Service Learning began at Richland in 1997 with a grant from American Association of Community Colleges through the Corporation for National Service's Learn and Serve Higher Education Grant Program. The Learn and Serve Program was created to support efforts to make service an integral part of the education and life experiences of students in the nation's colleges and universities. Nationally, over 300,000 students participate in the program.
After a small start with students and faculty from two classes working with three agencies, the Richland program has grown to include 25 faculty who incorporate it into their courses. Last academic year over 500 students completed over 13,000 hours of service in their community and worked with clients from 100 agencies. The current projects were as diverse as rebuilding homes with Habitat for Humanities, helping elementary school children design and plant a neighborhood garden, and tutoring elderly immigrants for citizen tests, to name only three. In campus-wide reflection sessions our students revealed that they were forming life-long habits of service and community involvement, and that they were truly becoming examples of Richland’s goal of teaching, learning, and community-building. Partially because of the service learning program Richland earned the Carnegie Foundation's community engagement classification for curricular engagement and outreach partnerships.
We have had a wonderful ten plus years of service , but now it is time for more of our faculty and students to take advantage of this wonderful teaching and learning tool. As part Richland’s commitment to sustainabilities’s triple bottom line of economic justice, ecological balance, and social equity, you can make a difference by incorporating service learning into your course planning. For those of you who already use service learning to enrich your academic plans, we are encouraging you to consider basing your student service learning projects around the eight United Nations Millennial Goals, an international wish list for civic engagement. For those of you new to service learning, using the Millennial Goals would be an easy way to get started.
I am including a list of the goals and a service learning faculty FAQ sheet. If you would like to include service learning into your course and are uncertain how to begin, please call us to schedule an individualized training session. We provide all of the student registration material and can help with agency placement problems. We can also provide in-class orientations for your students.
Get involved - Get connected - Get going - It only takes one to make a difference
Carole Lester,
Dean, Academic Enrichment, GreenRichland and
The Center for Renewal and Wholeness in Higher Education
Karon Yeager, Service Learning Coordinator
"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions."
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Carole N. Lester, PhD
Dean of Instruction
Academic Enrichment
Richland College