Benefits for Students

• Enriches student learning through a better understanding of course content and functional relationships.
• Active learning demonstrates the relevance and importance of academic work, how it relates to life experience, and provides insight into future career choices.
• Provides career planning, work place preparedness, and skill building.
• Opportunity to experience diversity, build communication skills and overcome stereotypes.
• Take more personal responsibility for learning and enjoy being treated as a professional.
• Develop a greater sense of self worth.
• Enjoy deeper connections with the community that can contribute to and enhance well being.
• Helps students understand and foster engagement in ethical behavior and responsible citizenship.

Benefits for Faculty

• Enlivens and energizes teaching and learning. Adds rigor and excitement to the learning experience.
• Provides expanded relationships and new opportunities for professional work, development, and research.
• Enhances student teacher relationships.
• Provides a professional connection between the faculty and the community.
• Broaden the role and nature of education. Improve the motivational base for instruction and learning.
• Generate support and positive publicity in the community.
• Helps develop new ways of encouraging and monitoring student comprehension and academic progress.

Benefits for Community

• Helps to fulfill genuine need, find solutions and address problems.
• Service Learning students help support and sustain organizational capacity and add to the local workforce.
• Opportunity to access university expertise.
• Community partners can identify potential, employees, volunteers and donors.
• By engaging in relationships with non-profits college students help have a positive impact on client outcomes such as the elderly and children.
• Opportunity to support student academic goals.
• Community partners may gin prestige from their relationship with the university which may enable them to leverage resources.
• Community partners receive personal satisfaction from contributing to the education of the students and the university.

Benefits to the University

• Helps support university mission for student learning by providing:
  • Critical and engaging opportunities for students
  • Workplace experience for career preparedness
  • Increased development and preparation of students
• Faculty and students engage with the local community building positive community relationships and credibility.
• Opportunities for enhanced teaching, research, and outreach activities.
• Builds connections among higher education institutions.
• Helps support the education, and social expectations for our graduates.
• Opportunity to extend faculty expertise, university knowledge and resources.
• Helps build capacity for greater access to research sites, and more opportunities to publish and obtain grants.
• Service Learning for students can help provide a “safety net” to help support student retention.