About Service-Learning

Black Hills State University is a proud member of the Midwest Consortium for Service-Learning in Higher Education and is nationally recognized on the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for the 2005-2006 academic year.

What is Service-Learning?

Definition of Academic Service-Learning:
Service-Learning is a pedagogy, which integrates service in the community with academic study (theory/curriculum). Faculty, in partnership with representatives of non-profit, community organizations, design service-learning projects that meet identified community needs to advance the student's understanding of course content and which help to strengthen the community. Strong reflective components are built into the course to help students consider relationships between their service, the curriculum of the class, and its impact on their personal values and professional goals.

Definition of Co-Curricular Service-Learning:
Co-Curricular Service-Learning is distinguished from Academic Service-Learning in that it is not anchored in a specific course, but rather is a part of the students' “life experiences” (for example, residential life, career development, and residential learning communities). The pedagogical framework of co-curricular service-learning cultivates student reflections upon the intersection of the needs and concerns of their communities with their personal values and professional goals.

Teaching a service-learning oriented class this semester? Need extra funding? Opportunities are now available!

Why Service-Learning?

• Personal outcomes:
  • Service -learning has a positive effect on reducing stereotypes and facilitating cultural & racial understanding.
  • Service-learning has a positive effect on sense of social responsibility and citizenship skills, commitment to service after graduation
• Learning Outcomes:
  • Service-learning has a positive impact on students’ academic learning, improves ability to apply what they’ve learned in “the real world”
  • Service-learning participation has an impact on such academic outcomes as demonstrated in complexity of understanding, problem analysis, critical thinking, and cognitive development.
• Relationship with Institution
• Service-learning improves student satisfaction with college
• Students engaged in service-learning are more likely to graduate (taken from “At a Glance: What We Know about the Effects of Service-Learning on College Students, Faculty, Institutions and Communities, 1993-2000: Third Edition”)

An effective service-learning program:

1. Engages people in responsible and challenging actions for the  common good
2. Provides structured opportunities for people to reflect critically on their service experience.
3. Articulates clear service and learning goals for everyone involved.
4. Allows for those with needs to define those needs.
5. Clarifies the responsibilities of each person and organization involved.
6. Matching service providers and service needs through a process that recognizes changing circumstances.
7. Expects genuine, active and sustained organizational commitment.
8. Includes training, supervision, monitoring, support recognition, and evaluation to meet service and learning goals.
9. Insures that the time commitment for service and learning is flexible, appropriate, and in the best interests of all involved.
10. Is committed to program participation by and with diverse populations

(Created at the 1989 Wingspread Conference, hosted by the Johnson Foundation. The principles are the product of a two-year collaborative process involving seventy-five national and regional organizations commited to community service and experiential education)Service-learning has a positive effect on student personal development such as sense of personal efficacy, personal identity, spiritual growth and moral development.Service-learning has a positive effect on interpersonal development and the ability to work well with others, leadership and communication skills.Social Outcomes