Steps Students Can Take
Service-learning and civic engagement at MSU and within higher education are a critical part of students' experience. They facilitate students' participation in and learning about cultures and communities that they may have only read about previously.
The chance to have course readings come alive really enhances the information that students take from their class. In addition, students really start to think critically about themselves, the different social issues going on around them, and their role in society.
Students can take steps, even as early as their first/freshman year to become an engaged MSU student and an engaged MSU student scholar. As such they:
- Learn about community engagement through these 5 Tools of Engagement modules. Through this curriculum students will learn how to:
- Work with others collaboratively
- Nurture positive relationships with community partners
- Deal positively with power and privilege
- Negotiate in good faith
- Build capacity in self and community partners
- Identify the issues or problems to be addressed. Students can think about creating a win-win-win situation by identifying issues that are important to them, that are part of their studies, and that are important to the community. Remember, outreach and engagement occurs when scholarship is applied directly for the public good and when the relationship between partners is reciprocal and mutually beneficial.
- Find and engage with an appropriate community partner. Students should use their passions and strengths to co-create actions with community partners.
To help students do this, the Center for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement (CSLCE) has a long and dedicated history of linking students and faculty to community. The CSLCE assists students, faculty/staff, and community partners at every step of the way to create and manage service and engagement opportunities.
- Increase student capacity, and the capacity of community partners to effectively enact the actions that have been co-created.
- Reflect on engagement experience. How did it help with classroom studies? What did it do for partners and the community at-large? What insights can be carried forward into future work with community partners?
Quotes from Students Involved in Service-Learning
"This is my third semester in the CSCLE and I've found the experience to be so rewarding, both for personal and professional development. The opportunity to work in my field, as well as contribute to the community, has helped define what I want to do beyond my time at Michigan State University."
~ Jessica B. of Livonia, a psychology junior in the College of Social Science.
"I worked particularly closely with one mentoring program. Student mentors in the LEAD program worked with chronically truant elementary school children in the Lansing School District. As I would review their Weekly Progress Reports, I watched them grow from being timid and uncertain of their impact into students who were actively engaged in their community. They were given this extraordinary opportunity to meet new people and make improvements in the lives of children who may have otherwise had very different outcomes. One student went from having 90 absences in one year to only 2. Many of these children started out by wanting to be present the day the MSU mentor would be in the classroom. For every bit that they believed in and witnessed this change in their mentees, a change could also be seen in their lives. It was evident in their reports and in their reflections."
~ Nicole Springer, former Associate Director, Center for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement.
