Paola at Moses House.

Congratulations to Paola Gonzalez on the publication of her reflective essay in the inaugural issue of the new online journal Undergraduate Journal of Service-Learning and Community Based Research. Entitled “Seeing Social Problems through the Eyes of Community Members: Reflections on Community-Based Service Learning at Moses House,” Paola explains how understanding the experiences and perspectives of children in the context of their everyday lives allowed her to connect neighborhood issues to larger societal problems.

Paola graduated from USF in August 2012 with a B.A. in Anthropology and a B.S. in Health Science. While at USF, she worked on various community-based research projects, including an NSF-funded project in Bolivia in addition to service-learning and research projects with Moses House in Tampa. The NSF fellowship was for providing professional support to research initiatives related to sustainable water management that take place at the intersection of engineering, anthropology, global perspective, and a dynamic world. Paola worked on a team that studied the perceptions of community members in regards to the implementation of water treatment systems in rural Bolivia.

Paola in the mountains of Bolivia.

She currently works at the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay and plans to apply to graduate school to pursue a Master’s degree in applied anthropology and public health.

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The Office of Community Engagement and Partnerships would like to feature more stories about the impacts of service-learning on student success. If service-learning has enhanced your academic experience or influenced your career goals, and you would like to share your experience with others, please contact us about the possibility of having your story featured in our newsletter.

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Know an undergraduate student who has written an outstanding essay or article on service-learning or community-based research?* The Undergraduate Journal of Service-Learning and Community Based Research will begin receiving submissions for Volume 2 during the spring 2013 semester. Published by Penn State Berks, a college of the Pennsylvania State University, the journal is refereed, multidisciplinary, and devoted to disseminating undergraduate contributions to the growing academic conversation on service-learning and community-based research. The journal is open to undergraduate students in the U.S. and across the globe in all subject areas, and it publishes the following categories of writing: reflective essays, analytical essays, research done in partnership with an organization and accompanying reflection, research articles, and open category. For more information about the journal, click here.

* From the Undergraduate Journal of Service-Learning and Community Based Research website:

“Note to Faculty: We strongly encourage faculty to exercise professional judgment about the quality of work they encourage students to submit to the journal. We strongly discourage faculty from requiring students to submit papers for course credit. We have limited reviewing resources since we are a volunteer editorial staff of faculty and students. We ask that faculty carefully mentor students so that only papers of sufficient quality that have a chance of publication are submitted. If we realize that we’re receiving submissions required for course credit, we will de-prioritize reading those submissions, which would mean that even the best of them might not be considered for the journal. Thank you for your cooperation.”