• Academic service-learning is an alternative method of teaching and learning in which you will provide a service to the community as a way of experiencing learning hands-on.
  
• In the classroom, the instructor will prepare you for service to the community. You will then complete the service requirement either as a group or as an individual.
  
• Throughout the course, you will connect the service experience to your classroom learning, think about what you are accomplishing, and examine how you are feeling about it through a process called “formal reflection.”

The University of Saint Mary supports service-learning because the university values the importance of service and believes that students learn far more than just course content in service-learning classes, including important life skills, appreciation of diversity, and a sense of civic responsibility.

To learn more about opportunities for service-learning, call, visit, or email the Service-Learning Center. To read about the many exciting service-learning class projects now underway at USM, click here.

“The service-learning component in my course was intended to enrich and literally bring to life what the text and readings stated, by learning from real people. You can describe the characteristics of a centenarian all day, but the smile of a 100-year-old says more than any book ever can.”
Dr. Nancy King	Associate Professor in Psychology
“In teaching Introduction to the Bible as a service-learning course, I have found that students learn and integrate the material more personally and richly than simply learning through lecture or text. It awakens their emotional connection to biblical meaning and value in ways they find surprisingly relevant to themselves."
Dr. Brian Hughes	Assistant Professor of Theology