Roane State Service Learning Program

10/01/2019

The Roane State Service Learning Committee is pleased to announce that Melinda Gill is our Service Learning Award for Faculty winner for the 2018-2019 academic year.

Melinda has incorporated multiple service-learning activities in her classes, and has led students in providing help to people throughout our service area, and on two continents. As head of the RSCC Community Dental Health “Free” Clinic, she has guided her students transition from student clinician to practicing hygienist, through the offering of a monthly “free” dental clinic. During the past academic year, this clinic served nine counties and provided care to 104 patients, providing hygiene care, performing extractions and composite restorative restorations, all free of charge. In support of this, Melinda secured two grants, one from the United Way, and one from Trinity Health Foundation of East Tennessee.

In international involvement, Melinda teaches ALH 210 and SERV 1010 sections in which students travel to Costa Rica, providing preventive dental care to those in need. Over the past five years, this program has grown from serving 67 children to serving 327 this year. She has also helped establish a working relationship with the Costa Rican government, gathering important information, including gathering caries/decay rate, pathology and needed dental services, about the children of Costa Rica in more rural areas with very limited access to care.

In addition, Melinda and her students also partnered with several organizations, including:

· The Roane County Medical/Dental Task Force: establishing local dentist and coordinating with the Hiawassee Dental Hygiene Program to bring their mobile dental bus to Kingston to provide dental and dental hygiene care to clients who have limited access to care.

· Remote Area Medical (RAM): students to work with RAM in April 2018 and 2019, providing dental hygiene care at the Knoxville RAM clinic.

· Ronald McDonald House: each year, a group of students is taken to the Ronald McDonald House in Knoxville to provide warm meals and emotional support to families staying there.

· Special Olympics: organized RSCC Dental Hygiene Tooth Fairies jumping team, raising $700 along with her students for the Polar Bear Plunge.

Melinda also served with the Loudon County Good Samaritan Center Healthy Lives, Healthy Smiles, the American Dental Educators Associate (ADEA), American Dental Hygiene Association (ADHA), Tennessee Dental Hygiene Association (TDHA), Knox Area Dental Hygiene Association (KADHA), Manhattan Dental Professionals Study Club. Melinda has also served on Roane State’s Arts & Lectures Committee, Health & Sciences Admissions Committee, the International Education Committee, and Faculty Senate.

Please join us in congratulating Melinda Gill, Roane State’s 2018-2019 Service-Learning Award for Faculty winner!

09/22/2017

With the incorporation of service projects into our COLS 1010 courses, service learning has seen dramatic growth at Roane State.

Virtually all Roane State Community College freshmen have to take the college success course titled COLS 1010: Study-Organize-Succeed (SOS), and it now includes eight hours of public service.

08/03/2017

Looking for somewhere to volunteer? We now have over 100 volunteer opportunities listed throughout every county in our service area. Check it out!

Are you a nonprofit organization in need of volunteers? RSCC's Service Learning Program may be able to help! Contact John Brown at [email protected] for more information.

05/11/2017

Congratulations to Morgan Carden, Roane State's 2017 student Service Learning Award winner! Morgan volunteered over 40 hours a semester on the cancer floor of Children's Hospital in Knoxville, helping make every child's stay there as pleasant as possible.

A native of Lake City, TN, Morgan is an Associate of Science transfer student who plans to transfer to ETSU in the fall, where she will major in Human Services and minor in Early Childhood Education to become a Child Life Specialist.

02/04/2017

RSCC historian Casey Cobb is working on a project to honor our heroes of WWI and WWII by placing a state flag on the graves of all 74,687 Americans buried or honored as missing in action in the American military cemeteries in France and Luxembourg.

Please donate to this amazing project if you are able! More information and instructions on how to donate are available at the link below.

https://freedomremembers.com/blog/

Honoring our Heroes from World War One and Two Buried in France

04/13/2016

Congratulations to Kristi Clark, RSCC's 2016 Service Learning Award winner! A native of Clinton, TN, Kristi volunteers for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), helping and representing abused and neglected children in the judicial system. Kristi is also a 12 year veteran of the U.S. Air Force, having been deployed to Turkey and Qatar during Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Iraqi Liberation. Kristi is a great representative for service-learning at Roane State!

03/31/2015

Roane State’s Gamma Beta Phi chapter has organized a cell phone drop-off March 27-April 1 at the Oak Ridge campus

Drop your old cell phone off in the container at the OneStop in Oak Ridge. Phones will be donated to the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), a group that assists victims of domestic violence.

Drop your old cell phone off in the container at the OneStop in Oak Ridge. Phones will be donated to the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), a group that assists victims of domestic violence.

03/31/2015

A great opportunity to give back!

Volunteers are invited to assist with the Roane State Community Garden, located near the college’s main campus in Harriman.

12/04/2014

Please help if you can!

Roane County's Operation REACH has been helping children have a merry Christmas for 39 years, but this year they are falling short of their fundraising goal. That means more than 100 children on the list may not get gifts.

05/31/2014

Two young lives were cut tragically short last night when Roane State student athletes Jadah Gallaher and Rod Drummond were killed in a car accident, and Jadah's brother Darius was seriously injured.

Our thoughts and prayers and deepest condolences go out to everyone who has been impacted by this horrible tragedy.

The Harriman community has started an online fundraiser to help the families of the victims. If you are able, please consider donating at the link below.

Many families and friends and lives have been impacted by the accident that happened tonight. Let's come together as a community and show our support through our prayers and donations.

04/01/2014

The RSCC Help for the Homeless drive was a success! Thanks to the Service Learning Club for organizing it and to RSCC students, staff, and faculty for their generous donations!

03/19/2014

The RSCC Service Learning Program is proud to announce the following students have been nominated for the first annual Service Learning Award for students: Georgette Boozer, Elizabeth Crawford, Michael Elliot, Jenna Francois, and Catherine Heacock! Click on the link below to see what wonderful things these students are doing to help others!

Roane State's Service Learning Program is proud to announce the following nominees for the first-ever Service Learning Award for students: