Panel Discussion - Serving for the Grade & So Much More: Service-Learning and the student experience

Service-learning programmatically pursues growth in social responsibility (Huda, et al, 2018) as students explore concepts of equity for disenfranchised populations (Rosner-Salazar, 2003) and engage in work that challenges power and privilege (Lund & Lee, 2015), engendering empathy through service (Millican, et al). Service-learning is also tightly connected to career-readiness (Mtawa, & Fongwa, 2021) through encouraging authentic problem-solving (Williamson, 2017), developing leadership skills (Huda, Teh, and Muhamad, 2017). Moreover, our approach to service-learning (and indeed, all SL/CE courses) at Upstate directly supports career-readiness by incorporating career competencies as student learning outcomes. And career-readiness is also an important factor in retention (Belser, et al., 2017)