What is Community Service-Learning (CSL)?
Community Service-Learning (CSL) makes learning come alive. We link academic coursework to community-based experiences. Students bring their time and talents to community organizations as part of their studies, challenging them to engage with their learning in fresh new ways and to explore relationships between theory and practice.
When enrolled in a CSL class, students participate in a community project that is both relevant to the course content and useful to the partnering non-profit organization.
By completing a number of courses with a CSL component, including our CSL-designated courses, students can earn a Certificate in Community Service-Learning upon graduation.
The program also offers opportunities for students to become student peer mentors or to serve as interns on local non-profit boards, and for U of A staff and graduate students to teach courses to adults facing barriers to education through the Humanities 101 program.
CSL encapsulates the University’s commitments to learning, discovery, and citizenship, and to connecting communities (Dare to Discover).
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Through CSL:
- Students gain invaluable experience and develop personal, professional, and intellectual skills;
- Community partners gain the energies and capabilities of students and have the opportunity to be co-educators;
- Instructors gain an enlivened classroom, new perspectives on pedagogy, and links with community organizations.
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Community Service-Learning can take a variety of forms and can be either curricular or co-curricular. Curricular Service-Learning programs see students involved in projects that are directly part of, and relevant to academic coursework. Co-curricular Service-Learning is not associated with academic credit, but provides complementary learning opportunities as part of student life. For more information on co-curricular CSL opportunities, visit Residence Services or the Faculty of ALES.
All are welcome to contact us at CSL House, or just drop by, to get involved.
For more information on CSL at the Augustana Campus of the U of A, visit Learning and Beyond.