For more than 25 years, educators have developed and institutionalized efforts to help first-year students succeed. This monograph collects case studies from 22 institutions that have created programs and initiatives to support their first-year students. The programs range from encouraging civic engagement and academic achievements to…

While universities can play a major role in advancing research-based community development, academic discourses of rigor, quality and ethics often conflict with the participatory and collaborative approaches required by community development principles. While experienced academics often have difficulty negotiating these issues, they present…

A research study surveyed 946 volunteers from congregations who were actively involved in community service, as well as 3,959 other congregational attenders who were not involved in volunteer service, to understand the relationship between service learning and faith development. Findings show that service-learning is powerfully related to a mature…

Service-learning has been primarily explored in world language education at the intermediate- or advanced-levels. Although a more advanced-level of language proficiency allows students in service-learning classes to participate in a wide array of projects, connecting beginning language students with the community may help serve to break-down…

When an instructor reframed the social studies methods course to include a service-learning project, both education certification students and a museum's outreach program benefited. University students gained practical teaching experience leading a children's summer class about local prairie dogs, and the museum gained quality teachers.…

There has been a substantial increase in the number of aging-related educational programs in the United States over the last two decades. Many of these programs utilize an experiential-learning approach, such as intergenerational service-learning, to train gerontology students to work effectively with older adults. This paper presents a model of…

This article describes the current relationship between management education in Colombia and the efforts of the management program at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB) in Medellin to reduce local poverty. The article uses the metaphor of "the bubble" to illustrate how social class, family socialization, and the current UPB…

Information about the psychological status of children following a natural disaster is rare. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation is to create a psychosocial profile of relocated Hurricane Katrina youth (N = 83, ages 13 to 17) and integrate the findings into a growing body of literature on the psychological effects of disaster. Data were…

Service learning is one of the most pervasive education innovations of the past generation and has demonstrated much success in connecting schooling with community service. Service learning is designed to be integrated into, and enhance, the academic curriculum. It is believed, and there is growing evidence to show, that participation in service…

In this study, the authors examined participation rates in, and attitudes toward, service in community settings in a sample of 936 academically talented adolescents. Results indicated that about 50% of the participants participated in both classroom-sponsored and organization-sponsored service activities, with female students reporting higher…

This paper describes how the Input-Environment-Outcome (IEO) model of A. Astin can be used with the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey and the College Student Survey (CSS) to assess student change during college. The CIRP Freshman Survey, given to entering students, provides pretest data. The CSS, given to continuing…

This paper explores the ways liberal arts colleges and universities can conceptualize and design next generation service and learning programs that give more considered attention to the service dimension. A Service and Learning typology suggests four variations found on many campuses in which service and learning have some relationship: (1)…

Democratic classrooms are those in which the curriculum actively engages students in collaborative inquiry, decision making is shared between students and staff, and students choose their daily activities. Compared with traditional classrooms, students in democratic classrooms take more ownership of and responsibility for their own learning.…

The Presidents' Summit for America's Future set goals that can be addressed by service learning. Community educators can participate by organizing grassroots efforts, linking community groups with student volunteers, getting involved with AmeriCorps, becoming community coaches, and participating in America Reads. (SK)

Research findings indicate the importance of (1) engaging all students in service; (2) building organizational commitment to service learning; (3) supporting community groups in youth service activities; and (4) encouraging service activities that link community and curriculum. (SK)