Community Consulting

General Information: Students in WRIT 340: Advanced Writing Communication for Engineers face real-life communication challenges in their final semester project. In groups of three or four, they undertake a consulting project for a local non-profit organization. Organizations ranging from homeless shelters to elementary schools, churches to youth centers, mental health facilities to environmental advocacy groups have participated in this project-based service learning program. Over the years students have helped reconfigure computer labs, found ways to make buildings accessible to the handicapped, designed playgrounds, and analyzed security and database needs, among many, many other tasks. Many organizations have implemented the student ideas, and some have used the student reports to help get grants ranging from $5,000 to $800,000.

Organizations contact the Engineering Writing Program to have their project included on the semester list given to the students, who then choose based on their own area of expertise or their shared interest in an organization's goals. Students then make contact with the non-profit's representative and arrange a site visit. Contact is maintained throughout the semester, and the students' ideas are put into a formal written report. An oral presentation to the organization (which is part of the students' final grade) is also arranged on campus. These projects allow students to experience real situations with more than a grade at stake and see how their ideas can directly affect others. The projects also allow non-profit organizations to benefit from intelligent and curious minds.

Interested organizations can contact the Engineering Writing Program through its Director, Stephen Bucher, sbucher@usc.edu, 213-740-3094.