“Great American Experiment” Course Helps Students Find Their Path Through Service-Learning

Service that benefits the common good is a core value for the Emmanuel College School of Education, and it’s an experience that often helps students find their path through meaningful connections. 

For education majors, a key first step on this path begins with an entry-level course that provides a brief history of education in the United States, along with a service component that demonstrates the theory in practice. 

“We set the curriculum so that we deal with global issues, and we also deal specifically with many of the students being new to Boston,” said Dean of Education Sr. Karen Hokanson, SNDdeN. “We want them to explore Boston and embrace our values of inclusive communities and work in an environment that might be different from their own experience.”

This was the case for Elementary Education major Abigail Butts ’27, who connected with the Mission Grammar School through “EDUC1111: The Great American Experiment" as a first-year student. She started with the afterschool program, helping the host teacher provide activities, games, and supervision for the K-2 students. 

Butts was no stranger to education in Boston— she attended Boston Public Schools through fourth grade—but being part of a Catholic prep school community was something new for her.   

“I’d never been in a Catholic or private school setting, so it was definitely a new world for me, but the community was so welcoming,” said Butts. “Emmanuel has such strong ties with the staff there, and I built on those connections.” 

Hands-on experience that encourages growth and helps students reflect on the course they want to set is central to how Emmanuel’s School of Education practices service-learning, said Associate Dean of Field Placements and School Partnerships Deirdre Bradley-Turner ’98 G’12.

“It’s important that the classroom learning and the service match each other,” said Bradley-Turner. “It’s a focus on the whole person. It’s a focus on service. It’s a focus on using gifts and talents to meet a need in our community.”

“All of this ties back to who we are as an institution,” she added.

Mission Grammar offered Butts a work-study position when her stint through The Great American Experiment concluded. Now she’s helping administer lesson plans and activities for slightly older students in the after-school program. 

“I was hoping to get a work-study job while at Emmanuel,” said Butts. “The fact that it came from my volunteer experience was just full circle. It worked out perfectly.”

The Mission Grammar experience was also good preparation for Butts’ pre-practicum work with fourth and fifth grade students at the Richard J. Murphy School in Dorchester. She’s looking forward to running her own classroom as a student-teacher in a couple of years, and is enjoying the process of building toward that goal. 

The Emmanuel School of Education partners with 32 schools in the Boston area for placements. Butts is still weighing which type of classroom she’ll request, and appreciates the opportunity to explore a variety of settings.  

“Those different experiences are so helpful,” said Butts. “It’s good to get into different types of classes and schools.”

Butts is also staying involved with The Great American Experiment this semester as an instructional assistant to Bradley-Turney. Her primary responsibility is helping to coordinate and organize the service-learning aspect of the course. Among other things, she creates and maintains the schedule, supports classroom discussions, and checks in with her fellow students to discuss their progress. Having found the class deeply impactful, Butts said it’s nice working with others to share that experience.   

 “I really didn’t know what to expect, but it was an amazing class and I've gotten so much networking out of it,” said Butts. 

The Highlight of an Emmanuel Experience 

Art Therapy major Mia Vendetti ’25 connected with the Sister Mary Hart afterschool program through The Great American Experiment as a first-year student. She has been there ever since. 

Vendetti started with one day per week, tutoring K-6 students. She stayed on through a work-study position after that opening stint and has steadily gotten more involved with the program. These days she’s an intern, handling administrative tasks, event planning, and providing help wherever it’s needed, four days per week.

“I love working with students, and I love working in an academic setting,” said Vendetti. “Working with this program has been the highlight of my time at Emmanuel.” 

Being involved with student discipline is Vendetti’s favorite part of the internship. In practice, that often means helping students regulate their emotions. This dovetails with her career goal of working in schools as a clinical therapist. 

Vendetti brought an interest in clinical therapy to Emmanuel. She comes from an artistic family, and felt art therapy would be a good combination of her interests. But she also considered becoming an art teacher and took The Great American Experiment to explore that avenue.    

By her second year, Vendetti learned that she prefers nurturing emotional growth but she still found a key piece of the puzzle through Sister Mary Hart. 

“It definitely influenced my decision to add a minor in education,” said Vendetti. “It made me want to work specifically with students.” 

That sort of connection happens fairly often through service-learning, and not just for education majors, said Bradley-Turner.

“Education is such a wide field,” said Bradley-Turner. “Any student who has an interest in putting the theory they’re learning into practice—whether that’s sociology or psychology or education-- of course we’re going to work with them.”

In addition to studying art therapy, Vendetti is earning minors in education and psychology. She is confident that combination of disciplines is right for her chosen path, and cited a recent example from the classroom. 

A student was having difficulty with an art project. They created multiple versions of the same drawing and grew more frustrated each time, feeling they had failed. The student wanted to tear up the artwork, but Vendetti advised keeping it, saying they would eventually recognize how each one showed improvement. 

“Those are the kind of things I learned in art,” said Vendetti. “And in psychology I learned about things like behavioral methods, and in education I learned about how to work with kids in an academic setting. It’s great to see all the pieces coming together.”

Meeting Community Needs through Partnerships 

The Emmanuel School of Education is committed to community, education, and the common good. It’s a mindset that goes back to the founding of Emmanuel in 1919 by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Promoting social justice through education is central to the Sisters, and they established Emmanuel to provide educational opportunities for those who might otherwise go without. 

Sr. Karen continues that commitment to education and community through partnerships in Boston and beyond. It’s part of how the school goes about preparing students for life.  

“We commit ourselves to community service, and then we create community among those with whom we work,” she said. 

That combination of meaningful service and education was transformative for Dr. Ali Dutson ’05. Now President of the Mission Grammar School, she charted her current course after volunteering at a Montessori school while an undergraduate at Emmanuel. 

“I had the opportunity to really dig into what the Catholic social teachings mean and how I wanted to live those out in my professional career and my day-to-day life,” said Dr. Dutson. “I starting to fall in love with teaching as a way of service and a way of living my faith. I wanted to continue on that journey.”

Sister Mary Hart Children’s Program Executive Director Julie McGovern said the service-learning and work-study partnership through Emmanuel’s School of Education are priceless for a small organization that strives to help students succeed socially and academically. She said it benefits everyone involved. 

“The Emmanuel students get experience with children, and our students get another adult in their life who is caring for them, spending time with them, and affirming them,” said McGovern.   

“Having the Emmanuel students involved adds a tremendous amount,” she added. “I honestly could not do it without their help.”