Discusses the advantages of international service learning programs in developing students' language and cross-cultural communication skills, as well as their concept of the world as an interdependent system. Notes characteristics and outcomes of successful international service learning programs, such as the program at the University of North…

A graduate of St. Mary's College of Maryland recounts her experience on two of the college's service learning trips, one to Guatemala and one to the Gambia. She reports that the international service learning experience had a great impact on her in the areas of career choice, cultural understanding, and personal reflection. (DB)

Service learning in higher education can be a powerful method of citizen education, by building students' concrete civic skills in the areas of intellectual understanding, communication and problem solving, and civic attitudes of judgment and imagination. A basic condition is that broad definitions of service and citizenship be assumed, and used…