What is Service Learning? 

Service-learning integrates community service into an academic course. It is a method of teaching and learning that allows you to see and experience the relationship between theory and practice by making connections between your community service experience and your course readings, lecture, research, and classroom discussion. Learning through experience provides richer learning opportunities, and is a way to make a course more relevant-and also often more interesting! And this way of learning often results in increased information retention and higher grades!

Benefits of Service Learning

• Increased academic and social self-confidence

• Increased critical thinking skills

• Greater awareness of community opportunities

• The chance to develop community networks

• Increased sense of community "connectedness" and civic engagement

• Enriched experiences strengthen resumes and/or grad school applications

Characteristics of Service Learning

• Links academic study to community service through intentional learning goals and structured reflection to enhance both learning and service

• Emphasizes active learning in different environments

• Must involve service activities that are relevant to both the course learning objectives and to the needs of the community.

• Values reciprocity, with the community (community-based organization and community members) and academic (faculty and students) partners sharing the roles of learner, server, and educator to meet both academic and community goals.

• Engages students in responsible and challenging community service that meets identified community needs

• Allows students to reflect critically on their experiences

• Is integrated into the course and not an "add-on" or extra work. Service-learning faculty design courses so that the out-of-class time required for a service-learning course is equivalent to that required for a non-service-learning course.

• Is not receiving credit for doing community service. You will be graded on the learning related to the service, not on the service itself.