Service-learning projects must include academic preparation, service activities, and structured reflection...

1. Preparation

Equipping students with the knowledge and skills needed for service. This includes teaching students about their community and how to identify needs, as well as providing them with the specific skills needed to perform the service activity. It should include an exploration of why it is important to perform service and what it means to be an active citizen. Ideally, service-learning should be used to teach curricular objectives, so preparation activities could be tied to classroom lessons.

Examples: having a speaker come in to teach students about working with elderly residents in a nursing home before going to visit the site; having a representative from the United Way or a Volunteer Center come and talk about the volunteer opportunities in a community; performing a research assignment about the issue the service relates to (homelessness, recycling, etc).

2. Action

Performing one or more of the following activities:

Direct Service: Students have face-to-face contact with the service recipients. For example: tutoring; serving meals at a homeless shelter; working with the elderly in a nursing home, etc.

Indirect Service: Students perform a service without having face-to-face contact with the recipient. Usually resources are channelled to help alleviate a problem. For example: food & clothing drives; thons or fundraisers; environmental projects, etc.

Advocacy: Students educate others about a particular issue with the goal being to eliminate the cause of a particular problem. For example: writing letters to legislators or editors; preparing and displaying posters, plays, or other educational materials for others, etc.

3. Reflection

Thinking about the service performed and how it impacted the community. Considering what worked well and what could be changed to make the project better. This contemplation and evaluation should occur throughout the service experience, not just at the end of the project.

Examples: responding to guided questions in a journal; having a classroom discussion; preparing a piece of artwork or skit about the service experience; videotaping the project and reviewing/discussing it afterwards, etc.

Service-learning is not the same as...

Volunteerism: Volunteers engage in service for a variety of personal reasons. They do not necessarily link their service to academic studies nor do they receive academic credit for their efforts.

Community Service: People engaging in community service do so for a variety of reasons. This is a broad term that can encompass court ordered, stipended or volunteer service. It also does not necessarily link to academic studies.

Work Study Internship: Student interns frequently work at for-profit business to benefit the financial standing of that business. They are not necessarily working to improve their communities through these internship experiences. There can be overlap between work study internships and service-learning. Students are engaged in service-learning if through their internship experiences they work to improve the health or welfare of their community while linking this to their academic studies.