Participating in the Process

Stay Involved: As the semester progresses, be sure to meet with the student(s) as agreed to answer their questions and provide feedback. You should also be available to meet with faculty at the start, middle, and end of the semester to discuss the student(s) progress and address any concerns you may have. Help ensure that the project meets the needs of your organization and the learning goals of the student(s) and their course.
Helps Students Learn: Take deliberate steps to ensure that all students learn from the process. A critical piece of any service-learning project is reflection both during and after the project. Reflection activities encourage students to articulate the connection between their service experience and their coursework. Reflection can happen through many activities such as journals, presentations or dialogue with fellow students, faculty, or you. As an active partner, you may wish to be a part of this process and we encourage you to talk to faculty and students about the connection between the project and what is being taught in the course. Contact our office if you would like to know more about this.
Evaluate the Partnership: Evaluating a service-learning experience is an essential element to ensuring the ongoing success of these partnerships. Members of your organization can play an important role in determining evaluation criteria and processes for faculty, students and yourselves. This gives you an opportunity to make recommendations or suggestions to the faculty for future student collaboration with your organization. Feedback from the student(s) can also help your organization better support students in future projects. When evaluating the partnership (just as when forming the partnership) it is important to address the needs of all partners. Our office has standard evaluation forms for all parties that can be used as they are, or adapted to the needs of your organization. Plan to evaluate the experience within your organization, with consideration of how you incorporated the service-learning student(s) and what could be altered when supporting students in the future.