Distant service learning extends the range of service placements and civic engagement experiences for Washington State University students in terms of both geographic location and types of engagement opportunities.  Working through the network of WSU county Extension offices and other community partners around the state and beyond, Pullman-based and distant Degree Program students engage in diverse face-to-face and at-a-distance service projects that enhance community wellbeing in myriad ways.

 

Distant service learning offers students the unique experience of serving communities outside the Palouse region by participating in at-a-distance, conceptual and advocacy-focused service learning projects.  Additionally, service learning internships or projects occurring during winter, spring and summer breaks can also provide opportunities to address issues in their own home town while applying academic knowledge and skills and exploring potential career options. Distance Degree Program (DDP) students can also engage in at-a-distance projects or make a difference in their home communities through face-to-face projects and service learning internships.   Contact us if you are looking for a specific opportunity or go onto our online database, SLPro, and search by city to find opportunities near you.

 

Service learning at a distance expands the range of civic engagement experiences, both in terms geographical location of students and community partners and in the types of service activities and projects available. Through this program, campus-based and distance degree students can meet academic learning goals and enhance civic responsibility by becoming involved in their local and/or distant communities through direct, hands-on face-to-face projects or through advocacy and at-a-distance conceptual service and many creative forms in between!  Service Learning internships are also available across the state to offer students an intensive, in depth service experience that enhances their self-awareness and efficacy, community knowledge, and civic leadership skills while complimenting academic and/or career goals.  Please contact us if you are interested in learning more about the many distant service learning  that will fit your class.

 

Distant service learning links the academic service learning mission of the Center for Civic Engagement with WSU’s land grant mission of extending institutional knowledge and research to Washington communities. The program works with community agencies and organizations throughout our state and beyond who are interested in addressing their own programmatic needs while offering WSU students meaningful service experiences that meet academic and civic leadership objectives.  If you have a service learning opportunity that could result in reciprocal benefit to you and to students, we’d be happy to explore it with you!  We track all of our community partners on our online database, and if you would like to engage a class or students to work with your agency, please go to SLPro, create your profile, and create your position.  Once we see it pending, we will contact you for details about what your agency and its project entails.

 

Community partners have identified real and pressing needs. These needs often align with academic learning objectives WSU professors establish for their students.  Rather than doing fictitious course projects, students doing service at a distance engage in real-life projects that partners really use!  Examples include Technical and Professional Writing students designing brochures for community agencies, Architecture students creating new building designs, History students organizing and archiving county records, and Spanish students translating computer training manuals.  The list goes on . . .

 

A measure of distant service learning success is the growth in participation, indicated on the graphs below:

 

 

Please contact us if you are interested in being part of these exciting efforts to address needs of communities across Washington, the nation, and the world through student learning, leadership and civic engagement opportunities.