Service-Learning Students Assist with Disaster Preparedness (A Learn and Serve America Grantee)

Students in Assistant Professor Rachel Dowty's Fundamentals of Emergency Management class last spring partnered with a number of local non-profits to develop emergency management plans. Partnering with agency representatives from the Urban Restoration Economic Corporation, Women's Community Rehabilitation Center, and Baton Rouge Crisis Intervention Center, groups collaborated with the organizations to discuss agency needs and develop the plans.  With the agencies' needs ranging from evacuation of residential facilities to protecting confidential information, students discovered that the same plan was not going to work for each group.

"Students not only had the opportunity to engage with a local non-profit organization, ask questions, and gain a full understanding of what that organization does for our community, but they also learned how an emergency plan must be specific to an organization," said Dowty.

At the conclusion of the semester, students presented their plans to agency representatives. In addition, several of the groups provided the agencies with emergency "kits" that included tools they would need to implement their plans.

"Students came away... feeling more empowered by not only their ability to effectively plan for and understand emergency responses for themselves and their families, but also their ability to really have an impact on the community through local non-profit organizations," said Dowty.

Assistant Professor Melanie Gall's  environmental hazards analysis class helped assess hazards on campus to aid in the development of a campus hazard mitigation plan.  Service-learning students presented survey data of the campus population's hazard awareness to LSU's Office of Public Safety for use in an application for an emergency preparedness grant.

"Students were able to combine their theoretical classroom knowledge with hands-on experience," Gall said. "They experienced the challenges of collecting data and conducting surveys. Aside from theoretical knowledge, the students learned skills that will aid them in other classes and future careers – team work, tolerance, and organizational skills." 

Honors 2000 students also assisted LSU's disaster preparedness efforts, surveying students who were on campus during Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Gustav to collect information on student experiences during the storms to assist LSU in developing a comprehensive disaster response policy.

Different sections of the Honors 2000 course focused their questions on individual responses during the hurricanes and the perceptions of the university's disaster response. Results were categorized into similar experiences or responses and analyzed for recommendations to LSU Emergency Operations Center and Student Government.

"Students really gained from going out to talk to people and learned from interacting with people they didn't know very well," said Assistant Professor Lawrence Rouse.

Gall's class will continue their work with the campus hazard mitigation plan in her spring ENVS class.  Dowty's fall class is developing emergency plans with Alzheimers' Services of the Capital Area.

For more information about this story, please contact Matt Schafer, Louisiana State University, ccell@lsu.edu, http://www.ccell.lsu.edu.