UNC's APPLES program celebrates 20 years with a reunion

The University’s APPLES program will celebrate 20 years of service-minded learning with its Alumni Reunion this Saturday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Center for Dramatic Art.

APPLES is a student-led program which merges academics and experiential, community-based service into courses at UNC.

The anniversary event will look back on the past two decades of the program through alumni speakers, the unveiling of the 20th anniversary video and words from current APPLES organizers.

“APPLES merges what we learn in the classroom with real issues in the community,” said junior Natalia Smirnova, who took courses in the curriculum.

This was the idea that drove Tony Deifell, a junior in 1990, to lead the task force that founded the program. He will be speaking at this weekend’s reunion.

Five students and four UNC professors and faculty members began the program with six service-learning courses in that first year.

During the 2009-10 school year, more than 2,400 students were involved in about 100 APPLES courses, said Program Development Coordinator Carolyn Byrne.

APPLES President Nisha Verma said the variety of offerings helps students establish relationships with the communities they’re most interested in serving.

“We try to expose students to a wide range of community partners,” she said, adding that it gives the students exposure to hands-on volunteer opportunities.

Students take courses for credit from UNC while also fulfilling related service requirements. Curriculum in the classroom teaches about the foundational issues of why problems exist within the communities they are working with, Verma said.

Smirnova said that interaction gives the class work more significance.

“The program helps give a sense of purpose by projecting the course work into the real world,” she said. “It benefits the student because it makes sense of the education.”

“On a day-to-day basis, who can honestly say they think about those things in such a way that makes them act on those thoughts?”

APPLES courses also provide time for reflection on why some problems are more prevalent in different areas and their cultural impacts on the community, said Verma.

Other APPLES programs, such as alternative fall and spring break trips, also include reflection-based components.

Byrne said this idea of reflection is at the heart of the reunion.

“Four alumni from the last 20 years, two from each decade, will be talking about the highlights and developments of their time,” she said. “It’s an opportunity for us to showcase what students are doing now and to bring back and reflect on how things were in that five-year period when they were here.”

The APPLES Alumni Reunion is part of a larger celebration, honoring the 150-year anniversary of the Campus Y and the 20-year anniversary of the Student Coalition for Action in Literacy Education.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.