Great news PC campus! We now have an official Service Learning Program for students and faculty. How does this benefit you as a student? A national study from Corporation for National and Community Service – Learn & Serve America suggests that effective service learning programs improve grades, increase attendance in school, and develop students’ personal and social responsibility. Let’s break this down…
What exactly is service learning ?
“Service learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.” – Learn and Serve America National Service Learning Clearinghouse
Through service learning projects, activities, and assignments, PC students work directly with nonprofit partners in our community. Service Learning is more than an internship or volunteer work, the experience empowers students to apply classroom learning and personal reflection to current social issues, environmental concerns, and community needs.
Service Learning Develops Civic Capacity!
Through meaningful projects and self-reflection, service learning experiences encourage and challenge students to view situations, people, and places from new perspectives. Community-based experiences such as working with organizations that address hunger, poverty, and homelessness help students develop empathy and allow students to imagine themselves being in others’ shoes (how they think and feel). More importantly, service learning experiences facilitate personal growth where students learn how to apply knowledge and skills to community challenges.
How does Service Learning Directly Benefit Students?
Here are just a few ways that service learning experiences benefit students:
- Unique, hands-on experience in field of study
- Apply what you’ve learned in a “real-world setting”
- Opportunity to test out your skills, interests, and values in a potential career path
- Civic responsibility and empathy (see above)
- Self-reflection and self-discovery
- Professional growth
- Resume builder (looks great on transcripts too)
- Grow a professional network of people you might connect with again later for jobs or internships
How Can I Get Started?
Students who are interested in participating in service learning experiences should contact the Service Learning Coordinator, Dann May, to discuss ongoing opportunities. Throughout the course, students will work directly with a partner organization to complete a project while participating in one hour of online coursework each week to discuss and reflect on the service learning experience. There are also a number of PC courses that offer service learning concepts and assignments.
“Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman, Civil rights activist
“Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference. And we have a choice: What sort of difference do we want to make?” – Jane Goodall, Animal Rights Activist
