Parkland College's policies state that sabbatical leave shall be granted based on the rankings of a sabbatical leave committee. Every year, faculty compete with each other by submitting proposals to the committee based on written guidelines. Since the proposals are competitive, a great deal of time and energy is spent writing and revising the proposals. In my case, I had to submit my proposal three times in three years before it was approved. In each case, the committee members had different feedback and I aligned my proposal to their priorities. In the final proposal that was accepted, I included a professional development component in the form of a service learning project: "By volunteering my services to a non-profit organization, I hope to be able to help solve some of their marketing communication needs with a dynamic and creative web site design. Many non-profits do not have the budget to hire professionals to design their websites. By offering my services and creativity, I will be volunteering my time for a good cause, learning new skills and gaining personal satisfaction at the same time." After considering several options, I made a commitment to the University YMCA to re-design their web site because my personal priorities aligned with the organization's mission statement and objectives. For them, the timing was perfect because their national office has just rolled out a new branding initiative with a new logo. The entire design process has been recorded on this project page:
www.electric-pictures.com/staging/ymca.
