Abstract

Institutionalizing service-learning on higher-education campuses can be an uphill battle without student support. Portland State University has integrated student leadership and student voice into its service-learning programs by developing partnerships with university administration, forming a team of student leaders, providing support for students and faculty collaborating on service-learning courses, and offering courses that involve student-initiated service-learning. Excerpted from The Resource Connection newsletter, vol. 5, no. 1.

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Issue

Garnering support to institutionalize service-learning on a college campus.

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Action

The focus of the service-learning program at Portland State University (PSU) has been creating an institutional culture that practices the motto, "let knowledge serve the city." This emphasis includes developing mechanisms to support student leadership and student voice in the initiation, implementation, and assessment of curricular-based service-learning. By providing resources for faculty and student initiated service-learning, PSU has been able to institutionalize service-learning on its campus, offering more than 100 service-learning courses each year.

Student leadership and student voice contribute to PSU’s service-learning program in the following ways:

• Partnership between the Offices of Academic and Student Affairs
  A sophomore inquiry service-learning course called Leadership for Change has been developed. It is thematically related to upper division service-learning courses. These courses have become part of a required sequence in undergraduate general education curriculum. Students in these courses are given the opportunity to understand leadership by taking initiative in their community. Students from these classes have gone on to support faculty and other students in subsequent service-learning courses.
• Student Leaders
  The Offices of Student and Academic Affairs jointly support a team of students called Student Leaders for Service. This newly-created team develops and assists faculty and students in implementing curricular-based service projects. They plan and implement special service projects in conjunction with national service days, and have partnered with co-curricular service organizations to encourage and support broader campus participation in their sponsored projects.
• Students Assisting Faculty
  Targeted support is made available for students and faculty who collaboratively work together to design, implement, and assess curricular-based service-learning courses. Through these partnerships, student leaders are able to focus attention on mentoring and supporting their faculty colleagues and community partners. The faculty member is able to focus attention on course content.
• Student Initiated Service-Learning
  Through a partnership with the Community Development Department, a course has been redesigned to include community partnership development and service-learning course designs. This arrangement allows Community Development students to conceptualize, negotiate, and design sustainable community partnerships and service-learning courses, while providing student driven and student-focused service-learning opportunities. Most of the service-learning courses designed through this method are offered in subsequent terms.

All of these accomplishments are evidence of university commitment to integrating service into the academic structure of the undergraduate and graduate curricula. Although Learn and Serve America program funds have helped achieve these accomplishments, there is a need to continue to create an infrastructure to build student, faculty, and community leadership capacity. Determining community needs and then focusing energies to produce demonstrable impacts from service and learning will contribute to sustainability of these partnerships.

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Citation

Spring, Amy."Let Knowledge Serve the City: An Evolving Service Paradigm." The Resource Connection. The National Service Resource Center. Vol. 5, No. 1.

The Resource Center published The Resource Connection newsletter in print format quarterly from spring 1995 to fall 2002 to facilitate the exchange of training and technical assistance (T/TA) information, ideas, and resources to those in national and community service.

In March of 2003, The Resource Connection went to a digital format, continuing to highlight information and resources that help programs funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Current and archived e-newsletters can be found online at http://nationalserviceresources.org/resources/newsletters/enewsletters/index.php

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For More Information

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Resources

Read Let Knowledge Serve the City: An Evolving Service Paradigm by Amy Spring, Student Leadership Coordinator, Portland State University in The Resource Connection, vol.5, no.1, page 11.

Source Documents

Related Practices

• Implementing service-learning in community colleges
• Integrating civic responsibility into community college curricula
• Creating a culture of civic responsibility on a college campus

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Related sites

Students in Service to America

Learn and Serve America

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