Service Learning for Faculty

Civic Engagement & Service Learning for Faculty

 

Planning a Service Learning Component?

• Benefits of Service Learning
• Faculty Service Learning Fellowship Application
• Links to Civic Engagement & Service Learning Syllabi and other Resources
• Possible Projects by Discipline
• Considerations for Developing a Service Learning Course
• Faculty Service Scholar Award Recipients

What's Being Done at Snow?

A growing number of students and faculty are engaged in service learning. The links below show courses offered with service learning sections andthe requirements for students to earn distinction through their service.

• Service Learning Courses at Snow College
• Service Scholar Award

Proposing a Course?

If you'd like to designate one of your courses as a service learning course, contact the service learning committee member in your division and use the application below.

• Faculty Course Designation Application
• Service Learning Committee Members

Minimum Requirements for a Service Learning Course

1. The course must include a service learning activity which comprises a significant component of the course.

2. Students in the class provide an instructor-approved service to the community (which could include community organizations or individuals) that fulfills a real community need.

3. The course integrates action and reflection. The course will combine a substantial service learning activity with critical examination of theory or application of disciplinary concepts and skills relevant to that activity. Students will be required to write a reflective paper (or comparable exercise, e.g. an oral presentation) in which they related the activity to the disciplinary content being discussed in the course. It is also expected that some class time will be devoted to discussion of what students learned through the activity and how it related to course content.

Defining Service

What types of activities count toward the 150 hours that service scholars perform? 

Definition
Beginning in Fall 2010, the following policy will guide what constitutes service hours for the Service Scholar Award.

Two principles guide what counts as service: the community engagement of students should 1) assist the community in meeting its needs and 2) allow the students to step outside their own social networks (defined as people with whom a student naturally and regularly interacts, i.e. friends, family, etc.). Students may perform service for community groups, nonprofits, civic organizations, government agencies, and non-partisan political organizations. 

Additionally, service for the Snow College community and for individuals can count as long as principles 1 and 2 apply. While it is valuable, service within religious groups and political parties does not fulfill principle 2 and cannot count toward the Service Scholar Award (unless the service performed benefits people outside the denomination or political party).

Service hours required for the integrated service project (ISP) and for service learning classes count toward the 150 hour total. Furthermore, preparation and reflection time count toward the total.

Finally, to receive credit for service hours, students must not receive payment or salary for their efforts, and the service must be documented using the service scholar documents (copies are available in the Student Life office).

Examples
Approved projects: helping at a Head Start daycare during parent-teacher conferences, educating students about alcohol abuse, picking up trash along a community road, or participating in a nonpartisan political movement

Non-approved projects: babysitting for a family member, talking with a roommate about her problems, shoveling snow at your church before Sunday meetings, or campaigning for a political candidate.

Note: this definition should also guide instructors designing service learning projects for their classes.

Revised: November 2022