From “Oh My Gosh I'm Going to Get Mugged” to “See[ing] Them as People Who Are Just Like Me”

Abstract

Since the “service” component exposes college students to individuals in the community who often differ from them in their ethnoracial, socioeconomic, linguistic background, and age, etc. these classes present an ideal opportunity to test Allport's (1954) intergroup contact hypothesis. This theory stipulates that prejudice can be reduced if certain criteria are met. This case study about freshmen students' service learning experiences with a local West African community tested this theory and found that over the semester students' stereotypes changed. In addition, this research project showed that the experiences of ethnoracial minority and/or immigrant students differed from their White peers; due to race, ethnicity, language, and/or immigration status, they were cultural insiders which enabled them to build more meaningful relationships with the community members.