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Service-Learning at Gettysburg College
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Vision and Mission
At the heart of the mission and learning goals of Gettysburg College lies the value of civic engagement - encouraging students to live energetic, engaged and enlightened lives; in exploring local and global citizenship; and practicing the arts of democracy. To this end, students are encouraged to develop critical thinking skills, broad vision, effective communications, a sense of the inter-relatedness of all knowledge, sensitivity to the human condition, and a global perspective. In addition, students are encouraged to value a lifelong commitment to service. The Center for Public Service at Gettysburg College challenges students to "think critically and act compassionately" through two avenues, co-curricular service-learning and course-based service-learning, providing students the opportunity to continue to deepen their sense of civic engagement and to further develop their commitment to service.
Core Elements
Fundamental to all Center for Public Service programs and initiatives (co-curricular and course-based) are these values:
- Community Partnerships and Reciprocity: We believe that partnerships should be mutually beneficial. The community agency/partner, faculty member and the Center for Public Service work together to plan and implement experiences so that equitable attention is paid to the agency's needs and the educational value for the student participants.
- Reflection: As is often recognized and discussed, service is not politically neutral, simple, or a common ground for the many perspectives found in our world. Rather, service brings individuals together in forums for community development and action and challenges some to wrestle with why "service" is needed. Ongoing reflection on the service, the population being served and related social issues facilitate the deepest level of learning.
- Sharing: Sharing of the experiences, whether it is a report to the community partner, a sharing of achievements with the agency and/or its clients, or publicity via campus and community forums, provides a sense of closure for and/or evaluation of the experience.
These elements manifest themselves in different ways in co-curricular service-learning and course-based service-learning, offering their unique strengths to the student and community experience.
Co-Curricular Service-Learning
Co-Curricular Service-Learning offers the opportunity to students to engage meaningfully with community initiatives on their own time, while offering carefully designed support systems that encourage a deeper exploration of community issues and their beliefs about the practice and meaning of service. Additional elements include:
- Student Leadership: Gettysburg College can only be active in community life with strong student voice and action, embedding student-community work in the culture of our campus. Students find voice and the power to find solutions for issues that are important to them, educating, challenging and encouraging their peers to continually explore community work, advocacy and change.
- Active Learning: Students choose how broadly and/or deeply to explore community issues through their service work, whether it be through structured experiences or engaging in a self-initiated partnership project.
Course-Based Service-Learning
Course-based service-learning is the integration of meaningful service experiences into courses with the intention to enhance student learning while addressing one or more community-identified social issues. Additional elements include:
- Relevance to the course - service experiences are considered a "text" through which course concepts can be learned. Accordingly, projects are intentionally chosen with regard to their relevance to course objectives, and the service-learning is woven as much as possible throughout the course.
Multiple Opportunities for Service and Learning
The strength of civic engagement opportunities for students lies in the complementary nature in which co-curricular and course-based service-learning are implemented. There is recognition of the potential of powerful learning offered through such experiences, with the ultimate goal to challenge students to go beyond "doing good" and truly engage in their community and the work to ensuring social justice.
300 North Washington Street · Gettysburg, PA 17325