Dr. Laurel Standiford Reyes is an Assistant Professor of Psychology, and her research focuses on focus on early parent-child relationships. Dr. Standiford Reyes incorporates Service Learning in her PSY 361: Child & Adolescent Psychology course. This course examines physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development, the inter-relationships of each from conception to adolescence, and recent advances in the understanding of forces affecting adaptive and maladaptive development.
Students in PSY 361 work with different community partners that provide services for children and families. Student work addresses the needs of the community, as identified through collaboration with community partners. To reflect their work in the community students create a Service Learning Portfolio that includes a reflective journal, a site experience essay, and a connection essay that relates their observations to course concepts. This experience provides an opportunity for students to interact directly with children and the organizations that provide services to them and their families.
