Service Learning Center
Bellarmine University offers service-learning opportunities abroad and here at home. Service-learning projects, which tie classroom learning to community service, are typically available each year in Belize, Guatemala, Jamaica, New Orleans, the Appalachians and here in Louisville.

What is Service Learning?
"Service learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities." (National Service Learning Clearinghouse, 2008)

“Service learning is a methodology of teaching that uses meaningful service as a way of helping students learn the academic material and understand the real-world relevancy of the discipline, while at the same time meeting a real community need." (Kentucky Campus Compact, 2008)

What is the difference between service-learning and community service?
Service-learning, like community service, seeks to make a valuable contribution to the community. Unlike community service, however, service-learning is designed to promote the curricular goals of a specified course through the application of classroom learning in service settings. Community service that is not integrated into the curriculum is not service-learning; it is simply service.

Check out photos of Belize '08 (click the four-way arrow icon to enlarge):