About Us

About the Office of Service Learning

Stanislaus State promotes Service Learning as a High-Impact Practice that is a valued part of a student's educational process, through which academic experiences and social consciousness are deepened. 
Launched in 2000, the Office of Service Learning has made remarkable progress in supporting the faculty's development of service learning and academic internship opportunities.

Service Learning spans numerous disciplines, containing a community-based learning component. Among the departments with a community-based learning component are:

Accounting and Finance, Anthropology, Art, Business, Chemistry,
Child Development, Communication Studies, Criminal Justice, English,
Honors Program, Kinesiology, Liberal Studies, Nursing, Politics, and
Public Administration, Psychology, Sociology, and Teacher Education.

From Spring 2011 to the Fall of 2024, our office co-facilitated the Science in Our Community Program (SIOC)  with Dr. Mark Grobner from the College of Science. In the Fall of 2024, the program officially moved into the College of Science and is now under the College of Science Dean and faculty director, Dr. Jeanette Pirlo, with support from the Office of Service Learning. The SIOC program focuses on promoting STEM by engaging the K-12 community, teachers, Stan State students, the College of Science, and Stan State faculty. This program provides many free events and activities each academic semester. This effort has contributed over 24,000 hours of service to the community by providing more than 30 activities each year, including the Annual Stan State Science Day.

Additionally, the Office of Service Learning works with academic internship faculty in order to ensure that student interns meet campus risk management policy and procedures. Internships are developed and administered by faculty in the department in which they are offered.

Mission

Working in accord with Stanislaus State's Mission Statement, the University seeks to "promote academic excellence in the teaching and scholarly activities …, foster interactions and partnerships with our surrounding communities, and provide opportunities for the intellectual, cultural, and artistic enrichment of the region." Service Learning is a vital component to ensure the University fulfills this mission to serve you and our region. As a teaching method, Service Learning seeks to deepen faculty and student awareness of the responsibility we all share to improve the quality of life in our communities. The Office of Service Learning facilitates and supports these connections that benefit our community, our students, our faculty, and our staff.

Through the Office of Service Learning, Stanislaus State strives to foster an ethic of service and civic engagement by establishing reciprocal and mutually beneficial partnerships with our diverse communities, whereby community partners become co-educators. For our community partners, service learning and internship students represent a means for increased capacity for service delivery, as well as a basis for future support.

Service learning and internship students have access to a myriad of active learning opportunities in the community, such as mentoring youth, connecting young students to science, increasing an agency's presence in the community, working with underserved individuals and families, or impacting public policy.

Goals

The primary goal of the Office of Service Learning at California State University, Stanislaus is to enhance student learning through service learning projects. Specifically, the Office of Service Learning has the following program goals:

• To enhance our students' subject matter learning in applying classroom knowledge to practical experience.
• To model for our students how a critical and democratic teacher can act to bring civic engagement into the classroom.
• To develop our students' commitment to service, social justice, and community involvement.
• To enable our students to work productively with diverse communities.
• To assist faculty and students to comply with risk management policy designated for relevant service learning and internship off-campus activities.

Student Learning Outcomes for Service Learning

The Service Learning program goals are framed through the lens of student learning, and the faculty have developed specific student learning outcomes to accompany these important service learning program goals. Students participating in service learning are expected to achieve the following student learning outcomes:  

• Apply discipline‐specific and/or interdisciplinary knowledge and critical thinking skills to community issues. (Program Goals 1,2)
• Demonstrate critical self‐reflection of oneʹs own assumptions and values as applied to community issues.  (Program Goals 2,3,4)
• Demonstrate knowledge and sensitivity to issues of culture, diversity, and social justice as applied to community engagement. (Program Goals 2,3,4)