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Service Learning at MLC
Serving the community, enhancing academic learning, and fostering citizenship.
During the 2005–2006 academic year, Midland Lutheran College launched a service-learning program, with generous support from a Learn and Serve America Higher Education Grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service through the Midwest Consortium for Service Learning in Higher Education.
What is service learning?
Service learning is a teaching model that links meaningful service with the community to both academic learning objectives, on the one hand, and the fostering of active and engaged citizenship, on the other. Service learning can take place in both curricular and cocurricular contexts. According to the Midwest Consortium for Service Learning in Higher Education, service learning can be defined as follows:
Academic 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 identifie d 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.
Cocurricular 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.
What are we trying to accomplish?
During the 2005–2006 academic year we are engaging in a number of program activities, including conducting an internal audit at MLC of service learning activities, conducting an external audit of other service-learning programs at similar institutions, engaging in a community needs assessment by contacting local nonprofit organizations, creating a resource library, and holding training events for faculty, staff, students, and community partners. We are also seeking to develop true partnerships with community agencies, seeking opportunities to draw on the expertise and knowledge of agencies about community needs and how they can best be addressed.
Service Learning & MLC’s Core Values
Among MLC’s core values is stewardship. On the basis of this value, “we believe we are called to educate morally and ethically responsible citizens of a pluralistic society. In this endeavor, we are guided by the ideas of service, integrity, and mutual respect.” Community-based learning is one strategy for living out this value. As part of our recently developed Community Plan, we have made a commitment to develop meaningful community-based learning opportunities for students. Please join in this effort.
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