Community Services Program

ELCR Teacher Awards, Dr. Carlos Benavides, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

By: Leslie Brown, Staff Writer, Wareham CSL

The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth (UMD) is where Dr. Carlos Benavides, Assistant Professor of Foreign Languages and Literature, teaches his Business Spanish Service Learning Project. Because of this programe's excellence and its ramifications for the surrounding communities, this year's UMD ELCD Teacher Award is presented to Professor Benavides.

The Business Spanish Service Learning Project affect both the Community Economic Development Center (CEDE) for Southern Massachusetts as well as Dr. Benavides's Spanish students. The partnership between the students and local Hispanic business, like small grocery stores, restaurants, and beauty salons, has produced a number of helpful collaborations and results.

A non-profit organization, the CEDC benefited from the student's work by being able to provide technical and business advance to small Hispanic businesses.

The students benefited greatly from their contact with the Spanish-speaking business owners and by participating in the day-to-day operations and the decisions made by the small business owners. They learned the gift of having good employees, especially those who have personal contact with customers. By interviewing and then working with these owners on business plans, the students were able to speak Spanish and witness the importance of having a solid business plan.

Benefits for business owners, of course, were many and varied. Owners were apprised of the service of the CEDC, including information on getting bank loans and instructions on how to implement computers into their daily operations. Overall, these small business owners learned more about operating a successful business in this community.

As the teacher and mentor of this useful and wide-ranging Service Learning project, Professor Benavides shares his own reflections on the interactions of his classes with the community service learning in higher education everywhere (meaning not only the U.S., but in the whole world) has a real future. Integrating community service in the curriculum of any and all courses can bring tremendous benefit to both students and the community. The project exceeded my expectations and made me even more enthusiastic about service learning.