Service learning projects are a large part of the ILAD 4100 class: Leadership, Personal Development and Organizations. The professor challenges groups of 5-6 students to create and implement a meaningful semester-long community service activity. Over the years, projects have been very creative and made a significant impact in the Athens community.

Dr. Vikki Clawson's class served the following 15 local agencies in Fall 2006:

Morning Side Assisted Living Facility: Holiday Craft Day - Alex, Katie, Tim, Martha, Kristina, and Vincent's mission was "to bring joy and laughter to the elderly during the holiday season through service" The project included a formal holiday craft making event, immediately following dinner. The residents and students listened to holiday music, joked, and collaborated to make beautiful ornaments. Some residents kept their creations to give to loved ones, and other's left them with us to put on the community tree. The most important part of this service project was the dialogue which occurred between the students and the residents. Although this service project was not elaborate, a small group of students were able to directly impact a group of elderly women that evening by providing productive work and laughter, and most importantly someone to listen to the wisdom of their years...and that probably meant more to them than we even realized.

Barrow Elementary School: Leadership and Personal Development Workshops for 4th/5th Graders - Claire, Corrine, Patrick, Brian, Adam, and Abby prepared and executed an effective 3-session leadership workshop to enhance personal leadership development for 4th/5th graders. The workshop sessions included: content on teamwork, how to be a better leader and cooperation. "Leadership" learning activities included many interactive and experiential games, such as the "human knot", telephone game, the hula-hoop game, ball toss and role playing. Each activity was discussed and tied back to how students could apply what they learned about leadership at school and at home with friends.

Athens Homeless Shelter: Get Inked! - Lisa, Katie, Kenny, Tara, and Steven helped the environment and the local Athens community by collecting ink cartridges to sell to Cartridge World to recycle. And secondly, they used the money raised by cartridge recycles to purchase items on the Homeless Shelter Wish list. The team was able to collect over 100 cartridges which purchased many items, such as socks, toiletries, and gloves for the clients. The Get Inked project provided a tremendous service for both the greater Athens environment as well as for the day-to-day lives of Athens homeless population.

Timothy Elementary School and Lanier Gardens: Turkeys and Tikes - A Thanksgiving Tale - Erin, Ann Elise, Sara, Andrew, and Adam bridged the generational gap between elementary school students and senior citizens through collaborative fun activities. During the event, seniors and tikes alike participated in "turkey" cookie decorating, trivia games and book reading activities. Each senior also received a holiday card made for them by one of the young students.

Oconee Street Boys and Girls Club: Healthy Living - Jason, Rob, Kim, Brittany, and Lizzie, planned and executed a 1.5 hour after-school program on Healthy Living for approximately 200 underprivileged children. The high energy program started with a brief presentation on general fitness and nutrition facts. Then the children rotated throughout 5 health and fitness game and exercise stations: Strength, Relay, Jumping for Health, Healthy Snacks and Dance Time. The main service outcome for this project was to promote healthy living for underprivileged children who do not have access to vital health information and to initiate an effort to stop the increase of obesity in America.

Murphy-Harpst Orphanage: Clean Out Your Closet - Katie, Baron, Sarah, Deana, and John, used the vehicle of a "Greek" clothing drive to raise funds to purchase holiday gifts for the children of Murphy-Harpst, a children's agency and orphanage located in Cedartown Georgia. The group encouraged sorority and fraternity members to "clean out their closets" and donate clothing to be resold to Plato's Closet and other consignment shops to raise funds for the Orphanage's wish-list purchases. The Greeks delivered! The Team was buried in clothing! The results: lots of hard work and $725 donated for the children's gift project. The team traveled to Cedartown to deliver their gifts. "We will never forget this experience."

Project Safe Services for Battered Women: Holiday Dinner - Kevin, Claude, Mary, and Leigh provided a holiday dinner and celebration for a Project Safe shelter family. The family selected had literally been in hiding from an abusive father for over 6 months. This holiday service project included a visit to the Zeta house for a dinner of pizza and drinks, stockings full of gifts, ornament decorating and a gift of "their own" family Christmas Tree to take home with them at the end of the evening. To end the day, the children visited the Delta Tau Delta house for an evening of face painting, cookies and pictures with Santa. The team's main goal was to bring as much Christmas cheer as they could to children who had experienced domestic violence. In the words of one of the children, "this was awesome!" Goal met!

Garnett Ridge Boys and Girls Club: Thanksgiving Festival - Stuart, John, Jade, Sara, and Veronica planned and executed a Thanksgiving Festival for the children of the Garnett Ridge Community, a highly underprivileged and predominantly Hispanic community. The main objective for the festival was to teach the children about the meaning of thankfulness in conjunction with the Thanksgiving holiday in a fun and engaging environment as well as to provide each child with a gift to give them something to be thankful for during the holiday season. The festival included arts and crafts such as a the creation of Thanksgiving cards for each child's parent stating what each child was thankful for, sports games such as soccer and bean bag toss, dinner and desert as well as overall lessons of the spirit of Thanksgiving. In addition, the team solicited donations for the purchase of 2 soccer goals and 3 soccer balls as gifts to the Garnett Ridge Boys and Girls club as well as a gift for each child.

First Lady of Georgia Children's Campaign: Benefit Drive for the Children of Athens - Megan, Katie, Lilia, Chad and John helped the underprivileged and abused children by executing a local "Drive for Athens Orphans" campaign to raise awareness of foster care programs. Students discovered that often times, children enter foster care with nothing but the clothes on their back. The team planned and implemented a project to make an immediate impact on 20 local orphans by creating bags filled with essential items like tooth brushes, hairbrushes, school supplies, and much more. This was funded by the generosity of Chick-Fila, who made a $250 donation. The bags also included personal notes of encouragement from this servant leadership team.