Abstract

This excerpt from Best Practices in Service Learning: Building a National Community College Network, 1994-1997, an American Association of Community Colleges project brief, provides a list of strategies that fifteen colleges participating in service-learning programs found worked successfully when tailored to the individual college campus atmospheres.

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Issue

Implementation and management of service-learning programs on a community college campus present many organizational and educational challenges. Yet, this also provides numerous opportunities for development of effective collaborations and institutionalization of the programs at the local level.

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Action

Fifteen participating colleges in the American Association of Community Colleges service-learning grant project implemented these strategies on their campuses and in their communities between 1994 and 1997. Effective practices include:

When working with faculty:

• Start with "green light" people
• Use service-learning as a teaching strategy
• Focus on academic rigor
• Develop resource handbooks
• Suggest faculty perform service as part of orientation

When working with the institution:

• Connect to existing initiatives
• Write service-learning into course competencies
• Identify student ambassadors
• Consider service-learning as accreditation criteria
• Network with other colleges

When working with the community:

• Celebrate local culture
• Create spinoff partnerships
• Connect with Learn & Serve K-12 programs

When working with students:

• Involve students in the process
• Use a team approach
• Empower students to do projects alone
• Note service-learning on transcripts, in catalogs
• Let students be advocates

While no single college used all of these ideas, they found a combination of strategies affecting students, faculty, institutions, and community was most useful when tailored to individual college situations and cultures.

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Context

Community colleges are centers of educational opportunity. They are an American invention that put publicly funded higher education at close-to-home facilities, beginning nearly 100 years ago with Joliet Junior College. Since then, they have been inclusive institutions that welcome all who desire to learn, regardless of wealth, heritage, or previous academic experience. The process of making higher education available to the maximum number of people continues to evolve at 1,173 public and independent community colleges. When the branch campuses of community colleges are included, the number totals about 1,600.

As of 2007, community colleges in all 50 states offer service-learning to their students as a means of enhancing their education, giving them the opportunity to serve in their chosen field of study, and increasing their sense of civic responsibility. Community colleges are ideal locations for service-learning programs because community service is a part of their mission.

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Citation

Robinson, Gail, and Lynn Barnett. "Selected Best Practices for Sustaining Service-Learning Programs." Best Practices in Service Learning: Building a National Community College Network, 1994-1997. Washington, DC: American Association of Community Colleges. AACC-PB-98-3 (1998): 2.

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Posted On

February 9, 2000

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For More Information

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Resources

For more information, see the following: Selected Best Practices for Sustaining Service-Learning Programs by the American Association of Community Colleges.

Source Documents

Related Practices

• Creating a culture of civic responsibility on a college campus
• Integrating civic responsibility into community college curricula

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Related sites

Topic Areas

• Service-learning
• Partnerships
• Learn and Serve America
• Higher Education
• Staff
• Schools
• Students
• Higher Ed
• NSLC
• Education

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