Service Learning: Education through Experience

Service Learning is a growing philosophy and practice which recognizes the important role that public and community service can play in education. In simple terms, Service Learning, through firsthand experience, shows students how their talents and efforts can be applied to improve other people's lives and better their communities. This experience also helps students develop values that stress social responsibility. Service Learning can be implemented in a variety of ways. Sometimes it is through a supplementary activity within a classroom-based course. Sometimes it is a course, itself. Often a student will earn some academic credit for a specified number of hours served every week.

How Does Service Learning Differ from Ordinary Internships or Volunteer Service?

In the many academic volumes and articles that have been written on Service Learning over the years, you may see dozens of different answers to this question. But actually, Service Learning does not “differ” from regular internships or volunteerism. It is more of an extension of both, taking the best points of each, combining them and filling in the gaps. Thus, through Service Learning, you can have the best of both worlds.

Like an internship, Service Learning allows a student to perform work that relates specifically to his or her intended vocation, thereby enhancing that student's professional skills. Service Learning programs, like some internships, often give course credit, and they usually provide students with the advice of a professional in the field.

Like a volunteer program, the Service Learning experience turns the whole world into a classroom. Service learners often see the value and difference their efforts play in other people's lives and in the community. As with volunteering, students in Service Learning programs will also develop skills that employers seek out universally.

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