To view Miami Dade College’s full report, please click HERE.
Miami Dade College Civics Initiative Best Practices Report
Few if any civics literacy initiatives can achieve the benefits of a well-organized service-learning project. These are projects that combine learning goals and community service in ways that can enhance both student growth and the common good. Borrowing from language of the National Service Learning Clearinghouse, service learning is “a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.”
Indeed, the Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University lists no fewer than 14 benefits to students from service learning, plus another dozen to faculty, the college and the community.
Within the Florida College System, Miami Dade College has developed a comprehensive template for service-learning projects over the past 20 years. It started with a Learn and Serve Grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service in 1994, and MDC has continued to build on that effort ever since.
MDC takes a systematic approach to developing service learning, starting with creation of an Advisory Committee of faculty, administrators, student and community partner representatives. MDC believes the initiative must provide an infrastructure of support resources to sustain the effort, including a physical space and dedicated staff. Without the infrastructure, says Josh Young, director of MDC’s Institute for Civic Engagement and Democracy, “these programs will remain small and on the margins of the institution.”
For the full report on MDC’s Service Learning Best Practice, click HERE.
Tags: Service Learning, Institute for Civic Engagement and Democracy, Miami Dade College, civic engagement.
- View Report: Miami Dade College Best Practices
For more information, contact:
Josh Young
Director, Institute for Civic Engagement and Democracy
Miami Dade College
jyoung@mdc.edu
305-237-7477