About Service-Learning at the University of Michigan

At the University of Michigan, dozens of courses integrate community service and learning across many departments, schools, and colleges.  Service-learning  is a pedagogical model that intentionally integrates service with the community, academic learning, and civic learning (knowledge, skills, and values that prepare students for active community participation).  The community service informs the student learning, and the learning informs the community service.  Below are some examples of service-learning across the curriculum.

Course Examples

Dentistry - students serve low-income and Medicaid patients and then return to campus to discuss the civic responsibility of dentists

Education - students undertake service-learning with young people in public school classrooms to enhance their preparation for potential teaching in central cities.

English Composition - students develop their writing capacities by preparing written materials - brochures and press releases, for example - for community-based organizations

Mechanical Engineering - students, working in small groups, develop a mechanical product on behalf of a community organization or individual in a capstone design course

Natural Resources - students work on public landscape projects as a way to learn landscape architecture

Nursing - students provide services to various health-related community organizations to learn about human growth and development, the influence of people's environment on their health, and factors that enhance health promotion and risk reduction behaviors

Psychology - students serve at various central city agencies as a way to learn about community-based methods for empowering families and communities

Public Health - students work with community-based organizations and public health agencies to develop health education and community-based health interventions

Sociology - students learn sociological concepts and theories while serving children, prisoners, and other special populations

Spanish - students tutor young people in the Detroit Latino community while strengthening their language and cultural learning

Women's Studies - students work at agencies that serve women while studying women's roles in the organizations