The Center for Service Learning: www.uc.edu/sl/
Listing of Community Agencies interested in Service Learning partnerships: Directory
 What Is Service Learning?
Why Should I Get Involved?
How Can I Get Involved?
Student and Faculty Testimonials
Student Community Involvement Program
What Is Service Learning?
Service Learning is a reflective educational experience in which students earn academic credit by participating in meaningful service activities. Service-learning experiences are designed to foster deeper understanding of course content and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility.
Service Learning Projects
- Promote a service ethic
- Reinforce academic growth through a combination of
- community experiences and excellence in undergraduate and graduate curriculum development
- Produce strong community & university partnerships based on sustained/long ;term commitments and mutual benefits for all stakeholders
- Connect service experiences with a wide range of courses through individual and class reflection
To represent the distinctions among various types of service programs, the continuum is defined by the intended beneficiary of the service activity and its degree of emphasis on service and/or learning.
Each experiential education program occupies a range of points on the continuum. Where one type of service begins and another ends is not as important as the idea that each service program has unique characteristics. The ability to distinguish among service programs allows us to move closer toward a universal definition of service learning.
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Why Should I Get Involved?
Benefits to Students
- Learn from the agency personnel, clientele, experiences, and the professor
- Apply coursework
- Explore majors and careers
- Broaden horizons
- Gain valuable job experience
- Strengthen the resume
- Encounter greater self-awareness
- Enhance critical thinking skills and moral/ethical development
- Provide practical application of academic pursuits
- Experience involved citizenship
- Increase understanding of multicultural values and traditions
Benefits to Faculty
- Create curricular connections for community issues and setting
- Form new ways of encouraging and monitoring students' academic progress and comprehension
- Build avenues for greater understanding through intentional guided reflection
- Broaden the role and nature of education
- Improve the motivational base for instruction and learning
- Generate support and positive publicity in the community
- Create research opportunities
Benefits to Community
- Increase opportunities for collaboration and the creation of possible solutions
- Enhance services to the community
- Gain access to university resources
- Increase awareness of community needs
- Develop new ideas to better serve the community
- Encourage citizen support
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How Can I Get Involved?
Service-Learning Opportunities are available with more than 60 Agencies Throughout the Greater Cincinnati Area.
- Tutor urban youth
- Read for sight-impaired
- Design promotional materials
- Teach performing arts
- Assist in rehabilitation process
- Develop administrative processes
- Provide health support
- Support outreach in neighborhood centers
- Support organizational development
- Write newsletters, press releases
- Assist the elderly
- Expand lesson plans for children
- GED preparation
- Create Web pages
- Teach non-native English speakers
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Student Community Involvement Program (SCIP)
The Student Community Involvement Program (SCIP) is one section of Fieldwork Practicum offered by the Department of Psychology. Through this program students may receive academic credit for volunteer work they provide to community service agencies and organizations. A student may request 1 to 3 credit hours per quarter. (3 credit hours is the maximum number approved per quarter) You may volunteer for one or two quarters in SCIP. (a total of 6 hours)
*(Psychology majors have a maximum of 12 hours total for all fieldwork including this credit.)
TO GET ENROLLED - follow these easy steps:
Step 1.
Register for Fieldwork Practicum (15-055-394-001). Only by enrolling in section 001 will your name appear on the SCIP grade list. NOTE - You MUST be a matriculated Junior or Senior to enroll for this coursework.
Step 2.
Complete a SCIP Application/Service Agreement - available in the Psychology Office or Suite 130 South Student Life Pavilion (Center for Community Engagement). You will receive a SCIP Schedule outlining the times and locations of the 3 required meetings (Orientation session, Mid Quarter Reflection, Final Reflection).
Step 3.
Attend the Orientation session - you will receive instructions about the following:
- Packet of required readings
- Time sheet
- Evaluation requirements
FINDING AN AGENCY
If you need assistance in finding a place to volunteer, a notebook of possible agencies, organizations and programs is available in the Center for Community Engagement, Suite 130 of the South Student Life Pavilion, 556-1559. You are responsible for contacting the agency where you have an interest in working and negotiate your own agreement with them. SCIP does not assign students to agencies.
TYPES OF WORK
- The program calls for volunteer work in the area of social services. It may not be work for which you are paid.
- The work must involve primarily interpersonal services. It may not consist primarily of clerical or mechanical tasks. (Examples would be tutoring, serving as a mentor, working with adolescents in a runaway shelter, etc.)
EVALUATION
Students will receive a grade based upon the following 6 criteria:
1) End of Quarter Term Paper: (3 - 5 pages typed. Minimum of 3 FULL pages) = 20%
Topic & Title: My Experience as a Service Learning Participant
This paper might include your learning experiences; your specific contributions to the agency or community program; your reflections on the needs and/or challenges of serving and supporting the target population; your views on the effectiveness of the administrative system to achieve their objectives; your specific challenges and rewards in working with your target population.
2) Time Sheets: This documents your attendance and accountability to the agency. = 10%
The commitment is broken down specifically:
For 1 credit hour, you are expected to work 2 hours per week within the community setting (e.g. one 2-hour time slot per week) For 2 credit hours, you are expected to work 4 hours per week within the community setting (e.g. two 2-hour time slots per week) For 3 credit hours, you are expected to work 6 hours per week within the community setting (e.g. two 3-hour time slots per week).
3) Supervisor's Evaluation: A confidential student progress report will be submitted by your supervisor at the end of each quarter. You must provide your supervisor an envelope with the evaluation form. You are responsible for the delivery of this form and envelope to the supervisor within the first week of your service, and for the collection and delivery of this form back to Dr. Ghee prior to the final reflection meeting . The supervisor should complete the evaluation, seal the envelope, and sign/his/her name across the seal. This evaluation constitutes = 50% of your grade.
4) Reflection Meetings: 3 SCIP meetings (Orientation, Mid-Quarter Reflection, Final Reflection) are required. Attendance is mandatory . The orientation session will prepare you for your responsibilities; the mid-quarter and final reflection meetings will be small group discussions with mutual sharing, trouble shooting and social support. These three meetings will be approximately 2 hours in length and are independent of your volunteer time commitments and obligations. Volunteer field time will not replace these meetings without penalty. = 10%
5) Readings and Midterm Quiz: There is a reading packet that must be purchased from DuBois Bookstore. You are responsible for reading the articles in the packet before the mid-quarter reflection meeting. There will be a midterm mini-quiz consisting of 15 questions that will be administered during this time. Also - one additional article (specific to your agencyÍs target population) must be identified, read and brought to the Final Reflection meeting by each participant. = 10%
6) SCIP Contract: It is expected that you will not violate the terms and code of ethics of the contract. Any violation will be weighed accordingly.
Questions or Concerns? Contact us:
cce3@email.uc.edu / 556-1559
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Testimonials
"Students have structured opportunities for reflection (i.e., to think, talk, and/or write about what they did and saw during their service); strengthen their newly acquired academic skills and knowledge in real life situations in the community; and increase their sense of social/civic responsibility."
Floyd Ogburn
Professor, University College
"Through service learning, students learn academic and social skills, maintain critical thinking skills, become active citizens, and navigate an expedition aimed toward caring for others by reflecting upon their experiences."
Sonya Porter
First-Year Student
"When students used their essays for the reflection component of the service-learning experience, their writing invariably moved to a more inspired and engaged level."
Wayne Hall
Professor, College of Arts & Sciences
"By doing service-learning projects I may find myself, and get into a field that helps me to become a better person and also allows me to help others."
Mike Mineer
First-Year Student
"It challenged me to take the statistics available and make powerful examples with them that makes people feel the struggles of their fellow man."
Carrie Davis
First-Year Student
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