Academic Service Learning

Academic Service Learning

What Is Academic Service-Learning?

Academic Service-Learning (AS-L) is a teaching and learning strategy where students participate in a meaningful service activity that meets identified community needs and reflect on the service activity to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility.

What is Engaged Scholarship?

"Engaged Scholarship involves the faculty member in a reciprocal partnership with the community, is interdisciplinary, and integrates faculty roles of teaching, research, and service. While there is variation in current terminology (public scholarship, scholarship of engagement, community-engaged scholarship), engaged scholarship is defined by the collaboration between academics and individuals outside the academy - knowledge professionals and the lay public (local, regional/state, national, global) - for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity."
-David Scobey, Harvard Center for Community Partnerships, Bates College

Our Mission

The mission of the EMU Office of Academic Service-Learning and Engaged Scholarship is to build an infrastructure that will support students, faculty, administrators, and community members in their efforts to implement academic service-learning and foster community engaged scholarship.

  • Faculty Fellow Seminars are offered each fall and winter. Five selected faculty are released quarter-time to participate in a semester-long weekly seminar. Fellows learn academic service-learning theory, implementation and assessment.
  • Community Partners are identified and fostered with the assistance of office staff. Interested faculty can work with the office to contact and partner with agencies and community sites. A database with profiles of available sites is maintained by the office.
  • Research Opportunities are available for faculty and students through the office. Information on current research, publishing opportunities, and conference presentations is also available. Staff assistance is provided for data collection and literature reviews.
  • A Resource Library located in the Office of Academic Service-Learning provides journals, books and other publications related to academic service-learning. A number of electronic resources are also available through the office via the Internet.
  • Networking is available through our Office. Faculty have the opportunity to meet one on one and discuss important decisions about their courses, find valuable information, share ideas and keep up to date on any news events. Through this interaction, faculty from partnerships and supportive networks and engage in collaborative scholarship.

Looking for funding to promote Learning Beyond the Classroom with your students and curriculum?

Fill out this form and we can help.

Looking for funding for a Community Engaged project for a class, scholarly activity, or field requirement with your students? 

Fill out this form and we can help. 

Need to navigate and/or locate community engagement activity at EMU?

Engage@EMU is our department dedicated to fostering awareness and access of community engagement activity within EMU and the Ypsilanti Community.

EMU program teaches the English language through the art of cooking

In August 2022, about 10 Afghan women, 15 Afghan children, one Syrian woman, and one Egyptian woman attended the literacy-enriched cooking class hosted in partnership with Jewish Family Services (JFS), a local nonprofit organization whose purpose is to help in the refugee resettlement process, along with EMU's Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program in the Department of World Languages, supported and funded Engage@EMU and its Office of Academic Service-Learning, dedicated to integrating community with teaching. Click here to read the EMU Today feature story about this project. 

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