Posted: September 7, 2013 by Mary Carney
"I am convinced that . . . The academy must become a more vigorous partner in the search for answers to our most pressing social, civic, economic, and moral problems – and must reaffirm its historic commitment to what I have chosen to call this evening, the scholarship of engagement." —From Ernest Boyer's "The Scholarship of Engagement" (1996), Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 49, No. 7 (Apr., 1996), pp. 18-33.
At the University of North Georgia, our mission is to provide innovative learning experiences and to serve our local community and others around the world. Service-learning offers the opportunity to link these objectives. By forming partnerships with local organizations, service-learning allows students to extend and apply knowledge learned in the classroom to service opportunities. In this way, students actively work within local and global communities to gain skills, express their creativity, and find solutions to problems.
What is Service-Learning?
Service-Learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates community service with instruction and reflection to enhance learning outcomes, teach civic engagement, and strengthen communities. Service-Learning courses utilize experiential learning styles that differ from traditional classroom pedagogies. Through service-learning, learning moves beyond the classroom; students take information gained in the classroom and then apply it through meaningful, hands-on projects that benefit the community. These partnerships and projects actively engage the whole person, making students responsible for their own learning and encouraging them to examine their role in the wider community.