UIUC Students: New service-learning opportunities for Spring 2010

by Ann Abbott

By coincidence, I was reading a book on project management when I received the message below about a great service-learning course available to all University of Illinois students.

Although we tend to think of project management as something that engineers and software writers need to learn, it's actually important for all of us. Any project, even your own (e.g., getting into grad school, accomplishing all your tasks during the crazed last week of classes and finals), that involves several steps needs a plan. You need to manage effectively even more so when several people need to collaborate to make your project happen (e.g., your team project for SPAN 332, the event you need to put on for your fraternity, etc.).

And experience with project management can set you apart when you go on the job market: not only will you be able to talk about what you accomplished with your team, you'll also be able to talk about it in the terminology that employers themselves use and appreciate.

Here's the announcement:

To all students, all majors, all levels: Consider registering for a new course entitled LINC-Learning in Community. As a result of this course, you can expect to improve your project skills and to contribute to an important problem that benefits a nonprofit organization.

LINC is a service-learning course in which teams of students work on real projects proposed by community partners. There are 16 sections of the class for spring 2010 (ENG 298, TR, 12:30-1:50, 3 credit hours), with a wide range of community partners and project opportunities. For more about the course, including a listing of partners and their projects, see http://linc.illinois.edu/.

To advanced students--students with project management experience: Do you have significant experience in managing large projects? Consider applying to be a Project Manager for LINC–Learning in Community. If selected, you will register for ENG 398 and earn 3 credit hours. For more information and the application form, see http://linc.illinois.edu/project-managers-needed.

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