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Community Service

Service Learning

Service Learning courses offer students immediate opportunities to apply classroom learning to support or enhance the work of local agencies that often exist to effect positive change in the community. Service learning is a form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs together with structured opportunities for reflection designed to achieve desired learning and organizational outcomes. Service learning is completed as part of an academic course or program and has on-going supervision and guided-reflection from a designated staff or faculty.

Volunteering

Volunteering is the giving of your time to an organization or a cause and can be a great way to learn more about the cause, prove your commitment and build a networks and identify new opportunities. Volunteering can happen independently or as part of a team, formal program or class and may be short-term or long-term.

UT’s Jones Center for Leadership & Service has a mission to educate and engage all students to lead and serve the global community. Visit their site to learn more about the ways they coordinate short-term volunteering opportunities for students and the UT community.

Idealist.Org – Volunteer Resource Center is a national online organization that offers a full resource center including an overview of volunteering and its career benefits, how to identify opportunities (and make the most of them) based on goals and interests, various types and methods of volunteering, and an international volunteer resource.

The Center for Career Development & Academic Exploration offers guidance regarding how both long and short-term volunteering can impact your career development and for assistance in identifying local, regional, national, and international opportunities that meet your interests and goals.

Service Corps and Post-graduate Service Experiences

Service Corps programs are available internationally and in the United States, with positions working in a wide range of areas from education and health care to agriculture and economic development. Individual programs vary widely in the type of assignments available, the geographic area covered, and the format of training and work programs. Service-corps are most frequently a year- to two-year post-bachelor position and are often referred to as corps members, interns, long-term volunteers or fellows depending on the program.