Service Learning

Lori Shorr, Director of School and Community Partnerships

215-204-3773

5^th floor Conwell Hall

Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies

Service Learning is a term that describes an option of new classes at Temple.  These classes allow you to connect course readings, lectures and discussions to meaningful projects in the community.  The goal is to help make your academic experience more powerful by giving you the opportunity to spend part of your class time participating in activities that benefit a community organization. Service learning allows you to apply class concepts to the world around you.  Service learning also helps you think about how your Temple education can be applied in ways that help yourself and others become responsible citizens who contribute to society.

In some cases, you will be working with organizations that are linked to social justice activities like combating racism, eradicating hunger, improving local schools or working to foster civic empowerment.  The focus is the exchange of learning between you and the community.  In this regard, service learning is radically different from an internship where the outcomes center around your career or professional development.

Any student enrolled to take classes at Temple University can take a service learning class. Service learning classes should take no more time than any other class offered at Temple.  However, just as in a non-service learning class, you may have to spend time outside of designated class hours devoted to reading and studying.  The specific amount of time spent participating in the service learning portion of the course varies from organization to organization.

How do I know which courses are service learning courses?

You can look in the front of the course schedule for a listing of courses offered that term and the course in the listing should have a number 49 in the class comment section. You can go to  www.temple.edu/bulletin/ugradbulletin/ucd/ucdtoc.html for a listing of courses.  You can also ask around in your department for the names of professors who routinely teach such courses and speak with them about when their classes are offered.