Justice and Civil Society
This required course helps students
explore leadership in a community setting.
Students link leadership theories and principles to
practice through concrete, specific tasks serving a
population in need. Various professors integrate an
experiential component in the coursework. Some
professors require a group project or research or
analysis in a community learning setting. Other
professors schedule field trips or other hands-on
approaches to learning.
The Justice & Civil Society course (LDSP 205) provides students with a
specific task that permits them to apply what they have
learned in class; to learn what competencies they have
yet to acquire; and to develop their competencies by
applying and testing them.
Service learning, a form of experiential learning,
differs from an internship. The context and the task of
the experience is service to a person or group in
need--immigrants and refugees, the homeless, at-risk
children, and the mentally and physically disabled, for
example.
As defined by the Commission on National and Community
Service, service learning is "a method under which
students learn and develop through active participation
in thoughtfully organized service experiences that meet
actual community needs and that are coordinated in
collaboration with the school and the community."
The service learning task -- supported with a seminar
and faculty advising -- requires students to: perform unpaid service to a person or group who have
demonstrated significant social need;
have face-to-face contact with the
people being served; participate in a seminar that provides a setting in which
students reflect upon their experiences and
assimilate and evaluate the leadership lessons of
service.
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