months to make sure the importance of service learning isn’t lost,” she said.
Her Student Activities office is charged with helping MSU “students find their people, and one of the ways that we can do that is through volunteering efforts,” Watts said. “So we pair students with volunteer opportunities. Some are curious about volunteerism and want to learn more.”
Sandell said she notices a drastic shift in students post volunteerism. Because of their service learning hours, the community gets professionals “who are more culturally competent,” she said. “They’re on their way to interacting better with people who are different than they are.”
Other MSU professors have courses featuring service learning hours, but the nonprofit leaders interviewed for this article describe Sandell and her community impact as invaluable.
“The thing to know about Beth is that she is an irreplaceable treasure in our community,” said Simmons of MY Place. “The commitment that she has had to diversity and serving kids and individuals who are in need and connecting her students to that community and population is unprecedented. I don’t see that happening elsewhere. She’s going to be missed.”
By Simmons’ count, 250 of Sandell’s students have devoted roughly 7,500 service learning hours to the youth center in the last several years. Within the school district’s Adult Basic Education classes, Sandell has had 300 students serve as tutors — tallying more than 6,000 hours since 2013.
The give-back of volunteers can’t be overestimated, Watts said. According to national organization Independent Sector, the estimated value of each volunteer hour is $36.14.
“It’s a lot of money,” Sandell said.