What is service-learning?
Service-Learning is a pedagogy, which integrates service in the community with academic study (theory/curriculum). Faculty, in partnership with representatives of non-profit, community organizations, design service-learning projects that meet identified community needs to advance the student’s understanding of course content and which help to strengthen the community. Strong reflective components are built into the course to help students consider relationships between their service, the curriculum of the class, and its impact on their personal values and professional goals. Co-Curricular Service-Learning is distinguished from Academic Service-Learning in that it is not anchored in a specific course, but rather is a part of the students’ “life experiences” (for example, residential life, career development, and residential learning communities). The pedagogical framework of co-curricular service-learning cultivates student reflections upon the intersection of the needs and concerns of
Specifically planned extracurricular activities of a socially beneficial nature, identified as part of a course’s requirements, which complement the intended outcomes of the course. Example: To date, over 500 Queensborough students have participated in service learning activities that have provided service to the Queens Literacy Program, the CUNY Language Immersion Program, Alley Pond Environmental Center, Plazas Communitarias, Saratoga Family Inn (Homes for the Homeless), and the Center for Immigrant Health.
Service-learning is a partnership between academic institutions and communities. In contrast to traditional course-based projects that primarily use the community to exemplify a classroom principle, this reciprocal agreement allows communities to identify the needs that the student will fulfill. Instructors then structure the classroom materials around this service experience. Reflection upon the service project is key to this transfer of practical experience to classroom learning. Reflection, facilitated by the classroom instructor, distinguishes service-learning from other hands-on initiatives such as volunteering or internships in which a systematic analysis and application of the service experience may not occur. Through this practice-to-theory format, service-learning engages students with hands-on learning techniques that are then supported with classroom theory. In its departure from the traditional lecture formats that characterize today’s “academic culture,” service-learning o
