So you're a student at UMC and today one of your professors mentioned a Service Learning project in class. What do you do? Run for the door? Drop the class? Not so fast. Give it a chance. Who knows? If you try it, you just might like it. Everybody's doing it, you know.

First, a lesson in Service Learning 101:

Service Learning is not about picking up trash in highway ditches. Hey, that's a nice community service project and a noble thing to do, it's just not Service Learning. Service Learning is also not about providing free labor to those in the community who should be paying for it.    
   
Yes, Service Learning is about service, but students are served as much as the community. Students who take part in Service Learning projects learn about themselves, their peers, their community and their potential career choice, all in a real-world situation involving real people and real-life situations. Would you rather take notes during a class lecture on homelessness, hunger and poverty, or help prepare and serve a meal at the local homeless shelter and see firsthand what it's really like to go without?

Learn more about the four basic components of effective Service Learning.
Learn more about what UMC's Service Learning Office has to offer.

Published Journal Articles on UMC Service Learning

Former UMC Assistant Professor, Dr. Traci Kelly, was published in Kairos based on a past Service Learning project that she did while teaching a literature class. Kairos is a refereed online journal exploring the intersections of rhetoric, technology, and pedagogy.

Dr. Harouna Maiga and Dr. Lyle Westrom recently published "Integration of Service-Learning in Animal Science Curriculum" in NACTA Journal, a professional refereed journal published quarterly by the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA). It is directed toward the professional advancement of the teacher of agriculture and presents papers on all aspects of teaching, including methods, problems, philosophies, and rewards.