Preparing Community-based Learning Students
Because doing community service in a new community can be daunting for someone from a different mindset or culture, we seek to prepare the students that we place into community service assignments as part of their course-work.
What we do to prepare our students: We want to provide your agency with students that are ready to interact respectfully with community residents and who understand the realities of the community. The Center for Civic Engagement hosts Orientations to the Community for students that addresses intercultural competencies, how to interact with diverse communities, and why civic engagement is necessary, meaningful and important.
What you can do to prepare our students: For our students, understanding your organizational mission is paramount to understanding your role in the community and why they are needed as volunteers (or in their case, community-based learning students). Although, we post your mission and information about your organization in our database, we ask that when our students arrive to serve, that you please give them an orientation to their service, the kinds of work you do in the community, and how volunteers make a difference at your organization.
Furthermore, if your organization can offer workshops on being more engaged, on a specific service issue, or on any other topic that would make the student volunteering or community-based learning experience more meaningful we will work with you to host such an event on our campus. Also, we invite you to participate in reflection sessions we host on campus to provide a complete experience for our students.