"SERVICE LEARNING goes beyond charity or volunteerism.  It encourages those involved in service ministry to ask the hard questions and search for real solutions.  SERVICE LEARNING programs explicitly include features which foster participants' learning about the larger social issues behind the human needs to which they are responding."*

Three basic things make SERVICE LEARNING different than charity or volunteerism:

     



 
 
 
 
    Volunteers at Urban Family Ministries


 ~Otherness:  it takes us out of our comfort zones, engaging us with people and places outside our previous experience.
~Mutuality:  we experience this when we serve others in Christian love, receiving back as much as we give (through experiential education, personal growth and Spiritual development).
~Reflection:  we think about God, the world, and ourselves in relationship to both.  In so doing, we are changed by the experience, moving forward in our Faith Journey.
     

*Kendall, Jane C.  Combining Service & Learning: A Resource Book for Community and Public Service.  Raleigh: National Society for Internships and Experiential Education, 1990, p. 20.

 



FACULTY PAGE