Service Learning
Service learning at Richmond—course-based, credit-bearing community service activities—is the ultimate win-win experiential learning opportunity. Richmond students win when they test what they've learned in the classroom on real-world problems in the Richmond community, learn about civic leadership and hone their sense of social responsibility. The Richmond community wins from the influx of talent and enthusiasm Richmond students bring to the local groups and community agencies with which they work.
Service learning, like an internship, provides students a concrete, specific task that permits them to apply what they have learned in class; to learn what competencies they have yet to acquire; to explore career interests; and to develop their competencies by applying and testing them.
It differs from an ordinary internship, however, because the context and task of the experience involves service to a person or group in need. As defined by the Commission on National and Community Service, service learning is " a method under which students learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service experiences that meet actual community needs and that are coordinated in collaboration with the school and the community."
At any one time 50 to 75 different agencies and approximately 200 Richmond students are involved in service learning projects, including:
- Editing radio broadcast programs for the Virginia Voice
- Serving as a liaison in the emergency department of the Medical College of Virginia Hospital
- Tutoring adults in English for Refugee and Immigration Services
- Serving meals to residents at the Beth Shalom Home
While the movement towards the incorporation of service learning in the curriculum began in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, faculty members in departments throughout the University utilize this innovative teaching tool as a component of their courses. The benefits that students experience are diverse and profound.
Service learning is just one example of the special ways that the University of Richmond strives to prepare graduates for full participation in a global society as citizens and leaders. Community Service is also a significant part of the extra-curricular social culture at Richmond. Read more about those opportunities in the Life at Richmond section.