Describes a community service-learning seminar for college freshmen, focusing on education for empowerment. Notes an inherent dichotomy: students need to learn specific, empowering ways to interact with community members even while confronting uncomfortable issues but remain empowered themselves by how the service-learning course is designed and…

Describes a Hope College (Michigan) undergraduate psychology internship program and how it integrates service and learning. Outlines the personal, professional, and curricular goals of the course and details of the internship program. An important element of the internship is the classroom component, which helps the student integrate academic and…

Providence College (Rhode Island) has institutionalized service-learning into its liberal arts curriculum by creating an academic degree program in Public and Community Service Studies. The Feinstein Institute for Public Service administers this new major and minor, using the program as a catalyst for promoting service-learning throughout the…

Calls for greater attention to pedagogical challenges and opportunities to integrate service-learning and academic study, particularly in maintaining both content coverage and empowerment as objectives. Draws on transcripts of class discussions and student writing in a community service learning course focusing on literacy to trace students'…

Reprints a series of "how-to" guidelines concerning service learning from the Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago (CFRC). Includes a working definition of service learning, a five-step process for projects, and specific goals to be reached at each stage of the project. (MJP)

A discussion of community service education examines whether or not the background or characteristics of college students working in local programs influences program progress and success. It is concluded that students rarely come from the communities they serve, and that a more important factor is the kind and scope of preparation they are given…

Service learning is an inclusive pedagogy appropriate for children, youth, and adults of all cultural backgrounds. Such programs share a commitment to lifelong learning and a philosophical base in experiential education. Planners need to choose an appropriate point of reference, identify learning goals, define activities accordingly, combine…

Describes a service-learning initiative involving George Williams College and an East Aurora, Illinois, elementary school. The Partners in Leadership Development Project was designed to provide a model for preservice training emphasizing an interdisciplinary team approach to delivering educational, social, and recreational services in a…

Explains the potential role and benefits of service learning in transforming schools. Argues that service learning has the potential to reinvigorate traditional classrooms and turn passive students into dynamic and engaged learners, but its implementation carries no guarantee of "product satisfaction." Further, its success lies in the…

Describes a Rutgers University (New Jersey) course to prepare undergraduates to participate effectively in civic life and public decisions about education and schooling. The course, which includes a service learning component, examines the theoretical and conceptual bases of civic responsibility, reviews the educational policymaking process, and…

The service-learning movement is widespread in European international schools. The most comprehensive initiative presented at two recent European Council of Independent Schools conferences was the Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) course that students must pass to graduate from International Baccalaureate schools. Exemplary programs in England…

Deaf and hearing impaired students at the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind participate in a bartering project in which they perform chores in exchange for food that is donated to charity. The project meets instructional objectives in social studies (learning how early settlers used bartering), mathematics (counting and classifying the…

The Ohio-West Virginia YMCA operates a one-week residential camp program for high school students that focuses on leadership, civic development, and community service. Students commit to performing community service after they return home. The program culminates in a youth-in-government role-playing exercise at the state capitol, where students…

Describes a study abroad program at the University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire that places students in Wittenberg, Germany. The program offers project-based learning in topics ranging from Martin Luther to the ecology of the Elbe; service learning with "guided reflection" (a requirement of the university); and a short-term business or professional…

States that a means to provide civic engagement of students is by developing social capital of high school students and adults within their communities through service learning. Contends that community service facilitates civic engagement and political activity in young people which continues into adulthood. (CMK)