Service-Learning

Becoming An Engaged Campus

At Dominican, we are moving into our third year of developing and implementing a Service-Learning Program that is a campus wide initiative that is recognized as an important priority in the current Integrated Strategic Plan. The purpose of the program  is to fully institutionalize service-learning into the campus academic culture and in accordance with best practices and models put forward by the thriving national service-learning movement. This will be accomplished by providing various resources and support for faculty, staff, students, and community partners to develop powerful learning relationships through course content that is aligned with community needs. In dialogue with community agencies and organizations whose mission and needs correspond to the learning outcomes of specific curriculum is enriched through student work in the community while the community benefits from student energy and skills.

Rationale

Service-Learning represents a vital paradigm shift in higher education. It is a movement that has taken root nationally and globally in a heartening way that manifests a reinvigoration of the democratic values of civic engagement and individual fulfillment as it intersects with the public good. Service-learning emphasizes the importance of linking academic theory to practice through the experiential. It views the community not as a static laboratory but as active co-educators. It views the institution as a responsible and active member of the local community. Service-learning understands and takes seriously the task of knowledge and content integration—an approach that creates and honors lifelong learners and critical thinkers.

An underlying goal of service-learning is to help students cultivate and express core values that will guide and ground them as they develop their careers after graduation. Much research points to the fact that a paramount factor in employee satisfaction is clarity of personal values, when these are aligned with the values of the workplace this combination becomes the most powerful indicator of a successful and vital work culture.

On This Campus, Service-Learning Means...

In 2004, we formed an advisory council of faculty, staff, students, and representatives from community organizations. Our first step was to create a shared understanding of how service learning is defined and manifested on our campus and through collaboration with our community partners:

 Dominican University of California’s vision of education encompasses a mission to promote the common good and the values of study, reflection, community, service, ethical responsibility, and respect for multiple cultural traditions. These ideals provide a strong foundation for service-learning, a pedagogy that creates intentional links between academic education and community experience where each strengthens the other. Service -learning engages students, faculty, staff, and community partners in collaborative and responsive action, dialogue, and reflection to address community-identified needs, meet learning goals, expand our perspectives, and increase civic particpation. In this way service learning creates reciprocal benefits for all involved:

• The University is able to live out its mission and enhance its role as a vital and active partner in the community;
• Faculty are supported in connecting innovative teaching, research/scholarship, and community action;
• The Marin County community benefits from the University resources (student power,  library, educational opportunities, research networks) while contributing to the education of students; and
• Students gain self-awareness, practical skills, career-related experience,  insight into the relevance of academic knowledge, a deeper  understanding of  their own personal impact, and an enriched capacity to  become effective community builders.