By Mark Terranova, Assistant Director of Service Learning, The Shriver Center

The Shriver Center's programs attempt to engage the strengths and resources of faculty, staff and students at UMBC in finding creative solutions to social problems. Through the creation of university-community partnerships, we attempt to address the most pressing issues of the City, with a special focus on the Baltimore area.

One of the ways we foster these university-community relationships is through our service-learning programs.

Service-learning can be defined in many ways, but it is generally considered to be a method whereby service is integrated into and enhances the academic curriculum of the students, or the education components of the community service program in which the participants are enrolled (National & Community Service Trust Act of 1993).

Many faculty at UMBC are currently teaching very innovative and effective service-learning and engagement courses. The following are exciting examples of these partnerships:

*Anne Spence's Mechanical Engineering 204 "Introduction to Engineering Design with CAD" course includes a student developed outreach project that includes hands-on demonstrations of engineering concepts to local high school students.

*Jason Loviglio's American Studies 200 "Multi-Cultural America" course offers students the option of enhancing their learning by participating in 3 hours of service each week to a community organization to see first hand the effects of the barriers that cultural differences can have on populations.

*Jim McKusick and Lucille McCarthy have developed English 386 "Adult Literacy," where students learn about adult literacy issues in class while immersing themselves in the community to work one-on-one with adult learners who are learning literacy skills at The Learning Bank in Baltimore.

*Carol Hess' Dance 301S "Special Topics in Dance: Dance and Community Service" provides students the opportunity to immerse themselves into schools in the community, exploring the benefits of the arts.

These are just a small example of the creative partnerships in which faculty and students are currently involved. Many other faculty, in a variety of disciplines, offer unique and exciting learning opportunities for their students through service-learning and other forms of academic engagement in the community.In addition to the benefits to the community, service-learning provides many benefits to participating students. According to a commission funded by the Kellogg Foundation, service-learning has been shown to provide increased student engagement, improved academic achievement, stronger ties to schools, communities, and society, and improved character.

I invite you to stop by The Shriver Center to learn more about how we can help support the incorporation of service-learning or civic engagement into a new or existing course, and to find out more about our programs and initiatives in the greater Baltimore community.

For more information on service-learning and engagement, please visit:

The Shriver Center
www.shrivercenter.org

The Corporation for National and Community Service
www.cns.org

Learn and Serve America
www.learnandserve.org

Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning
www.umich.edu/~ocsl/mjcsl