An analysis of utilizing not-for-profit organizations and service-learning activities in the administrative assistant program at Western Technical College

by Fancher, Gail A.

The purpose of this study was to identify and analyze the service-learning needs of the not-for-profit organizations in the La Crosse area. Additionally, the study intended to determine the understanding about service-learning within these organizations and possible application within the administrative assistant program. Data was collected from 14 not-for-profit organizations, with 71.4% of the respondents reporting having experienced service-learningactivity previously. The study sought to determine whether the not-for-profit organizations had an understanding of the components involved with a service-learning activity. The results of the organization's belief of the service-learning component were consistently high with the highest mean ratings for " providing evaluation of activity " (3.43), "meeting community needs" (3.36), and " teaching civic responsibility " (3.29), and the responses were tightly clustered around the means with a standard deviation of .65, .75, and .83, respectively. Conversely, the results of the organization's involvement level were also consistently high. The same components as in the organization's belief received high ratings for " providing evaluation of activity " with a rating of 3.50, " meeting community needs " with a rating of 3.43, and " teaching civic responsibility " with a rating of 3.43; the same tight clustering resulted around the means with standard deviation of .65, .65, and .76, respectively. A total of 78.6% of the respondents would be interested in a service-learning activity involving the administrative assistant program at Western. The results indicate that 71.5% of the respondents would be able to accommodate one or two students per week up to 25 hours per week. The Graduate School University of Wisconsin Stout Menomonie, WI