{"title":"“The Interview Inspired, Shocked, and Moved Me”: Philanthropic Informational Interviews as a Pandemic Alternative to Service-Learning","authors":"Genevieve G. Shaker, Meng-Han Ho, Chen Ji","doi":"10.18666/jnel-2023-12044","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The COVID-19 pandemic upended college classrooms, challenging instructors to deliver classes differently while still seeking to achieve pre-planned goals. Service-learning instructors faced a quandary: discontinuing activities could compromise course integrity, but requiring service was impossible, impractical, or inappropriate. Creative solutions were needed. This study explored the learning outcomes from a replacement activity, the philanthropic informational interview, in a philanthropy general education class and asked whether it could generate outcomes similar to service-learning. Data were drawn from student reflections (n = 145) from nine online course sections between spring 2020 and summer 2021. Thematic analysis identified eight learning outcomes: engaging with social issues, nonprofit solutions to social issues, insights into nonprofits’ innerworkings, philanthropy as everyone’s responsibility, enhanced empathetic understanding, value-driven career inspiration, developing interview skills, and building career capacities. These outcomes align with research about service-learning and suggest that the philanthropic informational interview can be a meaningful alternative to service-learning in some situations.","PeriodicalId":43170,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.18666/jnel-2023-12044","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic upended college classrooms, challenging instructors to deliver classes differently while still seeking to achieve pre-planned goals. Service-learning instructors faced a quandary: discontinuing activities could compromise course integrity, but requiring service was impossible, impractical, or inappropriate. Creative solutions were needed. This study explored the learning outcomes from a replacement activity, the philanthropic informational interview, in a philanthropy general education class and asked whether it could generate outcomes similar to service-learning. Data were drawn from student reflections (n = 145) from nine online course sections between spring 2020 and summer 2021. Thematic analysis identified eight learning outcomes: engaging with social issues, nonprofit solutions to social issues, insights into nonprofits’ innerworkings, philanthropy as everyone’s responsibility, enhanced empathetic understanding, value-driven career inspiration, developing interview skills, and building career capacities. These outcomes align with research about service-learning and suggest that the philanthropic informational interview can be a meaningful alternative to service-learning in some situations.