This national study included a quantitative inquiry regarding the impact of COVID-19 on service-learning from 207 participants representing community partner organizations (n = 145) and higher education institutions (n = 62). Community partners reported a decreased number of students engaged in service-learning after the outbreak of COVID-19.…

A number of social and ecological justice educators have long recognized the need for educational institutions to foster the development of a critical interest in civic engagement. They also have recognized the lack of appropriate education for students who are already civically engaged. One popular way to address this context in higher education…

All undergraduate students at Saint Mary's College of California, a small, private institution, are required to complete an engaged learning (EL) course or experience for graduation. This graduation requirement was established to provide students with the opportunity to learn in and from the community; an important value from the principles of the…

In this article, the authors examine their collaboration on a joint ELA-art-mindfulness project before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The following chronicles the impact of the pandemic on the project and on student engagement, key takeaways from teaching and collaborating during a virtual school year, and the implementation of said takeaways…

This article explores the merits and challenges of a community partnership that was forged between a Religious Studies professor at DePaul University and the nonprofit Interfaith Community for Detained Immigrants (ICDI). Through this partnerhip, students in a Religious Studies class participated in a set of ICDI-related, half-day immersion…

The National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation have made a compelling call to action not only to strengthen the pipeline of available STEM-trained talent, but in addition to foster students who are members of populations currently under-represented in science. furthermore, the scientific community must not only increase the…

Members of the National Louis University Civic Engagement Team developed research and evaluation tools for scholarly analysis of data on community engaged research and service-learning at our university then piloted them with students, faculty, and community partners. This study results from the pilot. We examined perspectives on service-learning…

Universities engage students in traditional service-learning projects that often yield "good feelings", even a savior mentality, but typically leave the root causes of social justice issues unexamined and untouched. In contrast to traditional service-learning, critical service-learning bridges this gap with an explicit focus on justice…

In response to increasing homelessness in our city, Seattle Pacific University invited a homeless encampment (Tent City) to reside on our university campus for three months. This provided an opportunity to engage students on issues of poverty and inequality. Building from a service-learning model, we devised course work around homelessness and…

In May 2012, University of North Carolina (UNC) President Tom Ross simultaneously commissioned two task forces to develop indicators that all UNC campuses could use to measure "progress in community engagement and economic development." The charge to the Community Engagement Task Force and the Economic Development Task Force was to…

High-impact practices foster student success, but faculty faced with heavy teaching loads and lack of resources and infrastructure are challenged to implement such practices. Kinesiology faculty at California State University, East Bay collaborated to implement two student programs: Kinesiology Research Group and Get Fit! Stay Fit! The Kinesiology…

Service learning is one of the most effective teaching methods for engaging and retaining community college students, but it comes with its challenges. For many students, the added requirements of a service learning experience can become one more responsibility in an already too-long list. In addition to being responsible for children, holding…

These days, the federal government is keenly interested in how to encourage the process of developing resiliency in the struggle to revitalize decayed urban communities. The White House, through the Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) initiative, is also seeking to create cross-agency collaborations "to strengthen neighborhoods, towns,…

This paper documents the findings of a case study of one K-10 urban expeditionary learning (EL) school. Drawing on theoretical perspectives consistent with the sociocultural theory, data were collected from a variety of sources that included a survey, interviews, field notes from classroom observations and other school activities. Thematic…

This article presents a rubric to help instructors conceptualize, implement, and assess service-learning courses. Using a first-letter mnemonic of O.P.E.R.A., the rubric incorporates principles of best practice to provide a framework for enumerating objectives (O), exploring community partnerships (P), identifying the type of service learning…