Charting a Hero's Journey - Softcover

Linda A. Chisholm

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0970198426 ISBN 13: 9780970198426

Publisher: International Partnership for Service-Learning, 2000

Synopsis

Based on the work of Joseph Campbell and using excerpts from the journals of such people as Jane Addams, Langston Hughes, Octavio Paz, Samuel Johnson, Mary Kingsley, and Kathleen Norris, Charting a Hero's Journey is a guide to the writing of a journal for college students engaged in study abroad, off-campus study, and/or service-learning. The book may be used as a text for academic courses in fields such as intercultural studies, service-learning, and English literature or composition, and may be adapted for use in freshman or senior seminars that focus on student development and education in the college years. Funded by a Cooperative Grants Program of NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

About this title

About the Author:

Linda A. Chisholm is a co-founder and past president of the International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership. She also served as president of the Association of Episcopal Colleges from 1985 to 2001, during which years she founded and served as first general secretary of Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion. She is author of Charting a Hero's Journey (2000) and, with Howard Berry, Understanding the Education--And Through It the Culture--in Education Abroad (2002); Service-Learning Around the World: An Initial Look (1999); and How to Serve & Learn Abroad Effectively: Students Tell Students (1992). She also served as editor for Visions of Service (2004) and Knowing and Doing: The Theory and Practice of Service-Learning (2005), as well as contributing numerous articles to other volumes on international service-learning. Dr. Chisholm holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education Research from Columbia University, and has been awarded the D.D. (hon.) from the General Theological Seminary, New York City; the D.H.L. (hon.) by Cuttington University College, Suacoco, Liberia; and a University Fellowship (hon.) by the University of Surrey Roehampton, London. She was a trustee, vice chair, and chair of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, and served as a trustee of the Harvard-Yenching Institute.

Review:

Written by one of American higher education's most knowledgeable leaders of the service-learning pedagogical reform movement, Charting a Hero's Journey gives us a badly needed rationale and template for the most important component of the "learning" in service-learning: reflection. With Charting, Dr. Chisholm also makes a significant contribution to the growing literature on the undergraduate journal writing process, helpful to both educators and students equally. While primarily for students engaged in service-learning, this volume could also be used in first-year and senior-year seminars which encourage reflective thinking in writing, journaling, and/or service-learning. The use of allegorical myth and legend is particularly powerful and potentially instructive, as is the use of one of literature's oldest motifs, the idea of growth and transformation through journey. In today's society, undergraduates yearn for and need this kind of personal and intellectual stimulation as they seek out-often in vain-their own heroes and models to emulate in their individual lives and service to colleagues, companions, campuses, companies, community, and country. --John N. Gardner, Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Senior Fellow, National Resource Center on the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition

This book is about guided reflection, an essential-and often neglected-part of the study abroad experience. Grounded in literature that in itself is a joy to read, it connects the real experience of students and others who live in foreign cultures with those who went before them. The students become part of a long line and great history of heroes who have shared the joys and challenges that accompany this transforming adventure. Essential to the experience of living abroad are: absorbing new perspectives, discovering oneself as a cultural being, construing the experience in ways that provide new meanings, and making transitions with attention to and integration of personal change. Living abroad is intense experiential learning. Charting a Hero's Journey provides a structure that enhances the learning that occurs during intercultural transitions, giving it a framework that makes it more comprehensible, academically applicable, and personally meaningful. --Margaret D. Pusch, Associate Director, Intercultural Communication Institute

Learning is deeper and lasts longer when students are encouraged to reflect on the connections between what they know, do, and value. At last, we in higher education have a resource that will help us make those connections. --Louis S. Albert, President, Pima Community College West Campus

About this edition

• Publisher: International Partnership for Service-Learning
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0970198426
• ISBN 13: 9780970198426
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 328
• Illustrator: Kate Chisholm