Service Learning

Service Learning is experiential learning first popularized in the 1990s. It embodies the ancient Confucian axiom, “Tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I will understand." Service Learning seeks to involve students in the communities around them, thereby teaching these students about civic engagement.

To paraphrase the American Association of Community Colleges, Service Learning combines community service with classroom instruction, focusing on critical, reflective thinking and civic responsibility to engage students. Service learning programs involve students in activities that address local and global needs while developing their academic skills and commitment to their community.  

To put it another way, according to the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, 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.

 

Service Learning at DSU 

Delta State University is excited to offer many opportunities for students interested in quality civic engagement practices to participate in classes that directly link service to learning.

The DSU Service Learning Committee, a University Standing Committee, takes on the challenge of assisting professors interested in this experiential learning practice to plan curricula, to identify and coordinate with local agencies and partners, and to seek alternate funding sources for needs associated with service activities.

The mission of the University Service Learning Committee is to encourage Delta State University to become a service learning institution. This mission is accomplished by promoting the following: a development of a deeper philosophy of education and service through faculty development programs; an acquisition of service learning literature for faculty relevant to their specific disciplines; an advocating of service learning components in the curriculum across all disciplines; a strengthening of university volunteer and service-learning centers; and finally an encouragement to explore service learning as a concept.

Volunteer and Service Learning opportunities at DSU

There are many service learning and volunteer opportunities at DSU. One center of volunteer activity is the Delta Volunteers program housed at The Delta Center for Culture and Learning. For more information about the Delta Center’s programs, go to www.blueshighway.org.

To find out about more volunteering and service learning opportunities, interested students should contact the Delta State University Center for Community and Economic Development through their website at http://www.deltastate.edu/pages/426.asp.  

To explore national resources on service learning, go to http://www.servicelearning.org/.