Scholarship and Service

Scholarship and Service

As a working professional, these two often distinct "notions" of scholarship and service has been a challenge, a hard and long fought struggle, to be integrated.

One can wait for the right team, the right project, and the time to step back, reflect on what is taking place which may contribute to an expanded view of both service and science.

Scholarship implied a depth of knowledge, an ability to assimilate information, and a sound method for approaching the endeavor; lending itself to a type of “knowing.” Service suggested immediacy in responding to a need, a trajectory for personal growth, and personal satisfaction in being able to contribute in addressing a problem; this speaks to developing “compassion”.

I feel as though these very notions have come together in the course of the past seven years. Did it take that long? Yes, at least in the example to be shared. In fact, it has been more than that; if you add data analysis, developing, submitting a manuscript and then publication. Plus adding time when the project truly began, that is before applying for a grant.

The grant proposal is a distinct process and an iteration of what eventually develops and is implemented. Time is the less oft discussed variable in any project. Implementation time which starts from outreach, enrollment, participating in an intervention, through follow up from completing the intervention. Time passes. Time passes from the development of a project to its natural completion.

Meanwhile service is happening or is being provided whether through a screening, a referral, information sharing, or workshop participation through discussion and skills development practice.

Where does Science enter, when time is a factor? Science in the form of Prevention Science and Evaluation Research enters from the beginning. A sound design includes empirical and community participant level data. Science occurs in how information is collected, how it will be analyzed and how findings are shared. Science is a constant companion.

However, the limits of science, I’ve learned in my earlier working life have been its relative in-flexible nature. It requires consistency, a focus set of criteria and procedures. Often times the question or the inquiry drives the way things are to be done. After completing a graduate degree, and a period of my professional life was spent within the confines of a leading Medical Science University. There I explored service and knowledge development, using the tools gained from the social science. Early in my career, I realized service and science in the realm of academia was not where I belonged.

The process of integration, though not complete, has been to allow time, service and science to go hand in hand, each equal in stature in the act of service.

As a scholar and service developer one faces the question of fidelity i.e., are you doing the job as a model requires, or are you adding on additional activities hence deviating from the known procedures. One wrestles with relevance, not only to the community of other scholars who have published before you or the mission of the organization, but to the participant and the community being served.

One is confronted by acceptance, when you hope the community gives the service value, participates and let others know of them. Acceptance is also manifested by your peers when you talk about the project and whether a manuscript will be reviewed and subsequently published.

A culminating experience in the integration of science, service and time was a recent milestone achieved. Time allowed for maturation, the unfolding of the experience, and the focus or purpose to be solidified. The team made up of community health workers/health educators, evaluators, and myself examined the information we collected, and developed topics for the writing of manuscripts. Eventually completing the writing and subsequently having it published. It was a rush.