Making College Worth It – Season 2, Episode 6

In this episode, guest hosts Ellie MacMillan, Kassidy Puckett, and Carolina Martinez consider the impact service learning has on career development, social cohesion, and community involvement. Joining them are Elon University’s Bob Frigo, Assistant Dean of Campus Life, and Phillip Motley, Professor of Communication Design. They share insights on how service learning shapes students’ skills, perspectives, and future opportunities. 

View a transcript of this episode.

Meet our Guests

Phillip Motley is a professor in the Department of Communication Design at Elon University, where he teaches communication design and interactive media courses to undergraduate and graduate students. His research interests include pedagogies of design and experiential learning, especially service-learning and social innovation. He is currently focused on the potential value that design thinking has for liberal arts education.  He is a co-author of An Introduction to Visual Theory and Practice in the Visual Age, a co-editor of Redesigning Liberal Education: Innovative Design for a Twenty-First-Century Undergraduate Education, and has published his scholarship in peer-reviewed journals including Communication Teacher, Teaching and Learning Inquiry, Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, New Directions for Teaching and Learning, and Journalism and Mass Communication Educator. Professor Motley received his MFA in Industrial Design from North Carolina State University and his BA in Fine Art from Davidson College. He has worked professionally as a web designer, graphic designer, and animator. 

Bob Frigo is the Assistant Dean of Campus Life and Director of the Kernodle Center for Civic Life, and an Instructor in the Department of English at Elon University. Frigo holds an M.A. in Irish Literature from Queen’s University Belfast, a M.Ed. in Student Personnel Services from the University of South Carolina, and a B.A. in English from Marquette University. He is responsible for providing strategic leadership for a comprehensive vision to support civic life, community-based learning, and community engagement at Elon. 

Episode Credits

This episode was co-hosted and edited by Ellie MacMillan, Graduate Apprentice for the Center for Leadership at Elon University; Kassidy Puckett, Graduate Apprentice for Admissions at Elon University; and Carolina Martinez, Graduate Apprentice for the Moseley Center at Elon University. Nolan Schultheis completed additional editing for the episode. Making College “Worth It” is produced by Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning.

Episode art was created by Nolan Schultheis and Jennie Goforth.

Funky Percussions is by Denys Kyshchuk (@audiocoffeemusic) - https://www.audiocoffee.net/. Soft Beat is by ComaStudio.  

Explore Center Resources Related to this Episode

Center for Engaged Learning. n.d. “Service-Learning.” https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/resources/service-learning/

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