Service-Learning
Connecting service and learning experiences
Service-Learning combines academic instruction with meaningful service, allowing you to reach your educational goals while making a contribution to your community and the world at large.
Why is Service-Learning important?
It connects you to your curriculum in a way that goes beyond theory. You gain a deeper understanding of your studies, enhancing your ability to evaluate your learning and then apply that learning in the real world. You get to contribute to the needs at the local, national and even global levels, which is celebrated by the college and the community.
A rewarding way to learn
Service-Learning increases higher-order thinking skills such as critical analysis and problem solving. It also has a way of increasing your motivation to learn, and your ability to retain the knowledge you gain. Service-Learning often gives you skills you never knew you had, while raising your awareness and concern for the community. It even broadens your career possibilities! Best of all, we've found that being helpful and engaged through Service-Learning often raises self-esteem and a sense of personal accomplishment, encouraging you to cultivate a healthy relationship with yourself and the people around you.
Service-Learning experiences
Faculty members lead students through different community-based learning opportunities, depending on course curriculum, including:
- Class projects: An assignment for an entire class at an agency that fits the course focus.
- Group projects: Students work together in smaller groups to complete Service-Learning hours/projects at an agency that fits the course focus and assignment.
- Individual placements: Students can serve at any of CGCC’s approved agencies.
- Honors contracts: Students enrolled in Honors courses may choose to include a Service-Learning project in their Honors Contract for that course with their faculty member's permission. If you are an Honors student interested in learning more about this, please contact the Service-Learning & Civic Engagement Program.
- Early childhood and teacher education placements: Students in CGCC’s Early Childhood and Teacher Education Program (ECTEP) can serve in local schools and early care centers as a part of their curriculum.
- One-day/signature events: Service events that rally students to get out into the community in a focused and energized way, planned and organized by faculty and the Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Program
Have a service idea? Tell us about it! Contact our Service-Learning & Civic Engagement Program at service.learning@cgc.edu.
Get involved with Service-Learning and Civic Engagement
Looking for other ways to get involved on campus or in your community? Check out these opportunities.