This course by Prof. Sangeeta Prasad pertains to theories of human development from infancy to young adulthood. Dominant psychosocial, cognitive, and physical competencies; motivational changes; coping styles; and normative and non-normative behaviors. In addition to lectures, students served at least three hours per week in an appropriate agency, but many did more.
Prasad, a psychologist who teaches in the Human Services and Social Justice department, is also one of the founders of In the Streets, a D.C.-based nonprofit with a community-first approach to dealing with trauma. Rather than bringing outsiders in to help people in Black, underserved communities, the nonprofit creates a space for community members to work through trauma affecting their physical and mental health altogether.
Students serving with In the Streets built close relationships with participants through weekly calls and group meetings. In doing so, students were able to share resources, support, and learn directly from participants about social services. This semester, In the Streets, was also featured in the Washington Post, a testament to the organization’s growing presence.
For information about Community Engaged Scholarship at GW: https://go.gwu.edu/cesc
Semester Reports
Fall 2024
Professor: Kelly Ferrish
Students Reporting: 34
Time Reported: 826.82
Community Partners:
Students engaged with a diverse range of community partners, working directly with children and adolescents in various educational and support settings across Washington, DC. The largest partnerships included:
Thomson Elementary: Students assisted with the after-school program, supporting children from pre-K through elementary grades. They supervised recess, helped with homework, provided snack time assistance, and facilitated educational activities. This hands-on experience allowed students to observe child development in action while supporting teachers and school staff.
Latin American Youth Center (LAYC): Students supported LAYC's Health and Wellness Programs through various direct service opportunities. Some facilitated career readiness classes for high school students, while others worked with LAYC's sexual and reproductive health programs, developing educational materials and providing outreach services to adolescents.
Little Friends for Peace: Students volunteered in classroom settings with middle school children, conducting peace education activities and creative projects that promoted conflict resolution and emotional regulation skills.
For Love of Children (FLOC): Students served as math and literacy tutors for elementary and middle school students, administering assessments, creating lesson plans, and providing one-on-one academic support.
Life Pieces to Masterpieces: Students volunteered with both after-school and Saturday Academy programs, working with boys to support their educational and creative development through art-based activities and mentorship.
In the Streets: Students provided mentoring to high school students, helping with college applications, scholarship research, and essay editing while building supportive relationships.
Additional partnerships included 826 DC (creative writing support), Community of Hope (activities for families overcoming homelessness), Free Minds Book Club (writing feedback for incarcerated youth), and several other educational and social service organizations throughout the city.
Student Comments:
"I learn a lot about children at this age. They are more intelligent than we think and know they can get what they want if they act a certain way. As a teacher, you want to teach the students what is right and wrong without parenting the student. I can see how learning how to do this takes time because the children are very vulnerable." - A student volunteering at Thomson Elementary
"I was impacted by the students' reactions to jumpstart programming. At the beginning, they were grumpy and disappointed that we did not have recess beforehand. However, one student in particular loves jumpstart and told me at the end that his favorite center time was all of them! I am very impressed by the jumpstart volunteers' ability to capture the students' attention." - A student supporting pre-K children
"Gah I truly love being with the LPTM community so much. It is the definition of good people. I always learn so much from the boys and the incredible elders who not only built this program but continue to lead it. It was also really interesting to be back at a high school football game after everything we have learned in class about social status, peer influences..." - A student volunteering with Life Pieces to Masterpieces
"This experience deepened my understanding of the importance of culturally sensitive communication, especially in healthcare settings. I gained insight into the unique challenges faced by marginalized communities regarding HIV prevention and learned practical strategies for delivering care and information in ways that foster trust and understanding." - A student working with Latin American Youth Center
"I learned how to be patient with the children and that it takes telling them more than once to do something. I also learned that if something is going on at home the children will act out more at school which is not always a positive impact on other kids. I like getting to know the kids and spending time with them. It makes me feel like I can understand how the young generation thinks and acts." - A student supporting Thomson Elementary's after-school program
"Through her essay I was able to learn a lot about her identity and the aspects of her culture that are most important to her. I'm excited about making the process easier for my mentee and working together to make the college application process much less stressful." - A student mentoring with In the Streets
"I learned the importance of breaks. The student I was working with on math homework was extremely frustrated and did not want to focus on homework. Even when I made compromises with him, he did not want to do it. Joshua advised that I take a walk with him, so we did. During the walk, we did different exercises like lunges, twists, jumping jacks, and when we returned to the classroom, the student was much more willing to work." - A student tutoring elementary students
Fall 2023
Professor: Linda-Jeanne Mack
Students Reporting: 34
Time Reported: 697.54hrs
Community Partner: Little For Peace
Student Comments:
“I worked with an older group yesterday, and it was interesting to see the different needs that different age groups need.”
“I love working with the kids, they always teach me something new. One instance really tested me because I had to run after a kid who tried to storm out of the school because he was mad. We talked through the problem, but it was difficult to have him open up to me. Luckily the janitor go through to him and everything worked out."
“What was really interesting was the way that children and adolescents have different learning patterns and it's really fun to be able to adjust according to their learning style. Also, seeing how she was able to pick some things up by asking her friends, watching and the language that is used between adolescents made it easier for her to understand (she came back and told me). Making the connections between what is being told on both ends. She put her cognitive learning skills to use and also did many other things like the "monkey see, monkey do" or mimicry; trying to do certain things the way I did in order to try and understand hard-to-grasp topics. Overall, I really enjoyed being able to be a part of this and analyzing those social skills of adolescents to see how they learn and how they adapt to be able to learn new concepts.”
Fall 2022
Professor: Sangeeta Prasad
Students Reporting: 19
Time Reported: 413 hours
| Community Partner | Student Involvement |
| Horton’s Kids | Students provided one-one tutoring, literacy intervention, homework help, and educational advocacy with Horton’s Kids. When not working on school though, volunteers got to engage in fun activities centered on social-emotional learning. |
| In the Streets | Students fostered close relationships with participants throughout the semester, serving as mentors and tutors. In weekly calls, and group meetings students worked directly with participants offering ways to support emotional, mental, spiritual, physical and relational health. |
| Latin American Youth Center | Through opportunities in academics, arts and recreation, job readiness, safe places to live, and healthy and wellness, the LAYC strives to address many of the barriers to success low-income youth face. Volunteers engaged in programming and provided tutoring services for students. |
| Little Friends for Peace | Students had the opportunity to either participate in virtual peace circles with D.C. Public School students, or with incarcerated citizens in Alexandria, VA . As trained volunteers, students were able to get the chance to learn about peace and conflict resolution through direct service. |
| Marie Reeds Elementary School | Students worked directly as classroom assistants, tutors and mentors for students ranging in age between K-6. Activities ranged from creating engaging teaching plans for their classrooms, to making arts and crafts with students. |
Quotes from students:
“I enjoyed working with [redacted] this semester and being a part of the work In the Streets does as a whole. It was great to learn about how to better be a part of change in terms of mental health and opportunities for individuals in D.C. as well as get to know all of the other pairings better. I learned most in this class through this service-learning opportunity.” - A student serving with In the Streets
“The children were kind to each other and very cooperative. They also shared information about themselves and seemed excited about the Horton's Kids program.” - A student serving with Horton’s Kid
“My second semester volunteering with Marie Reed has been incredible and I am so glad I have had the opportunity to work with this school and people!” - A student serving with Marie Reed Es
“Throughout November, [redacted] and I got significantly closer. Our calls tripled in length, and we opened up to each other much more. I was able to help him find a French tutor and talked through the other things he had going on. His responses to my texts became much more consistent as well.” - A student serving with In the Streets
Spring 2022
Professor: Erica Walls
Students Reporting: 30
Time Reported: 752 Hours
| Community Partner | Student Involvement | How many students served here? |
| Pathways to Housing | Students spoke to individuals living in homeless encampments and conducted interviews for Pathways to Housing’s marketing efforts. As part of their project, they wrote summaries for the organization/ led a final presentation as part of the group’s effort to shift the narrative people have about unhoused people. | 4 |
| Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development | Students worked on a variety of marketing and design projects in partnership with the CNHED. Projects ranged from creating informational handouts on topics like digital equity for DC’s wards to developing digital deliverables to the organization’s comms team. | 4 |
| DC Action for Children | Students conducted outreach through calls to community members and educators, blogging, and research. As part of their project this group worked to build infographics; backgrounders on policy, past articles, and educator compensation; and slides presentations to aid the nonprofit’s marketing efforts. | 7 |
| Latin American Youth Center | Students visited the LAYC throughout the semester organizing workshops/discussions and developing mental health toolkits to share with the students who attended. Students aimed to help the teens further their understanding on the importance of mental health and destigmatize mental illnesses. | 4 |
| Children’s Defense Fund | Over the course of the semester, students facilitated community conversation with participants of the Children’s Defense Fund’s “The Block: Family Narratives for Collective Impact”. The project gathers stories that highlight concerns and challenges of families in Ward 8 directly from community members, who are attuned to the issues affecting their neighborhoods and their own priorities for change. | 4 |
| Latino Student Fund | This service project included working with LSF to create a newsletter for the organization to send out weekly with community members and leaders, Students also created a research-based presentation discussing issues with educational equity and LSF's mission. | 3 |
| Greater Brookland Intergenerational Village | Group members created and ran the Facebook and Instagram pages for the GBIV. Students communicated with the executive director of GBIV to produce content for the pages, including event postings and highlights. To create this content, they researched the Brookland area and held weekly meetings to create graphics and captions. Students also ran a volunteer tabling event in Kogan Plaza. | 3 |
| Serve Your City | Students worked with SYC to assist with grant research and updating some of the group’s community resources. Students updated spreadsheets and informational handouts about the group in general and available resources for guests. | 4 |
Student Comments:
“My perspective impacts the work I do with CNHED by allowing me to relate to some focuses, but forces me to open my mind to other issues, and to learn about them further. I can understand some of the stressors, but not all of them - and it reminds that I have to listen before I think of solutions because if I don’t, I’ll likely miss the problem entirely.” - A student volunteering with the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development
“As my group has continued to meet at least once a week with our organization, we have discussed developing trust building strategies with the communities we are serving, unlearning, and have spoken about white privilege. As an outsider I need to be conscious and intentional with my actions.” - A student working with Children’s Defense Fund
“Reciprocity is important because as students who are going out and spending time contributing to the community, we need to make sure that we are not only doing it for a grade in the class, but to learn from the experience” - A student working with DC Action for Children
“Service-learning is hands-on and is meant to be challenging and unexpected and maybe even messy.” - A student working with DC Action for Children
Spring 2021
Professor: Sangeeta Prasad
Students Reporting: 24
Time Reported: 461
Community Partners
| Community Partner | Number of students | Projects |
| Girlz By Design | 1 | Attended sessions, mentored/engaged with youth. |
| In the Streets | 8 | Tutoring and mentoring youth. |
| Little Friends for Peace | 2 | |
| Marie Reed Es | 11 | |
| The New Georgia Project | 1 | Gathered voting data, content creation and organization. |
Student Comments
“Over the course of the semester, I had the privilege of meeting with two intelligent children who brought my life so much joy. I have seen tremendous growth in our relationship with each other as well as in their studies. I enjoyed being able to work directly with [names of children] and would definitely participate in this experience again.” – A student serving with Marie Reed Es
“The impact that LFFP has in the community and internationally is beautiful. Given the frustration that comes with being online, I still found peace at the end of every session regardless of how I initially entered the session.” – A student serving with Little Friends for Peace.
Learn more about Community Engaged Scholarship at GW
Student Projects Distribution:
Fall 2021
Professor: Sangeeta Prasad
Students Reporting: 19
Time Reported: 413 hours
Community Partners
| Community Partner | Student Involvement |
| Horton’s Kids | Students provided one-one tutoring, literacy intervention, homework help, and educational advocacy with Horton’s Kids. When not working on school though, volunteers got to engage in fun activities centered on social-emotional learning. |
| In the Streets | Students fostered close relationships with participants throughout the semester, serving as mentors and tutors. In weekly calls, and group meetings students worked directly with participants offering ways to support emotional, mental, spiritual, physical and relational health. |
| Latin American Youth Center | Through opportunities in academics, arts and recreation, job readiness, safe places to live, and healthy and wellness, the LAYC strives to address many of the barriers to success low-income youth face. Volunteers engaged in programming and provided tutoring services for students. |
| Little Friends for Peace | Students had the opportunity to either participate in virtual peace circles with DC Public School students, or with incarcerated citizens in Alexandria, VA . As trained volunteers, students were able to get the chance to learn about peace and conflict resolution through direct service. |
| Marie Reeds Elementary School | Students worked directly as classroom assistants, tutors and mentors for students ranging in age between K-6. Activities ranged from creating engaging teaching plans for their classrooms, to making arts and crafts with students. |
Student Comments:
“I enjoyed working with [redacted] this semester and being a part of the work In the Streets does as a whole. It was great to learn about how to better be a part of change in terms of mental health and opportunities for individuals in DC as well as get to know all of the other pairings better. I learned most in this class through this service-learning opportunity.” - A student serving with In the Streets
“The children were kind to each other and very cooperative. They also shared information about themselves and seemed excited about the Horton's Kids program.” - A student serving with Horton’s Kid
“My second semester volunteering with Marie Reed has been incredible and I am so glad I have had the opportunity to work with this school and people!” - A student serving with Marie Reed Es
“Throughout November, [redacted] and I got significantly closer. Our calls tripled in length, and we opened up to each other much more. I was able to help him find a french tutor and talked through the other things he had going on. His responses to my texts became much more consistent as well.” - A student serving with In the Streets
