Perceptions of Service-Learning in the Sunshine State

College students enroll in service-learning coursework for many reasons. For some, the opportunity to enhance classroom-based learning by engaging in hands-on activities benefiting the community serve as an important motivator. As the nation's only campus-based civic engagement association, Campus Compact promotes community and public service that forges partnerships, provides training and resources for faculty seeking community-based learning (service-learning) into their curriculum while developing students' citizenship skills. Florida Campus Compact is comprised of over 50 college and university presidents committed to engaging students in active citizenship via participation in public and community service. In this chapter, researchers surveyed 437 students enrolled in service-learning courses from nine (9) participating Florida Campus Compact institutions. The purpose of the project was to examine how service-learning and student volunteer opportunities are shaping educational experiences from transdisciplinary backgrounds for students and impacting the communities around them. Participation in the project provided a complete assessment of students' connections to their communities, political activism, and career employability. The results will shape service-learning practices at those participating campuses across the state of Florida.

Voices from the Field

Urban and metropolitan areas face unique challenges in serving the multifaceted needs of their communities, but also have advantages that create some of the world’s greatest universities. Three scholars opened the 2017 CUMU Annual Conference with “Voices from the Field.” Each spoke to the changing role of urban-serving institutions and the place-based advantages CUMU members have in enriching their communities while strengthening the universities’ core commitments. CUMU advisor Barbara A. Holland, Holland Consulting, described the changing role of higher education and highlighted the distinct and powerful advantages urban-based higher education institutions have in shaping the success of the metropolitan areas they collectively serve. Ted Howard, The Democracy Collaborative, encouraged universities to move beyond current place-making initiatives and to adopt The Anchor Mission, distilling lessons from CUMU members who are pioneering new approaches to anchor mission work to have greater impacts on their institutions and communities. Andrew Seligsohn, Campus Compact, reflected on the inter-connected nature of two of higher education’s missions: (a) educating students for democracy; and (b) carrying out their anchor mission, as well as the impact of a civically-engaged student body on creating sustainable change in our communities.