Service Learning Commons^™

Vcu Service-Learning Impact Measure (Slim) Report, 2020-2021, Katie Elliott, Jackie Stephens

Division of Community Engagement Resources

The VCU Service-Learning Office distributes the Service-Learning Impact Measure (SLIM) at the end of every semester to evaluate the impact of service-learning classes on student learning. Results are used to guide program improvements that enhance the quality of service-learning courses and outcomes for students, faculty, and partners. This report covers the 2020-2021 academic years and highlights assessment focus areas including: career readiness, academic learning, civic learning identity development, diversity and inclusion, and the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Service-Learning Community Partner Impact Assessment Report, 2021, Rebecca Hoppe, Katie Elliott, Lynn E. Pelco

Division of Community Engagement Resources

In 2021, the Service-Learning Office at VCU conducted an assessment of the impact of service-learning on community partner organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The assessment aimed to collect actionable feedback to inform and improve upon current service-learning course practices. Partners (N = 18) were prompted with questions to assess the following topics: operational capacity, economic functioning, social environment, and partnership quality, both prior to and in concurrent with the COVID-19 pandemic. Quantitative findings suggested an overall improvement in scores from the 2017 assessment. Qualitative findings indicated the importance of relationships, concluding that adaptation, communication, and involvement were key factors …

Vcu Service-Learning Impact Measure (Slim) Report, 2020-2021, Katie Elliott, Jackie Stephens

The VCU Service-Learning Office distributes the Service-Learning Impact Measure (SLIM) at the end of every semester to evaluate the impact of service-learning classes on student learning. Results are used to guide program improvements that enhance the quality of service-learning courses and outcomes for students, faculty, and partners.

Envisioning Critical Social Entrepreneurship Education: Possibilities, Questions, And Guiding Commitments, Mark Congdon Jr., Liliana Herakova

Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications

Higher education institutions continue to be increasingly interested in examining how social entrepreneurship and community engaged approaches to education can work together. In light of the recent growth and interest in such programs, scholars and educators have called for attention to specific considerations when developing SE and community-based education, which can be summed up in three areas - pedagogy, relationships, and impact. The present essay builds on such propositions, and calls for a critically-orientated approach to SE, grounded in community engagement, collaborative dialogue among diverse voices, and a commitment to transforming oppressive structures

Vcu Service-Learning Impact Measure (Slim) Report, 2018-2019, Tamanna Sohal, Katie Elliott

Division of Community Engagement Resources

The VCU Service-Learning Office distributes the Service-Learning Impact Measure (SLIM) at the end of every semester to evaluate the impact of service-learning classes on student learning. Results are used to guide program improvements that enhance the quality of service-learning courses and outcomes for students, faculty, and partners.

Beacon Voyages For Service, The South: A Comparative Look At Hunger, Homelessness And Poverty In North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, And Louisiana, Beacon Voyages For Service, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Beacon Voyages for Service (BVS) is a student run program within the Office of Student Leadership and Community Engagement that coordinates Alternative Break Programs. In January , 2014, 11 students embarked on a two week road trip to take a comparative look at hunger and homelessness in the southern United States. Along the route they partnered with 8 different organizations to learn about the effects of hunger and homelessness in this region.

A Status Report On Community Service Learning In The California State University For The 2001-2002 Academic Year, Season Eckardt

Higher Education

Community service and service learning arc long-standing touchstones in the mission and purpose of the California State University since the first campus was founded in 1857. Partnerships between local communities and CSU faculty and students make numerous goals achievable: they improve the quality of life across California, promote faculty research, and support CSU programs- all while students learn the value and satisfaction that comes from contributing to society. Policymakers and leaders of higher education have expressed renewed interest in utilizing service learning as a vehicle to instill civic values in students. All these elements have contributed to the profound advancement …

The Bridging Role Of The Community Service Director On The Engaged Campus, Joann Campbell

Higher Education

Declines in civic participation, low voting rates among 18-25 year olds, dwindling federal support for social services, and deficit state budgets have created a climate in which higher education must make a case for the value it adds to society through applications of research and teaching. National and state organizations (such as Campus Compact and state Compacts) dedicated to supporting a culture of service in higher education articulate the university's role as a collective citizen, whose priorities include linking scholarship to community-based needs, using the resources of the college faculty for professional local service, and utilizing federal work study, America …

The Institution As A Citizen: How Colleges And Universities Enhance Their Civic Roles, Nancy L. Thomas

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

This paper is premised on the assumption that civic responsibility is the contemporary version of higher education's historical outreach mission. With that as an understanding, it considers how best colleges and universities can fulfill this commitment of service to external communities, broadly defined to include local, national, and international concerns. The paper offers typologies of ways that institutions structure academic outreach, responsive curricula, land-grant and extension school programs, faculty professional service, coordinating student volunteerism and encouraging public access to campus for athletic or cultural events. Institutions interested in enhancing their civic role can take from this paper strategies for enhancing …

Organizational Structures For Community Engagement, Sharon Singleton, Deborah Hirsch, Cathy Burack

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

In a time of public scrutiny of higher education, there is good reason - both for the survival of the campus and the survival of the community around it -- for institutions to promote outreach. Yet even within those institutions with formal structures -- mission statements, faculty handbooks, and presidential leadership that support community service -- the practical considerations -- work assignments, evaluation mechanisms and institutional rewards -- present real challenges. Service-enclaves are structures that exist or are developed within institutions that allow faculty and staff to work collectively as they serve their communities. While individual service work is no …

Service-Learning: A Balanced Approach To Experiential Education, Andrew Furco

Service Learning, General

For over a quarter of a century, education researchers and practitioners have struggled to determine how to best characterize service-learning. In 1979, Robert Sigmon defined service-learning as an experiential education approach that is premised on "reciprocal learning" (Sigmon, 1979). He suggested that because learning flows from service activities, both those who provide service and those who receive it "learn" from the experience. In Sigmon's view, service-learning occurs only when both the providers and recipients of service benefit from the activities.

Bridging Two Worlds: Professional Service And Service Learning, Deborah Hirsch, Ernest Lynton

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

Authors of this essay, also published in the NSEE Quarterly, argue that proponents of service-learning and faculty professional service should join forces to pursue a common agenda of community outreach. At a time when colleges and universities are being urged to help solve society's problems, the faculty represents a virtually untapped resource. Certainly, there are presently - and always have been - individual faculty working in the community as consultants or as supervisors and guides for students. If the campus is to make a significant impact, however, the institution must be able to deploy departments, divisions, interdisciplinary centers and …