Center for Community Engagement
About USM Service-Learning
The CCE promotes and supports service-learning classes on USM's campus.
Service-learning addresses critical community needs. reinforces course content, and increases student engagement. Its academic context inside a classroom enriches students' service experiences by raising questions about real-world concerns and promoting critical thinking about civic responsibility.
Faculty - not quite at the service-learning stage or just want to connect with the community? See Community-Engaged Faculty section.
The basic criteria for a service-learning course are that:
- service supports the attainment of one or more academic course objectives
- service addresses a community-identified (local, regional, global) need
- learning involves structured student reflection on the service experience and its relation to course goals and/or the academic discipline
- learning involves reciprocity between course and community that has the potential to result in students' enhanced sense of personal values and civic responsibility
- service contribution is a minimum of 15 hours, which may consist of planning a project, producing a product, or serving at a site
USM's definition of service-learning comes from Robert Bringle & Julie Hatcher, who define it is a “course-based, credit-bearing educational experience in which students participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs, and reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of personal values and civic responsibility” (Bringle and Hatcher, 1995, p. 112). By design, the criteria for USM service-learning classes align closely with the language of this definition.
Service-learning partners usually include nonprofit organizations or governmental
agencies, PK- 12 schools, or the philanthropic arm of a for-profit organization. The
experiences should be designed to meet both student and community partner needs, which
often means that co-ops, internships, and/or clinical practicums designed solely for
student benefit are not considered service-learning.
Faculty or community partners interested in learning more about service-learning should contact Christy Kayser at christy.arrazattee@usm.edu or 6-6467.
