Expand High-Quality Service Learning and Service-Year Opportunities

Service learning is an integrated experience for learners in which a curriculum-relevant community service project is codeveloped by educators and community members to address a local challenge or need. Service projects should be aligned to learning outcomes and include related classroom instruction.1 Service-aligned learning provides civic engagement benefits by connecting learners with community members and exposing them to new people and different needs within their community while also developing skills that will help them succeed in future education and career settings. Service projects also enhance understanding of learning standards by applying them to an activity in real-life settings beyond the confines of a classroom. Experiential learning projects are most beneficial to learners and communities when codesigned to meet local community needs and sustained as long-term partnerships between the educational institution and community-based organization.2

Schools can lower barriers to participating in service activities already organized by community-based organizations by allowing learners flexibility in the time they spend inside the school building, supporting such organizations in gaining approval to host and work with learners, and providing teachers with resources to provide related instruction aligned to learning standards and the service activity. During a listening session at a career academy, learners shared that they highly valued the projects they completed each year with nonprofit organizations in the community. These projects gave the learners a sense of accomplishment by developing an idea alongside a community leader, applying their learning and competencies outside the classroom, and serving a need in their community. Incorporating service-year positions alongside college enrollment offers the same benefits as service learning while also reducing the overall cost of tuition through education awards and contributing to learner retention.3

Postsecondary schools can further embed these opportunities by fostering learner and faculty participation in publicly engaged research collaborations with their local  communities. Colleges and universities can also create (or partner with community-based organizations to create) service-year positions for learners to develop real-world skills, social capital, and purpose alongside their coursework. Integrating service-year positions into a college path can also provide learners with valuable earn-and-learn opportunities, paid work that is relevant to their studies and interests. Schools can also award credit for these established programs to accelerate degree attainment.

When faculty and learners engage with local partners in the cocreation of service-year positions, the benefits are widespread and mutual, especially when the participants are from the very communities they aim to serve. Emerging and successful models include the California College Corps, active throughout the University of California and California State University systems, and the Empire State Service Corps across the State University of New York system.4 Participants receive financial benefits in the form of stipends and education awards, alongside professional experience in areas such as K-12 education, climate action, food insecurity, and other community-identified priorities. These programs are designed to generate reciprocal value: students build career-relevant skills, gain civic experience, and reduce financial strain, while communities benefit from expanded service capacity and targeted support in high-need areas.