Principles of Service-Learning

  • Adapted with permission from The International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership’s Declaration of Principles of Service-Learning.
  • • SERVICE-LEARNING UNITES ACADEMIC STUDY AND VOLUNTEER COMMUNITY SERVICE IN MUTUALLY REINFORCING WAYS. The service makes your study immediate, applicable, and relevant; the study informs the service through knowledge, analysis, and reflection. Theory is field tested in practice and is seen and measured within a cultural context. Because the learning is put to immediate use, it tends to be deeper and last longer.
  • • THERE IS RECIPROCITY BETWEEN THE COMMUNITY SERVED AND THE UNIVERSITY, COLLEGE, OR PROGRAM.
    Their relationship is built on mutual respect and esteem.

    • THE SERVICE PROMOTES INTERCULTURAL AND INTERNATIONAL
    UNDERSTANDING.     The service often occurs with people whose lives are very different from yours. By working with them, you come to understand and appreciate their different experiences, ideas, and values, and to work cooperatively with them. Service-learning nurtures global awareness and socially responsible citizenship.

    • IN SERVICE-LEARNING PROGRAMS, STUDENTS AND TEACHERS USE THE EXPERIENCE OF SERVICE AS ONE SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND IDEAS. You are asked to analyze critically what you learn from the service, just as you analyze the information and ideas from
    the sources of traditional academic study. When academic credit is awarded, it is not for the service performed, but for the learning, which you demonstrate through written papers, classroom dicussion, examinations, and/or other means of formal evaluation.

    • SERVICE-LEARNING IS DIFFERENT FROM COMMUNITY SERVICE UNCONNECTED TO FORMAL STUDY IN TWO IMPORTANT WAYS. First, it
    demands that you understand the service agency—its mission, philosophy, assumptions, structures, activities, and
    governance—and the conditions of life of those you serve. Second, it is characterized by a relationship of partnership: you learn from the service agency and from the community and, in return, give energy, intelligence, commitment, time, and skills to address human and community needs. The service agency also learns from you.

    • SERVICE-LEARNING IS DIFFERENT FROM FIELD STUDY, INTERNSHIPS, AND PRACTICUMS, ALTHOUGH IT MAY HAVE ELEMENTS OF ALL OF THESE.
    Unlike field study, service-learning
    makes you not only an observer but an active participant. While you may gain from service-learning many of the benefits of an internship or practicum,
    service-learning has two goals: student learning and service to the community. The service should be truly useful. You
    explore with your community how your education may benefit the community and the well-being of others. The time and quality of your service must be sufficient to offset the agency time spent in planning, supervising, and evaluating the program; otherwise you and your program are exploiting the very people you intend to assist.

    • YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO DEVELOP AND DEMONSTRATE LEADERSHIP SKILLS, USING YOUR OWN INITIATIVE
    WHEN APPROPRIATE, BEARING IN
    MIND THAT YOU SHOULD FIRST LISTEN TO THE COMMUNITY AND BE RESPONSIVE TO ITS VALUES AND NEEDS.     You will learn that the most effective leadership is that which fosters the active participation—and indeed leadership—of others.

    • OPPORTUNITY FOR PERSONAL
    REFLECTION ON THE MEANING OF THE EXPERIENCE IN RELATION TO YOUR VALUES AND LIFE DECISIONS SHOULD BE AN INTEGRAL PART OF YOUR PROGRAM.

Volunteering & Service-Learning

Dear Student,

Endicott College students help build a
school in Mexico. Photo by Jim Citron

As you consider a study abroad program, you’ll want to investigate locations and program design. You’ll want to educate yourself about the various features so you make the best possible choice. That you are reading Abroad View is a sign that you will not be one who goes on a particular program just because your friends are doing it. Like choosing a college or a roommate, the right match is everything.

You should know that the most frequent complaint of those who have studied abroad in traditional programs (going from a classroom “here” to a classroom “there”) is that they have little real contact with the local people. They go to classes at an overseas university, they see the sights, they make friends with other international students, but their contact with local people tends to be brief and superficial.

Not so for those who have been part of service-learning programs! A recent study prepared for the Ford Foundation (Service-Learning Across Cultures: Promise and Achievement, edited by Humphrey Tonkin, IPSL Press, 2004) reports that students who took part in substantive volunteer service as part of their study abroad programs were deeply engaged in their host cultures and emerged with an appreciation of the complexities of the culture.

» Keep reading this letter from Linda Chisholm, co-founder of The International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership (www.ipsl.org). She is editor of Visions of Service and author of Charting a Hero’s Journey and Understanding the Education—and through it the Culture—in Education Abroad.

 

What You Need to Know Before You Go:

Finding Volunteer Work Abroad: Michelle Hunscher’s advice for students seeking their own opportunities

Good Intentions: Why it's critical to study your host-culture before setting foot on foreign soil.
By James L. Citron

International Service-Learning: Is It Right for You? A few distinctions to help you sort out whether to study or volunteer abroad-or do both. By Laura Colket

Making a Difference, Not a Disturbance: Meeting your hosts’ needs starts with considering your own.
By Martha Merrill

Studying Abroad and Giving Back: Tips on engaging your community, making meaningful connections, and finding ways to benefit your community. By Mary Lou Forward, Bradley Rink, and Diane Robinson

Study Abroad with a Conscience: Service-learning can be a socially and environmentally-conscious alternative to traditional study abroad, and it offers a chance to make a difference in the world.
By Andrea and Richard Kiely

Volunteering 101: Answers to some frequently asked questions

What Assumptions are in Your Suitcase? Cultural cues that will help you better understand your host culture's norms, ideas and values. By Martha Merrill


Stories & Experiences:

A Better Ride—PEPY Bike tours double as volunteering opportunities. By Julie French

Behind Prison Walls: A volunteer bears witness to the other side of Ecuador By Carolyn Eanes

Coaching in Cape Town: As a volunteer for SCORE, Cathleen Graham is one of many young coaches using sports to foster cooperation and coexistence in Cape Town, South Africa.

Coming Together for Sustainable Change: My experience with a minga. By Maryuret Rivas

Fair Trade Begins at Home: Courses on multiculturalism and social change combined with a FairTrade Foundation internship in London, inspire a senior toward a life of activism and justice. By Denise Davis

Hard Lessons from a Calcutta Orphanage: Becoming a seasoned volunteer sometimes means leaving reason and emotion behind. By Sofia Jasan

Jorge's Gift: When a boy with so little gives so much, it's a lesson not to be forgotten. By Aaron Mearns

Life in Isolation: Volunteers help rebuild homes and lives in The Dingwo Leprosy Rehabilitation Village in Guangxi Province, China. By Adina Matisoff

Making the Most of Your Opportunity: A study abroad student in Strasbourg, France and an intern at the Center for Refugees and the Council of Europe learns the value of taking on commitments outside the classroom. By Amanda Poole

Music Therapy: A music and Spanish major supplements classes in Chile with assisting music therapists at a school for children with Down syndrome. By Caitlyn Bodine

Spontaneous Action: A Fulbright fellow in Portugal gives back to the African immigration community that he is studying. By Michael D. Kerlin

Teaching at an Orphanage in Mexico: Service-learning in Mexico provides an International Relations major with a valuable lesson on the dangers of imposing your values and solutions on another culture.
By Julie Falbo

Telling Tales: An integral part of service-learning is the human bonds established and the stories people share. By Susan Buck Sutton

A Community Approach in the Fight Against Aids: A volunteer student creates a sustainable food project in Tanzania after witnessing the devastating effect inadequate nutrition has on patients. By Melanie Williams


Recommended Websites

William Nolting, Director of Overseas Opportunities at the University of Michigan International Center, www.umich.edu/~icenter/overseas, and James L. Citron, Director of Study Abroad at Colby College, contributed in large part to this section.

Also, see Abroad View's section Engage for additional resources.

 

 

Books, Papers, and Publications