June 22, 2012 — Two nonprofit organizations got a multimedia makeover with the help of students. Students in Mike Zellers' Introduction to Web Development spent spring semester developing a web site for Friends from the Start, a new organization that links cancer patients and their families to resources and support systems.

Students in Zellers' Multimedia Foundations course complied informational videos for Family Promise of Lorain County, an organization that assists homeless families in Lorain County. Both projects were optional service learning projects Zellers created for his courses.

"I chose the serving learning components because it made the projects more meaningful," said Anna Gibas, Lorain student participated in both service learning projects. "It made me work harder because I know it had a purpose outside of the classroom."

Service learning is a form of experiential learning that integrates community service and civic responsibility with academic instruction. The service learning program at LCCC officially began four years ago as a grassroots movement among faculty, students, staff and community partners. To date, nearly 20 LCCC instructors have incorporated service learning in 54 classes. The result has been more than 1,345 students clocking more than 17,000 hours of service.

Zellers had long heard the stories of service learning being utilized in other academic areas, such as nursing, but he wasn't sure how it would work in his technology classes. He made the leap and contacted Marcia Jones, LCCC project director for Service Learning and Ruby Beil, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Science and Mathematics division who has utilized service learning in her classes for years. With their help, Zellers was quickly connected with Friends from the Start founder Tom Jelepis and Family Promise of Lorain County Executive Director Lois Pozega.

Jelepis founded Friends from the Start after a nine-month bout with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. When he realized the organization could use some assistance on the web site, he knew where to turn.

"We wanted to reach out to some creative minds, and could think of nowhere better than LCCC," Jelepis said.

By partnering with LCCC, Jelepis gained a fresh perspective on his web site and the students were able to apply their classroom knowledge to a real scenario.

"This gets the students involved in philanthropic projects at an earlier age, as well as exposure to individuals in the business world which might be of benefit to them as they pursue their careers," Jepelis said.

For Family Promise of Lorain County, Zellers students learned about the organization and created a high quality video to help spread the word about the unique program. The organization also benefitted from the increased exposure to college students, Pozega said.

"Family Promise has been a best kept secret. We wanted to get the word out that we are here in Elyria to help the homeless," she said.

Family Promise operates through an Interfaith Hospitality Network comprised of local churches. The congregations host homeless families for a week at a time on a rotating basis. The families spend the night in the churches and spend the day at a day center, where they may job search and benefit from other local resources. Family Promise also provides transportation to school for children or transportation to work for parents in the program. Last year, Family Promise helped 25 families, a total of 81 individuals, including 53 children ranging from birth to 15 years old.

"Through the Interfaith Hospitality Network, we were able to provide over 4,417 nights and over 13,251 meals last year," Pozega said.

The video created will be used for outreach and to help recruit volunteers for the organization. Zenobia Fountain served as project coordinator for students' video. The group toured the day center, one of the participating churches and interviewed a family who benefitted from Family Promise's services.

"I enjoyed interacting with my classmates, the staff and clients at Family Promise. Every individual has a unique background, contribution, and story to communicate. The Family Promise collaborative exchange allowed us to create, explore, evaluate, and experiment, with the multimedia techniques that we developed in the classroom environment," Fountain, 57, of Elyria, said.

For Gibas, 43, creating the video as part of her college class enhanced her classroom experience.

"For a typical project, you would create the video and that would be it," Gibas said. "Because we created something that will be used by a real organization, we took things to the next level and helped get Family Promise set up with a YouTube account and gave suggestions on how to utilize the video."

In creating the Friends from the Start web site, Gibas and her classmates went the extra steps to make the site live ready for Internet traffic.

"Working on these projects made us go above and beyond what was taught in the class," said Gibas. "It was beneficial to see how what we learned in class fits in to the operations of a real organization."

To learn more about Friends from the Start and to see the finished product of the Web Development course, visit friendsfromthestart.org.

To learn more about Family Promise of Lorain County, visit www.familypromiselorainco.org.