Senior Colloquium and Service Learning
The Service Learning Colloquium is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.
UHP seniors will apply their academic skills and knowledge to address real-life needs in the communities in which they choose to work.
Goals:
- To enhance student learning by joining theory with experience and thought with action.
- To fill unmet needs in the community through direct, indirect, or advocacy service which is meaningful.
- To assist students to discover the relevance between academic subjects to the real world experience.
- To develop an environment of collegial participation among students, faculty, and the community.
- To enhance the civic and citizenship skills of students.
- To expose students to societal inadequacies and injustices and to empower students to find ways to impact local issues and local needs.
- To develop a richer context for student learning.
- To better prepare students for their careers and for life-long learning.
Characteristics of Service Learning:
- Links to academic content and standards.
- Involves students in helping to determine and meet real, defined community needs.
- Is reciprocal in nature, benefitting both the community and the students.
- Is positive, meaningful and real experience for the participants.
- Involves cooperative rather than competitive experiences thus promoting skills associated with teamwork.
- Offers opportunities to engage in problem-solving.
- Promotes deeper learning because the results are immediate and uncontrived. There are no “right answers.”
- Is likely to be personally meaningful to participants and to generate emotional consequences, to challenge values as well as ideas, and hence to support social, emotional and cognitive learning and development.
Service-Learning is not:
- An episodic volunteer program
- An add-on to an existing curriculum
- Logging a set number of community service hours in order to graduate
- One-sided: benefitting only students or only the community
