Community Engaged Learning

Don't Just Learn about the World, Make it a Better Place!
Community Engaged Learning is a critical avenue for students to explore their values, goals, and career paths in a supportive, collaborative environment while making the world a better place and serving others.

SERVE supports community engaged learning and contributes to Penn State Abington's mission--- providing a framework for students to fulfill their educational and personal goals while giving back to the communities in which their learning takes place. Student Engagement and Leadership-SERVE partners with faculty, staff, students, and community partners to combine service, learning, and community-based experiences with educational instruction and guided, critical reflection.

Community Engaged Learning closes the circle on an experiential learning cycle. It provides benefits to all involved. SEAL-SERVE supports our community partners by collaborating with them to find solutions to issues and needs, build dialogue and relationships for long-term partnerships.

Abington utilizes Community Engaged Learning:

  • Student and faculty directed research and projects
  • Courses that include a component of service learning as one of the requirements
  • Internship opportunities in the non-profit sector

How You'll Do It: SEAL & SERVE supports your involvement through the following opportunities

  • Alternative Break Trips
  • Internships
  • Community Engaged Research
  • Courses with a service-learning component
  • Ongoing commitments and sustained dialogue with local organizations

What is Service Learning?

The American Association for Higher Education defines Service-Learning as "A method under which students learn and develop through thoughtfully organized service that: is conducted in and meets the needs of a community and is coordinated with an institution of higher education and the community; helps foster civic responsibility; is integrated into and enhances the academic curriculum of the students enrolled; and includes structured time for students to reflect on the service experience."

By providing students with opportunities to learn outside the classroom in a variety of venues, including service, research, and internships, community-based learning facilitates both experiential knowledge and an increased sense of social and civic responsibility. These structured activities are steeped in critical reflection and reciprocity as the key element to foster a broader appreciation of the content and the whole community.