Praxis

What is Praxis?

Designed for students who wish to deepen their commitment to community work, Praxis provides an opportunity for students to explore and better understand themselves, their peers and the nature of community while making a significant contribution to our partner organizations. Whether you are a veteran participant in service activities, or just want to try something new, Community Service Praxis is for you!

Service, Reflection, Fitness

Praxis is a team-based initiative. Made up of eight students and one faculty member, each Praxis team participates in community service, reflection and fitness activities together. Praxis meets four days per week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday) and lasts from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Two days are spent at a local community service site, and two days are spent on campus. Some portion of at least one day each week is devoted to reflection. This learning component includes experiential activities, readings, videos and other exercises that will help participants better understand the challenges they face as individuals and as a group at their respective service sites. Students will also learn more about the broad historical, political and social context of their community work. Praxis participants meet the athletic requirement by participating in fitness activities incorporated into the weekly schedule. These activities include, but are not limited to, Ultimate Frisbee, functional training, ropes course elements, climbing, and running.

Site Locations for 2004-05

The following community partners are likely sites for Praxis during the 2004-05 school year. This list is subject to change. For greater detail, please refer to the referenced page numbers.

• Groundwork Lawrence
• Lawrence Community Works
• Lawrence Family Development Charter School
• Lawrence Girls’ Club
• PALS
• Sí, Se Puede

Attendance and Evaluation

Attendance is taken each day Praxis meets, and absences are treated in the same way they are for all academic courses and athletic options. All Praxis participants receive an evaluation (similar to an instructor report) at the end of the trimester written by their faculty “coach.” In turn, students are asked to evaluate their Praxis experience for the benefit of future participants.

A word on the term “praxis”

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the original meaning of the term praxis denoted “the willed action by which a theory or philosophy becomes a social actuality.” Today, this word remains well-established in the academic lexicon, but its precise meaning sometimes varies from author to author.
More pertinent to the PA Community Service Program is a definition provided by David Tracy that speaks to the mission of our program as a whole and specifically to the Praxis initiative. Praxis, writes Tracy, is “understood as the critical relationship between theory and practice, whereby each is dialectically influenced and transformed by the other.”¹ That is, praxis is a means of referring to the relationship that is central to service and community work—the ongoing, evolving and mutually reinforcing relationship between practice and theory, action and reflection. Praxis strives to embody this crucial dialectic by creating an experience that carefully integrates service work with physical wellness and thoughtful, sustained reflection.

¹David Tracy, Blessed Rage for Order: The New Pluralism in Theology (New York: Seabury Press, 1975), 243.

Part Time

Many students volunteer once per week, or, in some cases, once or twice per month. These students must attend a general orientation session at the beginning of the term, a project-specific orientation and a reflection meeting during the course of their volunteer experience. In addition, some of these students are evaluated each term by agency representatives. Students who choose to volunteer “part time” can participate in almost any athletic program.

Special Events

All students are invited and welcome to participate in one-day service projects. These include but are not limited to the Spicket River Clean-Up, the Bread and Roses Picnic, the Walk for Hunger, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Click Here for further information). Sign-ups for these events are announced on PAnet and usually happen in conjunction with the fall, winter and spring community service sign-ups..

Leadership

Quality student leadership is integral to the success of the community service program. For more information, please see Leadership.