Faculty

Community-Engaged Learning

Community-Engaged Learning (CEL) is an umbrella term for course-based, hands-on learning experiences that connect students with the community. These experiences can include community service, service learning, and academic internships. CEL brings universities together with community partners to create meaningful experiences where students learn through participation while contributing to the common good.

Service Learning

Service-learning is a form of community-engaged learning in which meaningful service is a critical component of the course curriculum and assessment of student learning. It is characterized by six core elements, including critical reflection and a collaborative partnership, with a focus on both student learning and community impact. 

Our office facilitates and supports this teaching methodology and creates local connections that benefit our students, faculty, and community as we all share the civic responsibility to improve the quality of life in our communities.

Service Learning Outcomes for Students

The Service Learning program goals are framed through the lens of student learning, and the faculty has 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 onesʹ 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)

Service Learning Faculty Mini-Grant 

The Office of Community-Engaged Learning supports faculty community-based curriculum and research through the annual Instructional Support Mini-Grant Program. Grants up to $1,000.00 are awarded to full-time faculty and full-time lecturers who support efforts to enhance instruction and promote innovative teaching and learning strategies around service learning and community-based coursework.

Coming soon - Spring 2027 Application 

Service Learning Course Materials Request

The Office of Community-Engaged Learning is offering additional support for material and/or supply costs for ongoing CEL/SL courses up to $300.00. These requests will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and acceptance will depend on the available budget. 

Request Material/Supply Assistance 

Roadmap for CELSL Implementation 

Benefits of Service Learning for Faculty 

• Connecting academic disciplines to social issues and problems.
• Identifying areas for research and publication related to the current issue.
• Connecting meaningful service to current issues as they relate to academic areas of interest.
• Engaging students with a teaching method that departs from the lecture-driven classroom.
• Providing increased student contact while contributing to student development.

See the full Benefits table for the impact.

Service Learning Articles & Documents

• Best Practices for Managing Risk in Service Learning
• High-Impact Practices and Gains in Student Learning: Evidence from Georgia, Montana, and Wisconsin by Jessa Valentine, Ph.D., Derek Price, Ph.D., and Haisheng Yang, M.A.,
• Reimagining Service Learning in the Digital Age by Laken Brooks 
• Using Structured Reflection to Enhance Learning from Service Campus Compact