Service Learning in College

Service Learning in College

Service learning provides college students with a whole new method of learning. This type of learning provides a student with an experience outside of the classroom in their area of concentration. Emily Knab, a college student at the University of Miami, has experienced service learning and found it very beneficial in her area of interest. Emily is studying education and wants to become a teacher in the future. She performed her service learning at an elementary school, focusing her attention on the third grade. She shadowed the teacher and completed many of the tasks that she would normally do. The students found Emily to be very helpful and respected her as if she were their real teacher. Emily stated that, “Service learning strengthened, increased, and developed my knowledge in education.” Service learning brings together the needs of the people within the community and gives students the chance to work with those needs (“Service Learning,” par. 10). Field experiences combined with service learning activities is an essential part of growing academically (LaMaster 1). Service learning brings together student, community, and teacher through performance and education.

Service learning has a growing history in the United States. The Native American people are the sources of community service. It was a part of their ethics that helping one another was the right thing to do (Wade 23-4). Helping one another was one of the only means of staying alive back when the native people were located around the United States. One of the largest steps in the expansion of service learning would have to be the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps with the leader...

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Wade, C. Rahima. Community Service-Learning: A Guide to Including Service in the Public School Curriculum. New York: State University of New York Press, 1997. 19-46.

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