Civic Engagement Committee Rethinks Service Learning

Heather Weinstein, CCVs Director of Student Support Services, announced this morning that the Civic Engagement Committee is re-engineering the institutional concept of service learning for CCV. For years this group has worked with faculty to help them incorporate community service in courses in ways that help students meet the essential objectives of their courses.
The committee is thinking of making service a student centric concept. In other words, if the student has “service” experience they will qualify to service learning recognition; they will choose the essential objectives they feel their service meets. Weinstein reported, “We’ve decided to make the service designation automatic based on student employment experience. If their position title has the word service in it, we’ll grandmother it in – military service, food service, delivery service – you get it.” She added, “The committee is divided over whether the job title ‘escort service’ would be eligible for service learning credit. That conversation tore the committee apart, and we just couldn’t come to agreement.” Committee member Ian Boyd stated, “We don’t think most students will be able to produce an actual job description for escort service work, so we will hold our decision on this service group until later.”