“Service-Learning is a form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs together with structured opportunities intentionally designed to promote student learning and development. Reflection and reciprocity are key concepts of service-learning” (Jacoby, p 5, 1996).

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Service-learning is a combination of academic learning, service within the community, and civic engagement. Put another way, it is finding and satisfying community needs while fulfilling course objectives. The community needs are not more important than student needs, and vice versa. The relationship, therefore, is reciprocal.

Many people have found that doing service-learning has encouraged the students to get involved with the community, make connections with the work force, learn how to work as a team, learn what it means to be a community member actually means, and gain many other life-long skills.

Sources cited:
Jacoby, Barbara. Service-Learning in Higher Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1996.