Through a federal grant awarded by the Corporation for National and Community Service, the University of California at Berkeley has established a Service-Learning Research and Development Center in the Graduate School of Education. The center serves as a national model to demonstrate the ways in which service-learning can enhance students' academic development.
Unlike traditional community service programs, service-learning is an experiential education approach that integrates community service into students' core curricula. Service-learning enables students to apply the knowledge they gain from academic courses to address real issues in their local communities. The goal is to provide students with opportunities to think critically and expansively about key social issues related to course content by drawing on their community service experiences.
The Service-Learning Center provides technical assistance to faculty and graduate students in various departments throughout the Berkeley campus in integrating community service into existing and new academic courses. Along with offering a limited number of mini-grants to faculty who teach service-learning courses, the center maintains a resource library of materials on service-learning research, course models, and syllabi. The center is part of a larger campus National Service project which includes 16 National Service AmeriCorps members and the Campus' Public Service Center (CalCorps).
The principal investigators of the overall project are W. Russell Ellis Jr., assistant to the chancellor for national and community service, and William D. Rohwer Jr., dean of the Graduate School of Education. Dr. Ellis believes the project incorporates a number of significant components, including experiential learning, a resurgent service ethic, education for democracy, and a concern for a civil society.
"It is encouraging to witness Berkeley students, staff, and faculty participating in this surge of interest through our Learn and Serve/Americorps grant and the Service-Learning Center associated with it," Ellis said. "We are fortunate that our grant partners in the surrounding communities have joined us in this work. It is everyone's sense that this effort will outlast political convulsions and budget cuts. It is important, however, to take advantage of our current grant and engage as many of our colleagues as possible in the center's endeavors."
The center is directed by Andrew Furco, a doctoral candidate in the GSE's educational administration program, who has studied service-learning for the past several years. According to Furco, the center has already received national attention for its systematic research on the impact of service activities on students' educational development.
"Every day, more and more students and community members are singing the praises of service-learning," he stated. "This is evidenced by the fast pace at which this movement has grown across the country. I think educators and students enjoy service-learning because it helps bring context and meaning to abstract and often seemingly irrelevant curricula. It also bonds students and community members as they work together toward a common, mutually beneficial goal.
"Unfortunately, little research has been done to support the merits of service-learning. We at the Service-Learning Center are working hard to determine the impacts of service, both on the students who serve and on the communities in which they serve."
The Service-Learning Research and Development Center is located on the fourth floor of the University Extension building, 2223 Fulton Street. For more information, call 510/642-3199 or send e-mail to: andy_furco@maillink.berkeley.edu. h