The University of Iowa’s community service classes, which sometimes coincide with service trips over spring break, are continuing to complete service projects despite in-person restrictions and mostly virtual interactions with community groups.

The UI canceled spring break this semester to discourage travel in the wake of the pandemic. Instead, students have two weekdays off from class during the spring.

Despite this, Hawkeye Service Breaks has changed its procedures this year to continue community engagement in a virtual space and with no spring break.

Ian Van Ander is the director of leadership service and civic engagement, overseeing the Hawkeye Service Break program.

Van Ander said the spring break aspect of the program has shifted into three retreat weekends that take place entirely virtually. Instead of the usual focus on a specific city like Denver or Detroit, the service breaks have the opportunity to focus on many different types of communities.

“We’re able to have students think about how these issues manifest in their hometowns,” Van Ander said. “We have students from all over the world that are participating in this program this year because they can do so virtually, and so they’re able to bring some of those perspectives into the classroom.”

While students may be missing out on more interpersonal interactions with their peers and community members, Van Ander said that students are learning skill sets to help tackle how issues look different in different communities and the complexities of each issue.

Danielle Ramsey-Smith is a graduate student pursuing a master’s in higher education and student affairs and interning with Hawkeye Service Breaks. Ramsey-Smith works with the Hawkeye Service Break’s student leaders and instructors.

Ramsey-Smith said that while it can be hard to find community service opportunities virtually, the results end up being a fun way to get involved and find connection in an isolating world.

“I’ve been working with the student leaders that are running each of these services again since the fall and watching them become more independent and really own their leadership style has been my favorite part by far,” Ramsey-Smith said.

Adjunct Assistant Professor in the International Studies program Peter Gerlach is continuing to teach a fully virtual service-learning course focusing on engaging with immigrant and refugee communities in Iowa.

In past years, Gerlach said he has been able to take his students to his class’s community partner, the Refugee and Immigrant Association, and look around their office in Iowa City. He said many students got a lot out of the experience even though it lasted just one class period.

This semester Gerlach held that same experience through a virtual tour, replacing in-person interactions with the organization’s leaders with Zoom meetings with them. He said Zoom has allowed more speakers to talk with his classes.

“We’ve been able to invite a lot of people to class, special guests, some of whom come from Des Moines, that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to, or if I did ask them to class, it would be a much bigger ask,” Gerlach said.

The mayor and city manager of Iowa City were two of those speakers, and Gerlach said that he sees the class using some more hybrid modules after the pandemic.

While the class has been able to host more speakers and functions than in the past, Gerlach said that students have been missing out on the more visceral side of understanding how a nonprofit works.

“I think going forward [the program] just requires a different sort of thinking,” Gerlach said. “If we’re able to do hybrid, what works best when done virtually, and what works best when done in person.”