What are the benefits of service learning?

Research studies have documented that all participants – students, faculty, community partners – benefit from the service learning experience.

Student Benefits:

• Students gain academic credit while serving the community, and better understand the relevance of their academic coursework. 
• Students collaborate on real-world solutions.
• Students develop marketable skills which translates into jobs and higher educational goals.
• Service Learning programs improve critical thinking, interpersonal communication, and conflict resolution skills.
• Service Learning helps students find their passion to make a difference in their local and global communities.

Community Benefits:

• Community outreach programs receive talented, energetic and motivated resources needed to meet increasing needs.
• Student-community partnerships promote civic responsibility and a sense of community.
• Student volunteers bring critical analysis skills and generate fresh insight about organizational operations that translate into increased capacity to serve clients.
• Partnerships bring increased community awareness to the problems facing community organizations.

Faculty Benefits:

• Service learning encourages faculty to be innovative in their teaching, enriching the experience for both teacher and student.
• Direct contact with local issues keeps faculty connected with their communities and provides them with data they would not have otherwise obtained.
• Service learning provides opportunities for new areas of research and publication, and for outside funding sources to reduce research budgets.
• Student research conducted in service learning courses is a cost-effective way to facilitate research on a limited budget.

University/Institution Benefits:

• Service learning assists in the fulfillment of the institution’s mission of service and outreach efforts to communities.
• Service learning increases campus-community collaboration and partnerships, which endears the community to the university and shows its responsive to community needs.
• Outside funding sources reduce research budgets, yet maintain cutting-edge research projects.
• Campus-community partnerships bring increased publicity to the institution; heightened visibility and prestige can lead to increased funding and enrollment.