Engaging Students through Service-Learning and Community Engagement

Zoom Room 11

This presentation is presented by Dr. M. Kristen Hefner (Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at The Citadel) and John Ray Roberts (Coordinator of Leadership Assessment at The Citadel's Krause Center for Leadership & Ethics). The Citadel's mission is to "educate and develop our students to become principled leaders in all walks of life by instilling the core values of The Citadel in a disciplined and intellectually challenging environment" (https://www.citadel.edu/root/mission-statement). A part of this includes service-learning and community engagement (SLCE). SLCE at The Citadel take place in both individual classrooms and through the Krause Center. The purpose of this presentation is to examine service-learning outcome data for students at The Citadel, including a Quality of Service Survey (QS) and a 10-point leadership behavior development scale. The presentation will also include examples of SLCE projects conducted both face-to-face and socially distanced in the era of Covid. This presentation will be useful to attendees because it presents data on the benefits of service-learning and discusses how to implement this pedagogical strategy. This presentation is consistent with the theme of "Riding the Waves of Hope in Higher Education" because it illustrates the efficacy and value of service-learning as a pedagogical strategy that has been increasing over the past several decades and is positioned to continue to provide educational value to students.