The effect of participating on service trips on community engagement and student development

Service-learning is important in the development of the individual and of the community: it enriches student learning, teaches civic responsibility, and strengthens and enhances the community. Service trips allow students to share this enrichment with communities outside their own, giving them an opportunity to experience a diversity of cultures, backgrounds, and community needs. Equally important, student exposure to diverse cultures and individuals will increase personal and social development among participants. In the current study, individuals indicating higher levels of personal and social development resulting from service trips will demonstrate the importance service trips have on the development of the participants. Individuals whose interest in participating in community activities as a result of their service trip will be more likely to have a higher level of involvement in community engagement, again as a result of their experiences. Participants completed a post-trip assessment to measure personal development and to predict future levels of community engagement due to service trip experience. This study was a mixed methods with an equal paradigm emphasis. Using a grounded theory approach, themes were identified and linked them together. Results suggest that personal and social development increase and cultural awareness and future levels of engagement in the individual\u27s community were raised due to service trip experience. Implications of this study suggest that a service learning paradigm will positively influence a college student\u27s development and community environment