Welcome Back!

It has been a long and tumultuous summer, but the Service-Learning Corner is back to provide you with updates and resources for service-learning at ACC! Things are running a little differently with the threat of Covid-19 looming, but that hasn’t stopped us. We’re as committed as ever to finding community partners and safe volunteer opportunities for our faculty and students.

Additionally, we’re working on exciting updates to our website that will provide faculty and students with even more resources for how to get engaged in their community. We’re excited to be back in action for the fall semester, and can’t wait to share what’s been going on!

Congratulations to the Summer Service-Learning Class of 2020!

This summer, twenty-eight faculty and staff completed our Service-Learning Summer Institute and Online Training – almost double the cohort from our inaugural Summer Institute! Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges of transitioning to fully remote work, these wonderful professionals took the time to live true to ACC’s commitment to lifelong learning and deepen their understanding of service-learning pedagogy and practice.

It was an absolute joy to host our 2020 cohort in our first ever Blackboard Collaborate Course. For helping us expand our program and being great sports throughout the training, we in the Office of Experiential Learning extend the warmest thanks and congratulations to the Summer Service-Learning Class of 2020!

We Need Your Help!

A longtime goal of our program has been to allow trained faculty to teach service-learning section types so that all service-learning courses are visible and searchable to students registering for classes. We’re getting closer to that goal, but need your input on our Proposal for Service-Learning Designation.

What do you think should qualify a service-learning course for designation? We’ve drafted our thoughts here and invite you to share your feedback with us! Once you’ve read our proposal, please give us your feedback and/or endorsement by completing this brief form.

(Note: Access to both the proposal and survey are limited to personnel with an ACC Gmail account.)

Service-Learning Affiliation Agreement Launch 

We have finally finalized our Service-Learning MOU! In order to assist our office with data collection, we are requiring that all high-integration service-learning project partnerships must be formalized through an Affiliation Agreement beginning this semester!

This requirement does NOT affect all service-learning courses. If you’re implementing a low-integration project, such as a volunteer hour requirement, or having your students volunteer with a well established volunteer organization, you may not need to complete this agreement. Additionally, beginning now, all high-integration service partnerships developed through our office will have an agreement built into project development. While this is a new requirement, we expect its roll-out to be seamless.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Service-Learning Coordinator via the appointment link at the bottom of this post.

Complete Your Service-Learning Training Online!

Thanks to the success of our 2020 Summer Institute for Service-Learning, we’ve been able to transition our service-learning training to a completely online format! If you’re interested in completing our Online Training, sign up here. If you’d like to learn more about our program, click the appointments link at the bottom of this post to set up some time to chat with the Service-Learning Coordinator or visit our website! We’re always available to answer questions and help you find the best fit service-learning project model for your course.

Expanding our Student Outreach

In addition to supporting faculty with service-learning training and implementation, our program is excited to announce that they will be expanding their student facing resource repository in the coming months. Some of these adjustments include connecting students with ACC’s Career and Transfer Specialists to help them better understand how volunteerism can round out their resume; resources that help match students with community partners and volunteer opportunities that align with their academic interests and passions; and plans for a Virtual Spring Volunteer Fair!

While these adjustments are still in development, students can always visit ACC’s GivePulse page to find local volunteer opportunities. They are also welcome to email volunteer@austincc.edu to connect with our office for opportunities, resources, and more!

 

Service-Learning in the Literature

You may be wondering – what does service-learning look like during a global pandemic? We reccommend checking out this post by Professor Marianne E. Krasny about the virtues of conducting service-learning online.

Additionally, our friends over at GivePulse have put together tons of resources for faculty who are interested in implementing eService-learning. Check out those resources here, and then be sure to check out ACC’s GivePulse page to find safe, local volunteer opportunities for your students!

 

 Questions or comments about our
Service-Learning Program? 
Click the image above to visit our website, or
schedule a time to chat with our Coordinator!