Service Learning

What is Service-Learning?

Service-learning combines service to the community with students learning in a way that improves both the student and the community.

Service-Learning:
-Is an opportunity whereby students learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service that is conducted in and meets the needs of communities.
-Helps foster civic responsibility
-And provides structured time for students or participants to reflect on the service experience

What Does Service-Learning Look Like?
Service learning is part of the academic curriculum. In community organizations, youth develop practical skills, self-esteem, and a sense of civic responsibility. Examples of service-learning projects include: preserving native plants, designing neighborhood playgrounds, teaching younger children to read, testing the local water quality, creating wheelchair ramps, preparing food for the homeless, developing urban community gardens, starting school recycling programs, and much more.

Why is Service-Learning Important?
A national study of Learn and Serve America programs suggests that effective service-learning programs improve academic grades, increase attendance in school, and develop personal and social responsibility. Whether the goal is academic improvement, personal development, or both, students learn critical thinking, communication, teamwork, civic responsibility, mathematical reasoning, problem-solving, public speaking, vocational skills, computer skills, scientific method, research skills, and analysis.

Service is not some task to be endured, but an opportunity to be enjoyed! It involves a change in our values, minds, and actions. Help our children discover their gifts and where to use them. The richness of service will make a real difference in our community.