Create a course that brings your curriculum to life while meeting pressing 21st Century needs of local and global communities.
"At first, every student is terrified of public speaking in English, much less in Spanish. But by the fifth lesson, they love it. They have deepened their skill level in speaking Spanish, and they’ve also changed the lives of the children they’re teaching." - Dr. Gabriel Barreneche, Associate Professor of Modern Languages
“It’s not always easy to motivate college students to yank out air potato vines, but we were learning about global climate change and biodiversity in our classwork and, even though they had to get up early and work hard, they really appreciated that they were doing something about these issues in a tangible way. I always make sure there is a clear link between the service project and the course so they can connect the curriculum to community engagement. Any time you can get out in the field, it helps students make those connections." - Dr. Katie Sutherland, Associate Professor of Biology
According to the highly-regarded Carnegie Community Engagement Classification, community engagement is defined as the following: "[A] collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, and global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity. The purpose of community engagement is the partnership of college and university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity: enhance curriculum, teaching, and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good."
Community-engaged scholarly work is viewed at Rollins as any scholarly pursuits that occur in partnership with community to advance knowledge, awareness, and/or solutions. Faculty involvement is at the center of the community engagement initiative at Rollins. Since 2006, over 74% of all Rollins faculty have been involved in at least one aspect of community engagement through service-learning, community-based research, professional development, immersion, or campus/community partnership. In addition, over the last seven years every major at Rollins has offered at least one academic course with a community experience. Because of this deep, institutional commitment, Rollins has been recognized with a number of national recognitions for community engagement, including Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement.
At Rollins, courses with a community engagement component are being offered under the designation CE (Community Engagement) in the Rollins Course Catalogue. As a part of CE courses, students will apply what they are learning in the classroom with the community through service-learning, research, civic participation, and be involved in active dialogue and reflection. CE courses engage students in roughly 15-30 hrs of direct community-based work throughout the semester with non-profit organizations throughout Central Florida. Learning is assessed by the faculty member based on students’ ability to connect course curriculum and theory to practice.
Courses meeting the standards listed below are considered for the designation of Community Engagement at Rollins College:
* Identifies and addresses a need in the community (campus, local, regional, or global)
* Meets course objectives and demonstrates a clear connection between the community activity and the course content
* Involves assessment as a part of the student's overall grade
* Involves reciprocity between course and community that results in students' increased civic awareness, leadership, diversity, and engagement
* Involves structured student pre/reflection
* Involves collaboration with a community organization/agency that is committed to a partnership between service and learning
* Invites the community partner to share in classroom dialogue, discussion, and scholarship
* Involves a considerable amount of time outside of the classroom with the community organization/agency
* Involves a capstone assessment in which students share their experience with the class community and the community organization/agency, discuss connections of global citizenship and responsible leadership, and address a plan for continued engagement
Community partners are co-educators in service-learning courses and community-based research experiences. Their expertise is a critical element of the teaching/learning experience at Rollins. Each year, Rollins academic courses work with hundreds of community organizations through academic partnerships that are mutually beneficial. Some of these organizations include BETA Center, Fern Creek Elementary, HOPE Community Center (Apopka, FL), OCA, Central Florida Coalition for the Homeless, Junior Achievement of Central Florida, and Watershed Action Volunteers. Students are assessed based on their ability to connect curriculum theory to practice. Some examples of current and past CE Courses include:
How Can Faculty Get Started?
CE Designation Course Form and Rubric can be found by looking through the Community Engagement Designation Blueprint/Contract. Please note CE Designation deadlines for Fall and Spring courses. CE Courses are eligible for project and resource funds through the Center for Leadership & Community Engagement. Faculty are encouraged to contact CLCE to discuss community academic partnerships opportunities and professional development resources. CE Courses participate in an optional pre and mandatory post assessment of student-learning gains and activities through the AAC&U LEAP Learning Outcomes framework.
Those interested in CE Designation for an International Field Study Course should contact CLCE and International Programs for the International CE Designation Course Form, Rubric, and deadline dates. International CE Courses are eligible for significant project and scholarship funds for students.
Each year CLCE offers multiple community engagement workshops and sessions for faculty including The Summit on Transforming Learning, New Faculty Community Partner Tour, Community Engagement Fair and Lunch, CE Designation Workshops, Service-Learning Roundtables and 1:1 Coaching Sessions.
Please refer to our Service Learning Checklist to get started.
Engaged Scholarship: Learning in Action!
Engaged scholarship is where discovery, integration, teaching, learning and application intersect linking knowledge with the goal of addressing critical social, structural, and environmental issues while contributing to the public good.
At Rollins many faculty are involved in engaged scholarship through service-learning, community-based research, community-engaged scholarship, and civic engagement inside and outside the classroom. Through these experiences faculty and students have the opportunity to connect classroom curriculum and discussions.
Faculty and students work in partnership with community members and non-profit, civic and governmental organizations to address key issues, providing mutual opportunities for learning, progress, and change. Community members are viewed as "co-educators" in the learning experience. Students participate in assessment and critical reflection as a part of the experience so that they are able to connect their learning with a deeper understanding of global issues and commitment of active citizenship.
Rollins faculty interested in community engagement are encouraged to check out the following resources:
Service-Learning Resources
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Title |
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Description |
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Academic Service-Learning: A Pedagogy of Action and Reflection |
An academic conception of service-learning, described as "a pedagogical model that intentionally integrates academic learning and relevant community service." |
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Building Partnerships for Service-Learning |
Contains models and tools for creating and sustaining service-learning programs. Presents frameworks for developing sustainable partnerships and profiles and case studies of successful partnerships with communities, agencies, and public schools. |
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Civic Responsibility and Higher Education |
More than a century ago, John Dewey challenged the education community to look to civic involvement for the betterment of both community and campus. Today, the challenge remains. |
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Colleges and Universities as Citizens |
Critically examines from a variety of perspectives how and why institutions of higher education should accept Ernest Boyer's challenge to become engaged citizens of their communities. |
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The Complete Guide to Service Learning |
A treasury of activities, ideas, quotes, reflections, resources, hundreds of annotated "Bookshelf" recommendations, and author interviews, presented within a curricular context and organized by theme. |
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Conducting Educational Research |
Focuses on analyzing and critically evaluating published research. |
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Connecting Cognition and Action |
Evaluation of student performance in service-learning courses. |
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Developing and Implementing Service-Learning Programs |
Answers the questions: "What exactly is service learning?" and "How can I do it effectively?" Both newcomers and veterans will appreciate the clear, practical advice on such matters as finding community partners, reaching diverse populations, and integrating service-learning and research. |
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Experiential Learning in Higher Education |
Provides the academic community with an understanding of the current state-of-the-art practices in experiential learning, with suggestions for program design and development and operation. |
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Fundamentals of Service-Learning Course Construction |
Offers six models for service-learning courses, a cataloged sample of assignments, and sample syllabi. |
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A Guide for Change: Resources for Implementing Community Service Writing |
Designed for instructors and students who would like to integrate "real world" writing projects into their courses. |
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Learning Through Serving |
Enables the reader to derive the greatest benefit from the experience – in terms of providing meaningful service to the community partner, developing his or her skills and knowledge, and connecting back what she or he learns to course objectives and the framework of his or her discipline. |
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A Legal Guide for Student Affairs Professionals |
Provides access to the laws that regulate student programs, services, and activities. It offers a fully indexed and cross-referenced guide to the state and federal laws that bear on student conduct, students' relationships with institutions, institutional obligations toward students, and student and institutional liability relating to on- and off-campus events activities |
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Liberal Learning and the Arts of Connection for the New Academy |
Challenges us to think in fresh terms about the meaning of education for civic responsibility. What kinds of learning help all students prepare to assume responsibility and leadership in a democracy characterized by diversity and marked by persistent and invidious inequalities? |
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On Becoming a Servant Leader |
Postulates that true leaders are those who lead by serving others. Spanning a time frame of more than fifty years, this collection includes original essays focused on the key issues - power, ethics, management, organizations, and servanthood. |
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Power of Servant Leadership |
Designed to stimulate and inspire people in the practice of a more caring leadership and reflect Greenleaf's continual refinement of his servant-as-leader concept, focusing on issues such as spirit, commitment to vision, and seeing things whole. |
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Redesigning Curricula: Models of Service Learning Syllabi |
Collection of lesson plans and syllabi that are examples of successful service-learning programs. |
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Servant Leadership |
Robert K. Greenleaf, who died in 1990, has been a powerful voice in the dialogue to reshape management and leadership policy. |
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Service-Learning and the First-Year Experience |
Documents the congruence of two powerful educational concerns: the success of first year students and the potential of service-learning as a teaching-learning strategy. |
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Service-Learning Code of Ethics |
This book will prepare students, faculty, and administrators for the sometimes difficult ethical dilemmas that arise during the service-learning process. |
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Service-Learning in Higher Education |
Rooted in Dewey and building on the work of the National Society for Experiential Education and its predecessors, this comprehensive volume is useful for experienced practitioners and newcomers alike. Academic deans, department heads, and faculty members will profit mightily from its solid combination of conceptual underpinnings and specific institutional examples. |
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Service-Learning: History, Theory, and Issues |
Explores the controversies surrounding service-learning practice. |
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Service Matters: A Sourcebook for Community Service in Higher Education |
Compiles trends and statistics, national service initiatives, community service contacts, funding information and national organizations with more than 500 models and examples. |
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Student Learning Outside the Classroom |
Explores the issue of institutional productivity and student learning outside the classroom. Reviews the conditions that can foster a climate where out-of-classroom experiences can contribute to greater educational productivity. |
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Student Service: The New Carnegie Unit |
A comprehensive report examining both voluntary and compulsory community service programs of high schools in America. |
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Successful Service-Learning Programs |
Experienced leaders share how they have championed successful service-learning programs that have enriched their campuses and renewed their communities. |
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Syllabi Guide for Incorporating Service-Learning into the Curriculum |
Contains 116 sample syllabi from 57 disciplines and over 100 courses from Florida community college and university courses that incorporate service-learning. |
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A Time for Boldness |
Presents the story of how an urban research university is redefining what it means to be an engaged university. |
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Understanding the Role of Academic and Student Affairs Collaboration in Creating a Successful Learning Environment |
Examines authentic models of collaboration that will help to develop successful student leaders for the new century. It reviews the results of a national study on academic and student affairs collaborations and provides organizational models and facilitators of change as well as examples of facilitative strategies in action. |
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Where's the Learning in Service-Learning? |
Defines learning expectations, presents data about learning, and links program characteristics with learning outcomes. It is the first book to explore the experience of service-learning as a valid learning activity. |
Discipline-specific Service-Learning
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Acting Locally: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Environmental Studies |
Provides a brief history of programs, class objectives, and agendas, and impacts on students, teachers, and the community. |
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Beyond the Tower: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Philosophy |
Deals with service learning as an approach to teaching and learning in philosophy. |
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Building Bridges: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Spanish |
Aims at helping teachers, administrators, and students realize the potential of service learning in Spanish classes. |
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Campus Partners in Learning: Resource Manual for Campus-Based Youth Mentoring Programs |
A guide for establishing a mentoring program, adding a mentoring component to existing programs serving youths, and improving current mentoring efforts. |
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Caring and Community: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Nursing |
Describes ways in which nursing has begun to incorporate service learning as a methodology into many diverse settings. |
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Civic Engagement Across the Curriculum |
Offers faculty in all disciplines rationales and resources for connecting their service-learning efforts to the broader goals of civic engagement. |
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Connecting Past and Present: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in History |
Includes case studies and descriptions of service-learning and history (American, European, Latin American) in the higher education setting. |
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Creating Community Responsive Physicians: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Medical Education |
Intended to help the reader understand service learning, how it differs from traditional clinical medical education, and how, as a form of experiential education, it can have a profound impact on students, faculty, communities, medical schools, and the relationships among these important stakeholders. |
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The Engaged Department Toolkit |
This handbook is designed to help departments develop strategies for including community-based work in their teaching and scholarship, making community-based experiences a standard expectation for majors, and encouraging civic engagement and progressive change at the departmental level. |
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Experiencing Citizenship: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Political Science |
Eighteen articles most of which include course syllabi. |
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From Cloister to Commons: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Religious Studies |
Includes theoretical papers, pedagogical papers (at the course and instiutional level) on the topic of religious studies and service learning. |
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Learning by Doing: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Accounting |
This collection intends to introduce and provide concrete materials on service learning to be used by accounting faculty and educators. |
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Learning with the Community: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Teacher Education |
An attempt to bring together the best recent work in the field to assist teacher educators in developing successful service learning in their programs and to promote policies and procedures that will foster successful service-learning activities at the local, state, and national levels. |
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The Practice of Change: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Women's Studies |
Includes case studies and descriptions of service learning and women's studies in the higher education setting. |
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Projects that Matter: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Engineering |
Not only serves as a practical guide for faculty seeking to integrate service learning into an engineering course but also to examine larger issues of engineering education, the mission of higher education, and the role of service learning as a catalysis for program reform and educational enhancement. |
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Snapshots of Service in the Disciplines |
Highlights over 70 service-learning projects from the 1994-95 Corporation for National Service (CNS) grants awarded to faculty by Campus Compact. Covers a wide range of disciplines, from accounting to urban studies. |
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Teaching for Justice: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Peace Studies |
Provides essays on the integration of service learning into the field of peace studies. |
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Teaching Service-Learning as an Academic Course |
Important considerations, student evaluation, class meetings, techniques, syllabi samples, reflection, bibliography |
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Voices of Strong Democracy: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Communication Studies |
Includes conceptual essays, pedagogical papers (at the course and institutional level) on the topic of communication studies and service-learning. |
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With Service in Mind: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Psychology |
Six articles that address how psychological theory, research, and practice bear on collaborating with communities, interpreting changes in students, and using psychological techniques to understand and act on social problems. The remaining articles demonstrate how service learning can be effectively integrated into a variety of psychology courses so that student learning is enhanced in breadth and depth. |
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Working for the Common Good: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Management |
Designed to help management faculty, and those who manage them, to catch the vision of the service-learning movement. |
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Writing the Community: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Composition |
Includes case studies and descriptions of service learning and postsecondary writing and composition classes. |
