Towson University’s Outreach Blog

Susan

In my very first blog, I wrote about my involvement in the Professional Writing (PRWR) program here at Towson.   I just finished my second semester in the program, and my experience with the program continues to be rewarding.  I took an editing class, and my main project this semester was to complete a service learning project.  To fulfill this course requirement, I participated in editing a 380 page Nigerian novel with five of my classmates.  In addition to completing the service learning project, my classmates and I started a small press, and we are publishing a cookbook.  All the proceeds from this cookbook will go to a non-profit organization.

My academic career has given me the opportunity to take many different types of classes; however, few have given me the opportunity to impact the community like my editing class has.  Since this is the last week of the semester and I found this experience valuable, I thought it would be appropriate to interview my professor, Dr. Marlana Portolano, so I could share her vision and decision to incorporate service learning in her graduate class.

My Class!

How long have you worked at Towson?

This is my 7th year at Towson University. I teach graduate students and undergrads in the English Department.

Can you tell me a little more about yourself?

Dr. Portolano: Aside from my job at the University, I’m also involved in several nonprofit, community organizations because of some special needs children and international teen adoptees in my life (my own kids, that is).  These two areas of my life—teaching and community involvement—seemed to come together when I decided to incorporate service learning into my editing class.

Susan: Why did you decide to incorporate a service learning project in our Editing class?

I realized that, because of my own involvement in the community, I had many contacts in the nonprofit sector. When I asked these people if they could use pro bono editing work, the response was enthusiastic and positive.

Can you talk more about the small press we started in your class?

When we shifted gears mid-semester from copy editing to the philosophy, ethics, and material production involved in the publishing business, my class decided as a group to start a service-learning, charitable small press.  Patapsco Valley Press’s inaugural publication, a cookbook entitled Chicken Soup Around the World (June 2010), has a community feel and a global scope.  The apt beneficiary of this project is GlobalGiving.com, one of our copy editing clients from earlier in the semester.

Will you continue to incorporate service learning into future classes?

Absolutely!  In my future PRWR editing classes, Patapsco Valley Press will be producing more publications to benefit charitable or educational organizations, and an imprint is planned especially for exemplary works by PRWR students.  I’m also contemplating an undergraduate service learning course that would edit fundraising projects like the one we did this semester.  A new faculty member in my department, Phil Gochenour, is building a Wiki-compatible recipe database for his technical writing class, and we’re thinking of working together on a project in 2011.